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Show 189 had finished the story he was telling) and saw him. "Hi," she said. It took him a moment to place her, but by the time she had come over and sat down by him, moving an ash tray and several glasses aside to make room, he had recovered the various pieces and was hastily rewinding the sequence he had just started. "I didn't see you come in," she said. "I was hoping you'd be here." "I waited till no one was looking," he said. That left them horribly without anything more to say. She was wearing a simple light blue dress that buttoned all the way down the front like a lab coat, held at the waist by a white belt. She wore stockings but had left her shoes over where she had been sitting while listening to Noel. A small run had started over one toenail. He wondered why he had such a hard time remembering what she looked like. They were staring past each other. Any minute she was going to discover he was mediocre and get up and leave. "Let me buy you a drink," he said, thrusting his glass at her. She hesitated, then took it, sipped once and held it out for him to take back. "Keep it," he said. "It's a present." "Don't you want it?" "I hate wine," he said. She looked at him curiously. "Why? I'm that way about beer-" "It gives me heartburn." "What you should do is eat something first to coat your stomach," she said. "Something with lots of butter on it." "Sometimes I do. I get heartburn anyway. My stomach isn't fooled." She looked concerned, and in a strange way relieved. In a company of |