Лоуренс Блок - Catch and Release

BILLY

Billy Cutler. And you’re Dorothy Morgan, and you could probably use a drink. What would you like?

DOROTHY

I don’t know. What are you having?

BILLY

Well, night like this, minute I sat down I ordered a martini, straight up and dry as a bone. And I’m about ready for another.

DOROTHY

Martini’s are in, aren’t they?

BILLY

Far as I’m concerned, they were never out.

DOROTHY

I’ll have one.

BILLY

Joe?

(The waiter withdraws)

It’s treacherous out there. The main roads, the Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State, they get these chain collisions where fifty or a hundred cars slam into each other. Used to be a lawyer’s dream before no-fault came in. I hope you didn’t drive.

DOROTHY

No, I took the PATH train. And then a cab.

BILLY

Much better off.

DOROTHY

Well, I’ve been to Hoboken before. In fact we looked at houses here about a year and a half ago.

BILLY

You bought anything then, you’d be way ahead now. Prices are through the roof.

DOROTHY

We decided to stay in Manhattan.

BILLY

And you knew to take the PATH train. Well, I drove, and the fog’s terrible, no question, but I took my time and I didn’t have any trouble. Matter of fact, I couldn’t remember if we said seven or seven-thirty, so I made sure I was here by seven.

DOROTHY

Then I kept you waiting. I wrote down seven-thirty, but—

BILLY

I figured it was probably seven-thirty. I also figured I’d rather do the waiting myself than keep you waiting. Anyway, I had a book to read, and I ordered a drink, and what more does a man need? Ah, here we go.

(The waiter appears with two drinks on a tray. She takes a sip, relaxes visibly.)

DOROTHY

That was just what I needed.

BILLY

Well, there’s nothing like a martini, and they make a good one here. Matter of fact, it’s a pretty decent restaurant altogether. They serve a good steak, a strip sirloin.

DOROTHY

Also coming back in style, along with the martini.

BILLY

So? You want to be right up with the latest trends? Should I order us a couple of steaks?

DOROTHY

Oh, I don’t think so. I really shouldn’t stay that long.

BILLY

Whatever you say.

DOROTHY

I just thought we’d have a drink and—

BILLY

And handle what we have to handle.

DOROTHY

That’s right.

BILLY

Sure. That’ll be fine.

DOROTHY

(She picks up her drink, sips it, looking for a way back into the conversation.)

Even without the fog, I’d have come by train and taxi. I don’t have a car.

BILLY

No car? Didn’t Tommy say you had a weekend place up near him? You can’t go back and forth on the bus.

DOROTHY

It’s his car.

BILLY

His car. Oh, the fella’s.

DOROTHY

Howard Bellamy’s. His car, his weekend place in the country. His loft on Greene Street, as far as that goes.

BILLY

But you’re not still living there.

DOROTHY

No, of course not. And I don’t have any of my stuff at the house in the country. And I gave back my set of car keys. All my keys, the car and both houses. I kept my old apartment on West Tenth Street all this time. I didn’t even sublet it because I figured I might need it in a hurry. And I was right, wasn’t I?

BILLY

What’s your beef with him exactly, if you don’t mind me asking?

DOROTHY

My beef. I never had one, as far as I was concerned. We lived together three years, and the first two weren’t too bad. Trust me, it was never Romeo and Juliet, but it was all right. And then the third year was bad, and it was time to bail out.

(She reaches for her drink, surprised to note it’s empty.)

He says I owe him ten thousand dollars.

BILLY

Ten large.

DOROTHY

He says.

BILLY

Do you?

DOROTHY

(shakes her head no)

But he’s got a piece of paper. A note I signed.

BILLY

For ten thousand dollars.

DOROTHY

Right.

BILLY

Like he loaned you the money.

DOROTHY

Right. But he didn’t. Oh, he’s got the paper I signed, and he’s got a canceled check made out to me and deposited to my account. But it wasn’t a loan. He gave me the money and I used it to pay for a cruise the two of us took.

BILLY

Where? The Caribbean?

DOROTHY

The Far East. We flew to Singapore and cruised down to Bali.

BILLY

That sounds pretty exotic.

DOROTHY

I guess it was. This was while things were still good between us, or as good as they ever were.

BILLY

This paper you signed.

DOROTHY

Something with taxes. So he could write it off, don’t ask me how. Look, all the time we lived together I paid my own way. We split expenses right down the middle. The cruise was something else, it was on him. If he wanted me to sign a piece of paper so the government would pick up part of the tab—

BILLY

Why not?

DOROTHY

Exactly. And now he says it’s a debt, and I should pay it, and I got a letter from his lawyer. Can you believe it? A letter from a lawyer?

BILLY

He’s not going to sue you.

DOROTHY

Who knows? That’s what the lawyer letter says he’s going to do.

BILLY

The minute he goes into court and you start testifying about a tax dodge—

DOROTHY

But how can I, if I was a party to it?

BILLY

Still, the idea of him suing you after you were living with him. Usually it’s the other way around, isn’t it? They got a word for it.

DOROTHY

Palimony.

BILLY

That’s it, palimony. You’re not trying for any, are you?

DOROTHY

Are you kidding? I said I paid my own way.

BILLY

That’s right, you did say that.

DOROTHY

I paid my own way before I met him, the son of a bitch, and I paid my own way while I was with him, and I’ll go on paying my own way now that I’m rid of him. The last time I took money from a man was when my Uncle Ralph lent me bus fare to New York when I was eighteen years old. He didn’t call it a loan, and he sure as hell didn’t give me a piece of paper to sign, but I paid him back all the same. I saved up the money and sent him a money order. I didn’t even have a bank account. I got a money order at the post office and sent it to him.

BILLY

That’s when you came here? When you were eighteen?

DOROTHY

Fresh out of high school. And I’ve been on my own ever since, and paying my own way. I would have paid my own way to Singapore, as far as that goes, but that wasn’t the deal. It was supposed to be a present. And he wants me to pay my way and his way, he wants the whole ten thousand plus interest, and—

BILLY

He’s looking to charge you interest?

DOROTHY

Well, the note I signed. Ten thousand dollars plus interest at the rate of eight percent per annum.

BILLY

Interest.

DOROTHY

He’s pissed off that I wanted to end the relationship. That’s what this is all about.

BILLY

I figured.

DOROTHY

And what I figured is if a couple of the right sort of people had a talk with him, maybe he would change his mind.

BILLY

And that’s what brings you here.

(She nods. She’s toying with her empty glass. He points to it, raises his eyebrows. She nods, he raises a hand, catches the offstage waiter’s eye, signals for another round.)

DOROTHY

(pause)

I didn’t know who to call, and then I thought of Tommy, and he said maybe he knew somebody.

BILLY

And here you are.

DOROTHY

And here I am, and—

(He holds up a hand, cutting her off, and the waiter appears, and they’re silent until he has served their drinks and withdrawn.)