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captain. He ordered a bottle of V.O., ice, club soda, and two glasses. When the lad brought their order he met him at the door, took the tray from him, signed the tab, and gave the kid a dollar.
    “My husband is a big tipper,” she said. “How much money do we have left?”
    “A couple of hundred. Enough.”
    He started making the drinks. She said, “How much is the hotel room?”
    “I don’t know. Why?”
    “We could go to a cheaper hotel. We’ll be here a while and we don’t want to run out of money.”
    “They’ll take a check.”
    “They will?”
    “Any hotel will,” he said. “Any halfway decent hotel.”
    She took her drink and held it awkwardly while he finished making one for himself. He raised his glass toward her and she lowered her eyes and drank part of her drink. When their glasses were empty he took them over to the dresser and added more whiskey and a little more soda.
    “I’m going to get drunk tonight,” she said. “I’ve never been really stoned in front of you, have I?”
    “The hell you haven’t.”
    “I don’t mean parties. Everybody gets drunk at parties. I mean plain drinking where you’re just trying to get stoned, like now. We used to at college. My roommate and I, my junior year. My roommate was a girl from Virginia named Mary Beth George. You never met her.”
    “No.”
    “We would get stoned together and tell each other all our little problems. She used to cry when she got drunk. I didn’t. We swore that we would be each other’s maid of honor. Or matron, whoever got married first. I didn’t even invite her to the wedding. I never even thought to. Isn’t that terrible?”
    “Is she married?”
    “I think so.”
    “Did she invite you to her wedding?”
    “No. We lost track of each other. Isn’t that the worst thing you ever heard of? We drank vodka and water. Did you ever have that?”
    “Yes.”
    “It didn’t have any taste at all. It tasted like water with too much chlorine in it, the way it gets in the winter sometimes. You know how I mean, don’t you?”
    “Yes.”
    “With a little provocation I think I could maybe become an alcoholic. Will you make me another of these, please?”
    He fixed her another drink. He made it strong, and he added a little of the V.O. to his own glass. She took several small quick sips from her drink.
    She said, “I didn’t even know you then. Both in Binghamton and we never even met. We went to two different schools together. That’s a stupid line, isn’t it? There was a comedian who used to say that, but I can’t remember who. Can you?”
    “No.”
    “There are some other lines like that. Would you rather go to New York or by train?’ Silly. ‘Do you walk to school or take your lunch?’ I think that’s my favorite. I didn’t fall in love with you the first time I saw you. I didn’t even like you. What dreadful things I’m telling you! But when you asked me out I felt very excited. I didn’t know why. I thought here I don’t like him, but I’m excited he asked me out. I can’t stop talking. I’m just babbling like an idiot, I can’t stop talking.”
    She drank almost all of her drink in one swallow and took a step toward him, just one step, and then stopped. There was a moment when he thought she was going to fall down and he started for her to catch her but she stayed on her feet. She had a worried look on her face.
    She said, “I might be sick.”
    “Don’t worry about it.”
    “I want you to make love to me, you know that, don’t you? You know I want that, don’t you?”
    He held her and her face was pressed against his chest. She put her hands on his upper arms and pushed him away a little and looked up into his eyes. Her own eyes were a deeper green than ever, the color of fine jade.
    She said, “I want to but I can’t. I love you, I love you more than I ever did, but I just can’t do anything. Do you understand?”
    “Yes. Don’t talk about it.”
    “This afternoon I thought I would wait