“Yes, that’s what I was getting to. Thank you. I wanted him to advise me. It was a stupid question and a stupid trick, if I thought it would draw him in. But I honestly didn’t know how I was going to live alone. I was hysterical. What was he going to do? Weren’t we ever going to make love again? He didn’t know what he was going to do, he didn’t know if we were going to make love. I was terrified of the future. I had never handled money, paid my own rent—anything. I could think of all those things and not even be able to guess what would happen. I mean that. I wanted him to make love to me. I took his hand and put it on me. At least he was human in that respect.” She turned as if she were about to get up, then she sat still. “May I have my coat, Joe? I think I should go home.”

He put her coat over his arm and stood up. She smiled tiredly. “My foot didn’t go to sleep,” she said. “I’m trembling. Isn’t that something? I just might fall over myself if I tried to get up now.”

“Take your time,” he said. “You’ve done a day’s work.”

“I feel it. No, it’s a little different. I’m all wrung out. Now you can see why I behaved as I did when I met Murray. Or why I wrote those letters to Colin. Colin pulled the rug out from under me. Maybe it had to happen to me; maybe another man would have done the same thing.” Now she stood up. He held her coat while she put it on and fitted it about her shoulders. Her perfume was stronger, mixed with something pleasant in her hair. She turned around. “Do I look as battered as I feel?”

“You look fine.” He was not done and he wanted to keep her attention. “You look like you could do it all over again.”

She laughed. “Don’t say that.” She blushed a little.

“Does the word ‘Rainbow’ mean anything to you?”

“No. Should it?”

“No.”

“What does it mean?”

He shrugged. “I haven’t the faintest idea, probably nothing at all. How did you get down here?”

“The family chariot is parked in a lot down the street. Murray went in with a neighbor this morning. I said that I wanted to do some shopping. I was thinking about it, but now I’m going to go home. Can I give you a lift anywhere?”

“No, thanks, my office is just up the hill.”

He put his hand under her elbow as they crossed the lobby to the revolving door. “Do you mind if I tell you something?”

“No, of course not.”

“I don’t know if I can say it well. I deal with a lot of hard-nosed, selfish individuals—”