“Are you eating breakfast?”
“I don’t know. It’s late.”
“I wish you would.”
“I’ll go in and get cleaned up,” he told her.
He had taken a shower and was shaving when Catherine came in. She was wearing an old Grau du Roi shirt and short linen slacks chopped off below the knees and she was hot and her shirt was wet through.
“It’s wonderful,” she said. “But I’d forgotten what it does to your upper thighs when you climb.”
“Did you ride very far, Devil?”
“Six kilometers,” she said. “It was nothing but I’d forgotten about the c6tes.”
“It’s awfully hot to ride now unless you go in the very early mornings,” David said. “I’m glad you started again though.”
She was under the shower now and when she came out she said, “Now see how dark we are together. We’re just the way we planned.”
“You’re darker.”
“Not much. You’re terribly dark too. Look at us together.” They looked at each other standing touching in the long mirror on the door.
“Oh you like us,” she said. “That’s nice. So do I. Touch here and see.”
She stood very straight and he put his hand on her breasts.
“I’ll put on one of my tight shirts so you can tell what I think
’74 ’75
. .
about things,” she said. “Isn’t it funny our hair hasn’t any color at all when it’s wet? It’s pale as seaweed.”
She took a comb and combed her hair straight back so it looked as though she had just come out of the sea.
“I’m going to wear mine this way now again,” she said. “Like Grau du Roi and here in the spring.”
“I like it across your forehead.”
“I’m tired of that. But I can do it if you like. Do you think we could go into town and have breakfast at the cafe?”
“Haven’t you had breakfast?”
“I wanted to wait for you.”
“All right,” he said. “Let’s go in and get breakfast. I’m hungry too.
They had a very good breakfast of cafe au lait, brioche and strawberry jam and oeufs au plat avec jambon and when they were finished Catherine asked, “Would you come over with me to Jean’s? It’s the day I go to get my hair washed and I’m going to have it cut.”
“I’ll wait here for you.”
“Wouldn’t you please come? You did it before and it wasn’t bad for anybody.”
“No, Devil. I did once but that was just once. Like getting tattooed or something. Don’t ask me to.”
“It doesn’t mean anything except to me. I want us to be just the same.
“We can’t be the same.”
“Yes we could if you’d let us.
“I really don’t want to do it.”
“Not if I say it’s all I want?”
“Why can’t you want something that makes sense?”
“I do. But I want us to be the same and you almost are and it wouldn’t be any trouble to do. The sea’s done all the work.”
“Then let the sea do it.”
“I want it for today.”
“Then you’ll be happy I suppose.
“I’m happy now because you’re going to do it and I’ll stay happy. You love how I look. You know you do. Think of it that way.
“It’s silly.”
“No it isn’t. Not when it’s you and you do it to please me.”
“How badly will you feel if I don’t?”
“I don’t know. But very.”
“All right,” he said. “It really means all that to you?”
“Yes,” she said. “Oh, thank you. It won’t take very long this time. I told Jean we’d be there and he’s staying open for us.”
“Are you always that confident I’ll do things?”
“I knew you would if you knew how much I wanted it.”
“I wanted very much not to. You shouldn’t ask it.”
“You won’t care. It’s nothing and afterwards it will be fun. Don’t worry about Marita.”
“What about her?”
“She said that if you wouldn’t do it for me to ask you if you’d do it for her.”
“Don’t make things up.”
“No. She said it this morning.”
“I wish you could see yourself,” Catherine said.
“I’m glad I can’t.”