Sea Change

“I’m serious. It interests me. You interest me.”

“If you’ve been a cop,” Jesse said, “especially a big city cop, like I was, after awhile you sort of expect to handle it.”

“But he’s twice your size.”

“It’s not really about the other guy,” Jesse said. “It’s about yourself.”

“So what’s your secret?”

Jesse grinned.

“Usually it’s backup.”

“And this time?”

“Well, Suit was there, but the guy was out of control and the place was crowded . . .”

“And he gave you attitude,” Jenn said.

“He did. So if you’re going to go, do it quick. You gotta get a guy like Radford right away or you’re going to have to shoot him.”

“What did you do?”

“I hit him in the balls with Suit’s stick.”

“Ouch,” Jenn said. “And that was it?”

“Essentially it was,” Jesse said.

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“I was talking to the bartender before you arrived,” Jenn said.

“Doc,” Jesse said.

“Yes, he said you didn’t press charges.”

Jesse drank some iced tea, and grinned at her as he put the glass down.

“This morning when he was sober with a deadly hangover, we gave him the choice: district court or clean the squad car.”

“Clean the squad car?”

“He puked in it.”

“Oh yuck,” Jenn said. “So much for dinner.”

“Don’t kid me, you’re about as queasy as a buzzard.”

“But much cuter,” Jenn said. “Did he do it?”

“He did,” Jesse said. “And we let him walk.”

“With his hangover,” Jenn said.

“Awful one, as far as I could tell.”

“You would know about those,” Jenn said.

“I would.”

They ate their lobster salad for a time. It was mediocre.

Jesse always thought the food at the Gray Gull was mediocre, but it was a handy place, and friendly, and had a great view of the harbor on a summer night sitting on the deck.

Jesse didn’t care much what he ate anyway.

When they finished supper they walked along the water-front for a stretch. The street were full of people, many of them drunk, some of them raucous. Jesse seemed not to notice them.

“I brought my stuff,” Jenn said.

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“For an overnight?”

“Yes,” Jenn said. “I’m not on air until tomorrow after -

noon.”

“You bring it in the house?”

“Yes, I unpacked in the bedroom.”

“That sounds promising,” Jesse said.

“It is promising, but I need to walk off my supper first.”

“You never were a love-on-a-full-stomach girl,” Jesse said.

“I like things just right,” Jenn said.

“Sure,” Jesse said.

Away from the wharf the street life grew sparse. No more bars and restaurants, simply the old houses pressed up against the sidewalks. There were narrow streets, and brick sidewalks, bird’s-eye glass windows, weathered siding, and widow’s walks and weathervanes. It was dark and there weren’t many streetlights. Away from the Race Week crowds, the old town was dim and European. Jenn took Jesse’s hand as they walked.

“This time,” Jenn said, “things might be just right.”

“Maybe,” Jesse said. “If we’re careful.”

The street-side windows were lighted in many of the homes, and people sat, watching television, or reading something, or talking with someone, or drinking alone, behind the drawn curtains only inches away from Jesse and Jenn as they walked.

“How long since you’ve had a drink, Jesse?”

“Ten months and thirteen days,” Jesse said.

“Miss it?”

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“Yes.”

“Maybe, in time, you’ll get to where you can have a drink occasionally,” Jenn said. “You know, socially.”

“Maybe,” Jesse said.

“Maybe in awhile you and I can be more than, you know, one day at a time.”

“Maybe,” Jesse said.

In this neighborhood fewer lights were on. The streets seemed darker. Their footsteps were very clear in the silent sea-smelling air.

“You’ve slept with a lot of women, since we got divorced,”

Jenn said.

Jesse smiled in the darkness.

“No such thing as too many,” he said.

“There certainly is,” Jenn said, “and you know it.”

“I do know it.”

“There’s been a lot of men,” Jenn said. “For me.”

“Yes.”

“Does that bother you?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Jesse shook his head.

“No,” he said. “Not yet.”

“Not yet?”

“Not until I understand it more.”

Jenn nodded.

“Do you still talk to Dix?”

“Sometimes.”

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“Do you talk about that?”

“Sometimes,” Jesse said. “The women in my life bother you?”

“Not very much,” Jenn said. “Mostly I don’t think about them.”

In their walk they had made a slow loop along the water-front, up into the town, and back around down to the wa-terfront again to Jesse’s condominium. They stopped at Jesse’s front steps.

“Well,” Jenn said. “You are the man in my life now.”

“Yes,” Jesse said.

“You want to neck on the porch for a while?” Jenn said.

“Or go right on in and get serious?”

Jesse put his arms around her.

“No hurry,” he said.

“I love that in a man,” Jenn whispered, and put her face up and kissed him.

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