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himself, you don’t need to be such a pioneer as not to shave the other side. And then he noted with careful critical distaste the almost silvery whiteness of his hair.
He heard the Bugatti come up the long slope and turn onto the gravel and stop.
Catherine came into the room. She had a scarf over her head and sunglasses on and she took them off and kissed David. He held her close and said, “How are you?”
“Not so good,” she said. “It was too hot.” She smiled at him and put her forehead on his shoulder. “I’m glad I’m home.”
He went out and made a Tom Collins and brought it in to Catherine who had finished a cold shower. She took the tall cold glass and sipped from it and then held it against the smooth dark skin of her belly. She touched the glass to the tips of each of her breasts so they came erect and then took a long sip and held the cold glass against her belly again. “This is wonderful,” she said.
He kissed her and she said, “Oh, that’s nice. I’d forgotten about that. I don’t see any good reason why I should give that up. Do you?”
“Well, I haven’t,” she said. “I’m not going to turn you over to someone else prematurely. That was a silly idea.”
“Get dressed and come on out,” David said.
“No. I want to have fun with you like in the old days.”
“How?”
“You know. To make you happy.”
“How happy?”
“This.”
“Be careful,” he said.
“Please.”
“All right, if you want.”
“The way it was in Grau du Roi the first time it ever happened?”
7
“If you want.”
“Thank you for giving me this time because—”
“Don’t talk.”
“It’s just like Grau du Roi but it’s lovelier because it’s in the daytime and we love each other more because I’d gone away. Please let’s be slow and slow and slow—”
“Yes slow.”
“Are you—”
“Yes.”
“Are you really?”
“Yes if you want.”
“Oh I want so much and you are and I have. Please be slow and let me keep it.”
“You have it.”
“Yes I do. I do have it. Oh yes I do. I do. Please come now with me. Please can you now—”
They lay on the sheets and Catherine with her brown leg over his, touching his instep lightly with her toes, rested on her elbows and lifted her mouth from his and said, “Are you glad to have me back?”
“You,” he said. “You did come back.”
“You never thought I would. Yesterday it was all gone and everything was over and now here I am. Are you happy?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember when all I Wanted was to be so dark and now I’m the darkest white girl in the world.”
“And the blondest. You’re just like ivory. That’s how I always think. You’re smooth as ivory too.”
“I’m so happy and I want to have fun with you the way we always had. But mine is mine. I’m not going to turn you over to her the way I was doing and keep nothing. That’s over.
“It’s not awfully clear,” David said. “But you really are fine again, aren’t you?”
“I really am,” Catherine said. “I’m not gloomy or morbid or pitiful.”
“You’re nice and lovely.”
“It’s all wonderful and changed. We’re going to take turns,” Catherine said. “You’re mine today and tomorrow. And you’re Marita’s the next two days. My God, I’m hungry. This is the first time I’ve been hungry in a week.”
When David and Catherine came back from swimming in the late afternoon they drove into Cannes for the Paris papers and then sat at the cafe and read and talked before they came home. After David had changed he found Marita sitting at the bar reading. He recognized the book as his own. The one she had not read. “Did you have a good swim?” she asked.
“Yes. We swam a long way out.”
“Did you dive from the high rocks?”
“I’m glad of that,” she said. “How is Catherine?”
“More cheerful.”
“Yes. She is very intelligent.”