“And what would I say?”
But it was a little too quick and a little too glib. I studied him. It wasn’t going to work. The mocking smile gave him away. He was playing with me.
“Never mind,” I said, drowned the cigarette and put the soggy butt into the envelope.
“Forget it. Let’s have a towel.”
He handed me a towel.
“Don’t get that way, baby. I might play. I could use a hundred bucks. What’s the telephone number?”
“Forget it,” I said.
He sat watching me, a grin on his face, the butt of his cigarette resting on his lower lip.
“Maybe you’d like to raise the ante,” he suggested. “Now, for five hundred…”
“Just get it out of the thing you call your mind,” I said, and put on my pyjamas. “One of these days we’ll meet on more equal terms. It’s something I’m looking forward to.”