1020: In bed, . . .
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 46 concludes
IN BED, Albertine rolled over onto me and made love to me slowly and thoroughly. She was so tender and affectionate that I began to suspect that she was administering delight as a preventive analgesic against some disappointment.
Spent, we lay awhile in a silent embrace. Then I said, “Forgive me for asking this, but there isn’t anything wrong, is there?”
“No,” she said. “Not really wrong, but — ”
“Oh, those tormenting buts.”
“You got a fax.”
“From?”
“Well, it was signed ‘Rockwell Kingman.’”
“Rockwell Kingman?”
“In quotation marks.”
“Where is it?”
“I burned it.”
“Burned it? That’s dramatic.”
“Oh, I didn’t want you to see it — ever. But now I feel disloyal about it — overprotective or something.”
“What did it say?”
“It said, ‘I just sold the screen rights to my hideous urges. Thanks for everything.’”
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