She appeared at Victoria’s art showing, which was sparsely attended by the faculty, public, and student body. I stuck it through to the bitter end wondering if Larry, from the tennis club, would make an appearance, and the deeper I got into the white wine, the more I hoped he would. He did not. I met a number of Clendon’s colleagues that night and began to understand why he had nearly broken down getting his Ph.D. I remembered people like that from medical school. The English faculty had its med school counterparts—the bunch that went into psychiatric residencies. It was those types, the counterpart of those types that considered surgeons to be assholes, but if I have an assholish aspect I can only say—you better go out and get whatever you want on this trip, because this is the trip, the only trip.

On the second night of the showing I stayed at home and babysat the kids. The next morning Clendon told me there had been a light turnout. Then he asked me quite bluntly if I could wrap up the visit and leave. Victoria considered me an “invader,” he said. My presence was provoking migraine headaches. She was up in bed now, wasted with a headache because of me.

“The invader. It’s your fucking house, man. And you’re telling me to go?”

“I don’t remember—you never had such a filthy mouth. Is that how they talk in the hospital?”

“Fucking-A. She’s got you pussy-whipped. I never figured you for a Ph.D. in English—”

“It’s her house. Her parents’ money.”

“Leave her.”

“Right, live in a trailer court. Plastic curtains. Alimony. Child support.”

“Well, it will be your trailer. Home sweet home.”

“No can do—”

“She looks at you and you wither.”

“I can’t explain it. I need her.”

My blood boiled. I didn’t know if I wanted to cock my fist and smash his teeth down his throat or write him a script for some Valium and Elavil.

“Well, fuck it then,” I said. “I’m going back to Los Angeles.”

I got a little loaded. It was late. The kids were in bed. Clendon was at some sort of university function. I went out into the kitchen to make a sandwich and caught Victoria standing over the sink, her platinum hair pinned up to keep her neck cool. I had startled her and when she turned to me, I realized she wasn’t altogether surprised. She was wearing an expensive sheer nightgown and her breasts, just bigger than medium and firm—I mean they were there—large erect pinkish-white nipples. They were just absolutely the most beautiful tits in the whole world.

It was a matter of some ambivalence for both of us. Neither of us liked the other. Yet the physical attraction right then and there was incredible. After I kissed her, she led me into the bedroom. She said, “Oh, my God!”

I really gave it to her. I really let her have it.