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the bathroom. "I'm going to take a quick shower, then we're off."
He watched her walk across the room. He loved the sight of her naked her
small, firm breasts, her long legs, the pale pubic patch that proved she was a
natural blonde.
Jack wondered what she'd look like pregnant. Probably fabulous.
Strangely enough, he'd been thinking about babies lately. Ever since he'd
seen Gia holding that AIDS infant at the Center on Friday. The light in her
eyes& that nurturing look. Gia was a natural nurturer. Jack knew that from
seeing her with Vicky. Physically, Gia was a single parent, but she gave more
to Vicky than any half dozen other parents put together.
He heard the bathroom door close and listened to theshoosh of the water in
the pipes as she turned on the shower.
He closed his eyes and pictured Gia holding another child& their child. He
thought of growing old with Gia and Vicky and a new little person, the fusion
of Gia and himself, and the vision lit a little sun inside him.
But to get to that place he'd have to change his life.
Jack got out of bed and went to the bottom drawer of the old oak dresser. He
dug through the various wigs, mustaches, eyeglasses, nostril dilators, and
other paraphernalia until he found the full beard. He pulled it from its
Ziploc and checked it out. Getting kind of ratty-looking. He'd have to get
another soon.
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He held it up to his face and looked in the mirror.
Not great, but along with a change in the way he combed his hair moving the
part more to the center it gave his normally rectangular face an oval shape,
and hid enough of his features so that no one would recognize him.
Look at you, he thought. You have to wear a beard to go Christmas shopping in
midtown. Always looking over your shoulder. What kind of life is that?
If he retired, he could grow his own beard and go wherever he wanted Gia on
one arm and Vicky on the other and not give a damn who saw them.
Retire&
Well, why not? Maybe it was time. He'd had enough close calls for a dozen
lifetimes, but never anything permanently damaging. He liked to credit that to
his attention to detail, but maybe it was just luck. What was he going to
do wait until he wound up dead or crippled? What was the point of pushing the
odds?
Don't be a jerk, a voice said. Quit while you're ahead.
As usual, the voice was right.
As usual, Jack wasn't going to take its advice.
Not yet, anyway.
MONDAY
1.
Alicia stood uncertainly outside the bar, squinting in the late-morning glare
as she peered through the streaked front window to see what it was like
inside.
Was this it? Jack had told her the place was called "Julio's," and that was
what the sign over the door said, but it looked so seedy. She'd expected some
trendy Upper West Side watering hole, but the grubby-looking men pushing in
and out of the door most definitely werenot yuppies.
Alicia had wanted Jack to drop by her office as he had before, but he'd told
her this time she'd have to come tohis office. Okay. Fair enough. But who had
an office in a workingman's bar?
And couldn't the owner maybe clean the front window once in a while? It was
so smeared she could barely see through it. And what little she saw of the
dark interior wasn't encouraging.
Mostly she saw plants spider plants, asparagus ferns, wandering Jews but they
were all dead. Worse than dead. Way beyond dead. What few leaves still adhered
to the stems were brown and curled and covered with a thick layer of dust.
What was this a mummy's idea of a fern bar?
All was dark as interstellar space beyond the desiccated plants. Not even
stars glowing.
But this was the address he'd given her, and itwas called Julio's&
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Alicia stepped back and scanned the street. She'd taken a cab up so she
hadn't had much opportunity to see if that gray sedan was following her again.
She didn't see it on the street now. Maybe it was all in her mind.
And maybe she shouldn't even bother with this Jack. She didn't want to go
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