They kissed and she said, “Everything of ours washed into the ocean.
“We have to get back.”
“Let’s go under once together holding tight.”
Back at the hotel Catherine had not arrived and after they had taken showers and changed David and Marita sat at the bar with two martinis. They looked at each other in the mirror. They watched each other very carefully and then David passed his finger under his nose while he looked at her and she blushed.
“I want to have more things like that,” she said. “Things that only we have so I won’t be jealous.”
“I wouldn’t put out too many anchors,” he said. “You might foul the cables.”
“No. I’ll find things to do that will hold you.”
“That’s a good practical Heiress,” he said.
“I wish I could change that name. Don’t you?”
“Names go to the bone,” he said.
“Then let’s really change mine,” she said. “Would you mind terribly?”
“No.. . . Haya.”
“Say it again please.”
“Haya.”
“Is it good?”
“Very good. It’s a small name between us. For nobody else ever.
“What does Haya mean?”
“The one who blushes. The modest one.
He held her close and tight and she settled against him and her head was on his shoulder.
“Kiss me just once,” she said.
Catherine came into the big room dishevelled, excited and full of accomplishment and gaiety.
“You did take him swimming,” she said. “You both do look handsome enough, though still wet from the shower. Let me look at you.
“Let me look at you,” the girl said. “What did you do to your hair?”
“It’s cendre,” Catherine said. “Do you like it? It’s a rinse that Jean’s experimenting with.”
“It’s beautiful,” the girl said.
Catherine’s hair was strange and exalting against her dark face. She picked up Marita’s drink and sipping it watched her self in the mirror and said, “Did you have fun swimming?”
“We both had a good swim,” the girl said. “But not as long as yesterday.”
“This is such a good drink, David,” Catherine said. “What makes your martinis better than anyone else’s?”
“Gin,” David said.
“Will you make me one please?”
“You don’t want one now, Devil. We’re going to have lunch.”
“Yes I do,” she said. “I’m going to sleep after lunch. You
didn’t have to go through all the bleaching and re-bleaching and all of it. It’s exhausting.”
“What color is your hair really now?” David asked.
“It’s almost like white,” she said. “You’d like it. But I want to keep this so we see how it lasts.”
“How white is it?” David asked.
“About like the soap suds,” she said. “Do you remember?”
That evening Catherine was completely different from the way she had been at mid-day. She was sitting at the bar when they drove up from swimming. The girl had stopped off at her room and when David came into the big main room he said, “What have you done to yourself now, Devil?”
“I shampooed all that nonsense out,” she said. “It made gray stains on the pillow.”
She looked very striking, her hair a very light almost toneless silver that made her face darker than it had ever looked.
“You’re too damned beautiful,” he said. “But I wish they’d never touched your hair.”
“It’s too late for that now. Can I tell you something else?”
“Sure.”
“Tomorrow I’m not going to have drinks and I’m going to study Spanish and read again and stop thinking only about myself.”
“My God,” David said. “You had a big day. Here, let me get a drink and go in and change.”
“I’ll be here,” Catherine said. “Put on your dark blue shirt will you? The one I got you like the one of mine?”
David took his time in the shower and changing and when he came back the two girls were together at the bar and he wished he could have a painting of them.
“I told Heiress everything about my new leaf,” Catherine said. “The one I just turned over and how I want you to love her too and you can marry her too if she’ll have you.”
“We could in Africa if I was registered Mohammedan. You’re allowed three wives.”