Tales of the City 06 - Sure of You

don’t know a soul.”
    “Yeah,” said Russell, addressing Michael. “Stay and keep us company.”
    “Well, O.K.,” said Mary Ann. “Sure.”
    “Fabulous.”
    “How was the benefit?”
    Chloe’s high ivory forehead furrowed.
    “Didn’t you go to some AIDS benefit in L.A.?”
    “Oh, sure,” said Russell. “It was very nice. Very moving.”
    “Right,” said Chloe. “I spaced out for a second.” She perused the crowded foyer. “Is it this packed everywhere?”
    Michael replied: “It’s better once you get past the bar.”
    “Actually,” said Chloe, “I have to pee like crazy. Know where the loo is?”
    “C’mon, I’ll show you.” Mary Ann took her hand, feeling sisterly and conspiratorial all of a sudden.
    Chloe looked back at her husband. “Can you boys play on your own for a while?”
    “Sure,” said Russell.
    Michael shot a glance at Mary Ann. One of those stranded-puppy-dog looks that Brian was so fond of giving her.
    “We won’t be long,” she told him.

    The bathroom designated for women was gleaming black onyx, huge.
    “So,” said Chloe, “I’m dying to know. I didn’t wanna ask in front of your husband.”
    This threw her for a moment. “Oh…Michael’s not my husband.”
    “Oh. Shit. The other guy…”
    “Right.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “It’s O.K.,” she said. “Really.”
    “So…what’s the verdict on the show?”
    Mary Ann gave a sheepish shrug. “I’m gonna do it.”
    Chloe squealed and hugged her. Though she had never actually experienced it, Mary Ann felt like a freshman at a sorority rush night. “Tell me I won’t be sorry,” she said.
    “You won’t be sorry. How’s that?”
    Mary Ann smiled at her gamely.
    “Is…what’s your husband’s name?”
    “Brian.”
    “Is he O.K. about it?”
    She faltered for a moment, then decided to come clean. Chloe had felt like an ally from the moment she met her. “He’s not going with me,” she said. “We’re getting a divorce.”
    Chloe nodded slowly. “Uh-huh.”
    “It’s been coming on for a long time.”
    “Was this your idea or his?”
    “Both, really.”
    “Well, that’s good.”
    “I’m kind of freaked out about it. I mean, I know it’s the right thing to do, but…it’s a lot of new stuff all at once.”
    “You’ll be O.K. Look at you. You’ll land on your feet like a cat.”
    “Think so?”
    “Absolutely.”
    “It’s not just him I’m leaving, though. It’s my whole life here, my friends…Michael out there…”
    “They can come see you. This isn’t Zanzibar you’re moving to.”
    “Oh, yes it is.”
    “Look, you’re talking to an Akron girl, remember? If I can do it…”
    “But you did it with somebody you care about…”
    “Yeah…well…”
    “I am so envious of that. Having somebody on your own wavelength. Who loves the same things you love, laughs at the same jokes. Goes to things with you.”
    Chloe looked as if she didn’t quite understand.
    “It’s never been that way with me and Brian.”
    “What has it been?”
    “I don’t know. Sex, mostly.”
    Chloe fixed her lips in the mirror. “Poor baby.”
    Mary Ann laughed uncomfortably. “I don’t mean we did it all the time. I mean that’s what…you know, kept us together.”
    “Is that what you married him for?”
    “No, not completely.”
    “Then what?”
    “He was also…very gentle.” Mary Ann paused. “Plus he didn’t have a name for his dick.”
    “Excuse me?”
    She rolled her eyes. “For the longest time every guy I dated had a name for his dick.”
    “You’re not serious?”
    “Yes.”
    “Like what?”
    “I dunno. Ol’ Henry or something.”
    Chloe snorted. “Ol’ Henry? Was this here or in Ohio?”
    “Here! It was so depressing!”
    They laughed together raucously.
    “So,” said Chloe, recovering. “Ol’ Brian came along with this nameless wonder between his legs…”
    Someone knocked on the door.
    Muffling their giggles, they composed themselves. “Come in,” said Chloe with exaggerated mellifluousness.
    The door swung open slowly and a face appeared. Mary Ann recognized her as one of the pillars of the ballet board. “Oh, I’m sorry,” the woman blurted. “I thought…”
    “No problem,” said Chloe. “It’s all yours.”
    She recognizes us both, thought Mary Ann. Won’t she have something to tell the girls?

    They were in a sort of glass gazebo now, high above the water.
    “Shouldn’t we look for the guys?” Mary Ann asked.
    “Fuck, no. Let ’em