as the discussion ended he leaned over and introduced himself. “Rod
Something, I’m not quite sure what.”
“You don’t know his name!” Alicia actually laughs. She can’t believe
it—although of course, knowing Judith for forty years, she in some way
expected it.
“Well, yes, I admit it, I went to bed with him and I don’t know his
last name. But the problem is, if you miss it the first time, it’s hard to
ask because that shows you weren’t paying attention. Anyway, I know
he grew up in Lake Forest, and he went to St. Paul’s and Princeton and
Harvard Law, and he runs this . . . I’m not sure exactly what it is, some-
thing like Fannie Mae, and they make the smallest of profits by charging
all these poor tenants for their cable service. But, look, he’s an amazing
lover and totally respectable, and I’ll get his last name the next time I see
him. Or I could ask Brian Simmons. I mean, I could call him, couldn’t
I? And I could say, I think I recognized Rod from . . . I don’t know,
some meeting of precinct captains, Republican precinct captains in the
District, but I didn’t catch his last name. And I’d be thinking, I hope you
didn’t notice my car sitting out in front of your house all night or me, the
next day, coming to pick it up.”
“Oh, no, someone like Rod would never be a precinct captain. It’s bet-
ter just to call Brian and ask straight out.”
“You’re right. It’s not the sort of thing Rod would do. You know his
sort far better than I do. But never mind, I’ll think of something.”
“Maybe Ellie knows him?”
“Oh, no. No, no, no. Anyway, Rod told me about whatever it is he
does while he was driving me home, across Memorial Bridge and all
the way to Alexandria. And he walked me up to my door,” and then she
He was sitting there saying intelligent things about
Robert Moses—he was the only one who really admired
him—and he was clearly physically excited by her, excited
by simple contiguity or maybe by the feeling that some
things are meant to be.
