She smiled. “Cool.” Then she lost her smile. “Stop the car!”

“What?”

“That worst case of diarrhea imaginable that you talked about is about to arrive. Let me out!”

She didn’t even wait for him to stop. She leapt out of the car and vanished inside. He parked beside a stretch limousine where a local newscaster was getting drunk with his driver and probably waiting for his girlfriend to recover from her latest overdose. He was hardly out of his own car when Kathy reappeared looking exhausted but relieved.

“They asked if I had insurance when I asked where the toilet was,” she said.

“Feel better?”

She nodded but grimaced as she touched her side. “The scary pain is gone but I’m sore. What time is it?”

He checked. “Five thirty. Want to go for bacon and eggs?”

“And you call yourself a doctor? No, I think I need to go to bed. Sorry I kept you up all night. I feel so stupid.”

“You should. You’re in agony and you have the nerve to mess up my evening.”

They drove back to Malibu. A hint of light appeared in the east. On their left, the ocean was as flat as a lake and the air felt unusually serene.

“What a night, huh?” Kathy remarked.

“I’m sure we’ll both remember it for a long time.”

She yawned. “Did I say anything embarrassing while I was on the couch?”

“You asked me to marry you.”

“Really? Did you say yes?”

“I can’t remember.”

She gave him a serious look. “How am I ever going to thank you for what you did for me tonight?”

He shrugged. “You would have done the same for me.”

“But I owe you now.”

“Yeah? How are you going to pay me back then?”

She continued to stare. “I could pay you back.”

“Kathy?”

She shook her head and did not explain.

Back at her apartment, the residual soreness in her side continued to bother her, enough that she worried she would not be able to sleep. He talked her into taking another pill. She swallowed it and changed into her pajamas and climbed into bed. Still, she feared to let him go. He could see the trauma of the night reminded her too much of a previous ordeal. As the birds began to sing outside the window, he sat beside her on the bed and gently rubbed her abdomen through her pajama top. The massage seemed to soothe her, and she began to babble as the drug slowly took hold.

“So discarded,” she mumbled. “When Tony said he was sleeping with her, I felt like I wanted to die. I felt like garbage, like something that had been dumped. You know what I mean?”