“I like your mouth.” She put her lips against his lips, just pressed them there. “Toothpaste. Pajamas every night. Are you a square, Joe?”

“You tell me.”

“I slept in the nude until I got married.” She kissed his chin. “Then I put clothes on.”

“You like to talk?”

“This time. I just want to go and go.” He kissed her neck. The odor of her skin was milky and dark, a secret. He opened the top button of the robe and tried to slip it off her shoulder, but it was bound up underneath her. “I can’t reach you,” he said.

He smoothed her hair back from her forehead. She looked like a different woman. She watched his eyes as he undid the next button and this time succeeded in getting her robe open. She smiled and hugged him. He ran his hand up the back of her thighs. She kissed him twice. “You don’t waste any time, do you?”

“I had to get at that.”

“And?”

He pinched her lightly. “Nice. Very, very nice.”

“There are things you can’t do now.”

“I know.”

“Did you want to do them?”

“Yes.”

They were kissing when the telephone rang. She broke away. “That bastard.”

“You think it’s him? Let it go.”

“No, I can’t. It might be important.” She was up, pulling her robe together. The telephone rang the fourth time. “All right, damn it!” It was a range of her voice he had not heard before, two octaves up. He put his head back against the pillow. The ringing stopped. He could not hear her voice.

She returned “It’s your wife. You’d better take it downstairs. I’ll hold the line open for you.”

The light in the hall went on, but she was already gone. He was sitting up, catching his breath. It was weird; his heart was beating harder than ever. In the hall he looked back to the other bedroom. Norma was holding the telephone, waiting. She did not see him. He went down the carpeted stairs barefoot. His pajamas were twisted around. He adjusted his pants and then picked up the receiver.

“Hello?”

“All right, Joe?”

“Yes, thank you.” There was a click. “Karen?”

“Yes, it’s me. Hello.”

“What is it, Karen?”

“You called me twice today, remember?”

“Of course I did. What is it? Is there something wrong?”

“I’ll let you answer that. She just said that the phone was in her room. It took her six rings to pick it up.”

He straightened up and closed his eyes. “That doesn’t deserve an answer.”

“I’m entitled to one. I had a call placed all evening, every twenty minutes. No answer. I called your mother and she called your father. He called me, as worried as I was. He said that you left him at seven.”

“I was working.”

“At this hour? Where? How?”

“I’m not going to discuss it with you.”