Double Play

13.

They ate breakfast together in Burke’s apartment at 3:20 in the afternoon. Lauren’s clothes hung drying in the bathroom. She wore one of Burke’s dress shirts.

“Your room is very neat,” Lauren said.

“Yes.”

“And all those books.”

“I’ve had a lot of free time,” Burke said.

Lauren put down her coffee cup and put a cigarette in her mouth. Burke leaned forward and lit it for her.

“Is there anyone you should call,” Burke said, “tell them you’re all right?”

“Daddy is used to me not coming home,” Lauren said.

“And your mother?”

“She doesn’t care,” Lauren said. “Mostly she’s drunk.”

Burke lit himself a cigarette. The first one of the day, with coffee, was still a good moment.

“Are we going to talk about last night?” Burke said.

“You one of those guys likes talking about it afterwards?” Lauren said.

“I like to know what the hell went on.”

“I think the term is sexual intercourse,” Lauren said.

“Why?”

“Because you’re irresistible?”

“It wasn’t about me,” Burke said.

“Why does it have to be about anything?” she said.

“You’re not the first woman I slept with,” Burke said. “But you’re the first one I slept with who stripped naked in a public park, and did it on the ground in the rain.”

“Well, aren’t we conventional.”

“One minute you can’t stand me, the next we’re fucking in the rain.”

“Must you be coarse.”

“You like coarse.”

“Oh, you know me so well?”

“Tell me about Louis,” Burke said.

“I have.”

“Tell me more,” he said.

“Do you have any aspirin?” Lauren said.

Burke got her some. She took three tablets and washed them down with coffee.

“Louis,” she said.

She paused and took a deep breath. There were dust motes, Burke noticed, drifting in the light where the afternoon sun shone through the window.

“Louis is what happens when money and power combine with weakness and cruelty.”

“The money and power come from his father,” Burke said.

“Yes.”

She gestured at her cup.

“Pot’s on the counter,” Burke said.

“I have a terrible headache,” she said. “Please be a darling.”

“Of course you have a headache, you drank a pint of gin.”

She closed her eyes and shuddered.

“Please,” she said.

Burke got the coffee and poured her some. Then he sat back down across the table from her and waited.

“Louis likes to cause pain,” Lauren said after a time.

Burke didn’t say anything.

“Physical pain,” Lauren said. “Emotional pain. Psychological pain. It makes him hot.”

“So why’d you go out with him?”

“I... I... guess I like pain,” she said.

“So how come you left him.”

“I guess I don’t like it... too.”

“Does he want you back?”

“I don’t know. He may get excited just... stalking me.”

“And the guys with him?”

“I’d guess he’s afraid of you.”

“Does he like that too?”

“Being afraid of you?”

“Yeah,” Burke said. “It happens.”

“I don’t know.”

“How do you feel about him, now?”

“The same.”

“You like pain and you don’t?”

“Yes. I know it’s sick. Louis was making me sicker.”

She sniped out her cigarette and took out another. Burke lit it for her. She drank some more coffee.

“I... this is weird. I never told anybody anything like this before.”

Burke leaned back and hunched his shoulders to relax them.

“That’s okay,” he said. “I never heard anything like this before.”

Lauren inhaled deeply and let the smoke out slowly so it drifted in the air in front of her face.

“Maybe last night had something to do with that,” she said.

“Maybe,” Burke said.