The Kings Of Cool

50

The Gold Coast is silver.

Laguna’s streetlights are shrouded in fog, and the lifeguard tower at Main Beach looks like it’s floating on a cloud.

Ben likes the town this way.

Soft, mysterious, nighttime.

He just dropped O at her place and is now considering whether to go out, go home, or give Kari the waitress a call.

Uh-huh.

He gets on the phone. “Kari? It’s Ben Leonard. From the Coyote?”

Just a short silence, then a warm answer.

“Hey, Ben.”

“I wondered what you’re doing.”

Longer silence. “Ben, I shouldn’t. I’m seeing somebody.”

“Are you married?” Ben asks. “Engaged?”

She’s neither.

“Then you’re still single,” Ben says. “A free agent.”

But she’d feel so guilty.

“Makes the sex better,” Ben says. “Trust me on this, I’m Jewish.”

She’s Catholic.

“In that case we have almost a responsibility to do this,” Ben says. “We owe it to sex.”

She laughs.

Ben drives past Brooks Street and keeps going toward Kari’s place in South Lagoo.