“Adam,” I said. I shrugged. “We talked and cleared it up.”

“All good then?”

“Yep,” I said. “All good.”

I returned from my run unscathed, took a shower, threw on some clothes, made a turkey sandwich, poured a Coke, and carried them into the living room where I settled into an armchair that faced the deck and the view beyond. Larry’s house was on a single level down from the street and hidden behind a boxwood hedge. The interior decorator who furnished the place had evidently taken Larry’s measure and concluded “butch,” because the furniture was clean, dark and simple. There was that side of Larry, of course, but that was mostly the mask he wore to meet the world. Off-duty he was kind and dryly funny and kind of campy. Lonely, too, I’d often thought, having picked up a scent from him I knew so well in myself. As far as I knew, he had never had a boyfriend. Lots of friends. They’d crowded his house on Thanksgiving, guys in cashmere sweaters and guys in leather vests, lipstick lesbians and tatted up, pierced riot girls. He seemed to love them, one and all, and they reciprocated, but there was no one special. When I’d asked him about that once, he’d said, too old and too busy and too set in my ways. I didn’t push. As kind as he was, there was a line you didn’t cross with Larry about his private life, a WASP opacity that deflected unwelcome questions with a look that could freeze water.

Adam’s phone number was burning a hole in my wallet, so I took it out, looked at it again and again debated whether to give him a call. I’d called the day before, reached his machine, wished him a happy Thanksgiving, and left him Larry’s number. For the rest of the afternoon, whenever the phone rang, I must have perked up like Pavlov’s dog because Larry eventually asked me if I was expecting a call. I lied and he gave me the look I got when he knew I was lying. Ordinarily, he would have pressed me until I broke down, but he was distracted by his other guests and the next time the phone rang, I feigned indifference. Still, I was disappointed Adam hadn’t called and then annoyed with myself for being disappointed.