For a long moment she studied his eyes. Then she said, “Of course you have a date. With me.”
“Since when?”
“Since you took a bath and shaved and put on your best clothes.”
He frowned. “I didn’t do it for you.”
She slanted her head, regarding him from a side angle. “For who else would you do it?”
He opened his mouth to give her a fast vicious answer, but no words came out. He waited for her to let go of his arm so he could walk away from her. Then he realized she wasn’t holding his arm, she’d released it several moments ago. He wondered why he had the feeling she was still holding onto his arm.
Behind the bar Dugan was waiting to be paid for a whisky and water. Loretta opened her purse and took out a dollar bill and gave it to him. He gave her the change, two quarters and two dimes. The transaction was made without haste and Kerrigan wished they’d speed it up. He couldn’t understand his impatience. For some unaccountable reason he was in a hurry, and it was as though he couldn’t move unless she moved along with him.
He stood there and waited while she put the seventy cents in her purse and slipped the purse into her skirt pocket. He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and watched her sipping the whisky and water. She sipped it slowly, and without sound he said, Come on, come on. She turned and looked at him. She placed the glass on the table, picked up the camera, and smiled at him as she murmured, “I’m ready now, if you are.”
The floor seemed to slide under his feet, taking him away from the bar. The ceiling moved backward and the walls moved and the door came closer. Behind him there was the sound of Dora’s shrill voice as she went on yapping at the humpbacked wino. And the sound of lower voices, the continued conversation of Frieda and Channing. And also the sound of a squeaky tune that came humming from the lips of Dugan. But all the sounds were meaningless, a chorus adding up to nothing. What he heard was a roaring in his brain as he walked with Loretta toward the door, and past the door, and out of Dugan’s Den.