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Show 184 dress and basket, beads and dress and shoes, she frowned at herself in the rippled blue mirror that hung on the closet door and stripped back down to smooth skin and dainties to try still another one. The exertion told. Her hair had loosened from its nest of combs before she was finished, and a wilted strand hung over one ear. A thread of sweat was visible along her backbone. By the time she found what she wanted-a grey flared skirt worn with a heavy belt, a crisp black blouse with a pointed collar and white flowers the size of a hand splashed onto it, grey stockings, black shoes with silver buckles- her face was grim. She disappeared into the bathroom to brush her teeth and put on fresh lipstick. He heard her come out and looked up to see her standing in the doorway, her ankles together, her hands loosely clasped in front of her, her elbows out. Her smile was arch and suggestive of adventure. "I hate people who can't be on time," she said. She sat close to him in the car all the way into the Village, her hand on his thigh. Once, at a stop light, she leaned over and brushed the side of her face against his beard. He knew he was going to be unpleasant tonight. * * * * * * When they arrived at Simon's apartment Yvonne promptly l e f t him to go find the bathroom and got lost coming back. He looked for a conversation to j o i n , and not finding one pulled a cushion from the sofa onto the floor and sat down on i t , his back to a w a l l , and nursed his clear-plastic glass of wine in both hands. He made a f u r t i v e inventory of the other guests, darting his eyes l e f t and right while pretending to concentrate on his thumbnails, and decided they were mostly people he didn't want to talk to. Noel was there, of course, s i t t i n g cross-legged on the floor entertaining three |
