So I just let Ben take it while I slipped into my slicker and found my cap. When she pushed him out the door, I was right behind her, ready to hop after him.
She calmed down quickly and asked me again if I wouldn’t please her “just this once!”
But I hugged her and rubbed her neck and caressed her and kissed her and told her we’d better make it some other night. By that time I had managed to get around her and as soon as she let me go, I slid through the door and ran down the stairs, where I found Ben waiting in a dilapidated old taxi.
“General,” he saluted me, “your car.” But after we were seated and on our way, he turned to me in disgust. “Now, Leony, I’m gonna break yer head fer ya if ya don’t perk up and act like a man!” he declared earnestly. “What’ya suppose the Lord built ya that way for?... If I ever hear of ya throwin’ away a lovin’ party like that one again, I’m gonna step right in an’ take it away from ya!... Why, she’s the best lookin’ woman I’ve ever seen in my whole damned life! Are ya crazy?... I’d give ten years o’ my life to put my shoes under her bed just once!”
I got mad. “All right,” I told him. “To-morrow I’ll take you over there and you can help yourself. You’re welcome to all of her lovin’ you can get!”
He was quiet for a while then, but he finally burst out with “Here I am workin’ myself skinny tryin’ to satisfy these Parisian women, an’ you, ya little shrimp, actually run away from the best lookin’ and most deservin’ one in the whole pack! Ain’t ya ashamed of yourself?”
“I’ll take you over there to-morrow,” I promised.
All he would say after that was “Seems damned funny to me ... damned funny....”
Which was just two damns funnier than it seemed to me.
—11—