partnership together?"
In his own way, Ben had cast the die that 'led to this thing between Talia and me. He felt that she needed a little legal talent to lead her through the morass of fine print in a couple of real eftte transactions.
I knew little enough about real estate. But the duty fell to the junior associate, Ben's trusted protdgi. Talia held areal estate broker's license, but Ben made the deals, fed her the Commercial clients that kept her in business, that allowed her to Y her own pearls and run the Mercedes through a corporation Ben had set up in her name. "Don't be so uptight. Lighten up. Remember," she said, "you getting paid by the hour." Then she laughed. It fed some prurient fantasy in Talia, in the shell game that was r's system of accounting for my time with her, that at least the books I was pulling down $175 an hour. In one of my less fying performances when I peaked too early, when passion d a little too quickly, she sat frustrated at the edge of the me .,y bed, turned, looked at me: "You oughta be ash A 11. "billing in minimum increments of every six minutes." But on that day, as I lay in the bed watching her 4M@ furtive meeting with Talia had my full attention. I was irsl to be put off. "What are you gonna tell him if he asks?" I persisted. The vision of this woman in that moment is fixed in siv! like a cast bronze.
She stood there with this vacant stare. it‐she had nothing prepared.
Great, I thought, if Ben I't" with a question she's gonna wing it. After what seemed eternity, she looked at me, winked, and said: "I've got it.
tell 'im what you lawyers always say when you sell a property. I'll tell him I was busy 'conveying a little fee @1, She bent at the waist, her back arched, flattening her it.!' the stool, and gazed lustfully at me over her shou r an the tight globes of her buttocks in a pert wiggle for my and then did that schoolgirl giggle she does so well. In her words and‐antics there was a distinct fragrance. F not place it at the time, but in retrospect I can now *6 77@' with clear precision. It was the aroma of my career _tqlq,' smoke. , It was one of Talia's less endearing qualities, i I i penchant to face life and a of its drama with unfaltering .,i She could never fathom that I am of that vast generation re'le the drug of choice is now Maalox. "This is serious," I say. "What are you going to tell ‐ She had straightened up, arching her back, the fingers hand feathering the fringe of lace at the crease of her 1"T., nether‐part was at full attention, under the sheet. "You know, you really are an
"A' type," she said. ‐"Excuse met' "An
"A' type
personality. A lot of undirected hostility, 41, less time urgency‐the whole nine yards." She'd been jargon like kindling from her analyst again. "You weren't complaining five minutes ago. She turned, looked at me, and smiled. "Can I help it ‐lit a good, compulsive fuck?" She didn't laugh, for there Vi‐.@A' truth to this, but she did show a lot of flashing =FW7PTS of whiteness against her country‐club tan. In the months that I had known her, she carried me to of erotic excitement that 1, in the early throes of s‐if6r‐U', had never before experienced.
Dealing with Talia was a @,:
CHAPTER 6.
ON MY way to the University Club I pass Saint Ann's, the place of Ben's funeral. It's a Greco‐Roman edifice that in any other setting might inspire respect if not awe. Herr, it is merely an architectural redundancy, dwarfed by the copper‐domed state capitol with its white cupola and golden sphere scarcely a block to the south. I set a brisk pace along the mall, which on this noon crawls with busy bureaucrats, scurrying secretaries, and loquacious lobbyists all moving like maggots on the remains of some half‐devoured meal. By evening, the
"IC' Street
Mall will be given over to its other occupants, an assortment of vagrants, winos, and the scattered homeless. They will wander through the city center on an aimless sojourn between
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