Big Easy Bonanza

all right? I’ll wait for you.”
    When Steve Steinman appealed at the door, tugging on a bathrobe so small it was obviously Cookie’s, Skip planted her foot in the doorway. She waved the car away quickly, delivering herself into his near-stranger’s hands.
    “Skip.” He stepped aside to let her in, not looking angry, only puzzled.
    Suddenly she was furious. “You hung up on me!”
    He winced. “I didn’t—”
    “You wouldn’t even let me explain!” To her horror she was suddenly blubbering, crying her eyes out, her chest heaving so hard she felt she would vomit up her lungs, her liver, whatever was in there, by a kind of bellows action of the diaphragm. The physical part was agony, but almost nothing compared with the embarrassment. The more embarrassed she felt, the harder she cried.
    Steve stopped struggling with the robe and put his arms around her. She felt bare skin—he wore only briefs under the robe.
    “It’s okay,” he said. “Let it all out.” He didn’t know that if she did, she’d have no internal organs left.
    She held on to the robe, a blue terry cloth one, grabbing bits of the fabric in her fists, steadying herself so she wouldn’t fall, and he began to stroke her hair. She tried to move in time, to avoid the inevitable, but she wasn’t quick enough. As he touched the injured spot, she cried out and flung her head, connecting with his chin. She heard his teeth snap together.
    He said, “What is it? What is it, Skip?” and then he caught on. “You got hit.”
    She nodded, unable to speak yet. Finally the heaving stopped and she rested her head on his shoulder. He maneuvered her to a sofa. “I’ll get you some brandy.”
    “No. And I was right before—I should never have given you any. Oh, God, it hurts. Did it hurt you this much?”
    “I don’t think so. I’m so tall I’m kind of hard to hit.”
    “I’m sorry I couldn’t call. Someone found me and sent me to Charity. I’ve been there all night. To tell you the truth, I forgot for a while—that I was on my way to meet you.”
    “I should have known. I thought it was the damn job—”
    “You couldn’t have known I got hit.”
    “I mean—that it was something you couldn’t help.”
    “But if it had been the ‘damn job,’ that would have been something I couldn’t help.”
    “Look, it’s not really that. I was just upset. I guess I was afraid you wouldn’t come and I had more invested in seeing you than I thought.”
    She stared at him, looked for signs of lying or insincerity. He said, “What’s wrong?”
    “Did you really mean that?”
    “Of course. Why not?”
    She started to cry again. “It’s so sweet.” But she wasn’t crying out of sentimentality. She was crying for herself, because she wouldn’t dare to say a thing like that. He held her again.
    “How’s your head?” she said finally.
    Automatically his hand went to his own injury. He grinned. “Still hurts.”
    “That’s what I was afraid of.”
    “Listen, Skip, stay with me tonight. Let me take care of you.”
    “Stay with you?” She wasn’t sure what he was asking, and sex seemed out of the question to her.
    “Just let me be sure you’re all right. Cookie has a million bedrooms—and he’s not using any of them tonight.”
    “Well, there’s one thing. I do need to be waked up every hour.”
    “That’s why you came, you bitch. You’re just using me.”
    He sounded furious, and she wasn’t thinking fast, but in a moment it came to her that he was joking. She said simply, “Yes.”
    “Okay, it worked. Do you know Cookie’s cousin Camilla?”
    “Oh, sure. Little blond from St. Francisville.”
    “You can have her room. Cookie left it made up since she was his only Carnival guest who didn’t fuck a stranger every night—or at least an old friend. Except for me, I mean—I was at your house with a headache.”
    “One night anyway,” said Skip, and allowed herself to be led up the stairs.
    Steve brought her a T-shirt and left her. She heard him brush his teeth, and then heard a tap on her door. He entered without being asked. “You okay?”
    “Uh-huh.”
    In the darkness he crossed over to the bed. “You can use my toothbrush if you like.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Good night.” He bent to give her a good-night kiss.
    As he moved away, kiss accomplished, she seized his face and held it. Without making a decision, she pulled it back toward hers. As they kissed, she let his face go, moved her hands to his shoulders,