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“Who’s Lancelot Link?”
“You’ve never seen that show? He was a talking chimp on TV. They made him chew gum, dressed him up in people clothes. ‘Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp.’ My mom used to watch the reruns.”
“I think animals in people clothes are creepy.”
He raised the bottle in her direction and stared toward the mouth of the alley. Three girls walked by, heels clacking against the pavement, hands buried in their coat pockets. “… midget at the door grabbed my ass,” one of them said, and another one giggled.
“I’m a fraud as a sex symbol, too,” Judah added, vaguely aware he’d lost his place in the conversation.
“You’re sexy.”
“I’m gay.”
“Gay men can be sexy. What’s your deal tonight? You lost it out there. Was it Ben?”
“Sure, Mom, it was Ben.”
Katie wrinkled her nose. “You’re in a vile mood.”
He closed his eyes, then sank down to the ground and took another drink.
“Want to talk about it?”
“You missed your calling, babe.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Should have been a therapist.”
She squatted down in front of him. “You told me not to worry about Ben. We went down a list of names six hours ago, and you said ‘No, no, no, no’ in response to every single question I asked you.”
“That I did.”
“But you knew he was coming.”
He hadn’t known. He’d hoped.
“You have to trust me with something, Judah, or there’s no point to any of this.”
“There’s definitely no point to any of this,” he said.
Katie pried the bottle out of his hand. Glaring at him, she took a long slug and made a repulsed face. “You’d think a guy like you would have the resources to drink something better than warm, cheap tequila straight out of the bottle. Aren’t you supposed to be guzzling Courvoisier or Dom Perignon?”
“With one groupie on each arm.”
“And leather pants.”
“And a raging case of crabs.”
She smiled sadly and stroked the hand he’d wrapped around his knee. “Paul’s looking for you.”
“Is he?” He’d thought he might finally have managed to drive Paul away for good. “Probably wants to chew my head off.”
“I think he’s still pretty mad. That last set, you seemed kind of …”
“Like a raging alcoholic has-been head case?”
She nodded.
