her friends have men. She looks like a leftover. Ask her; what can it cost you?’ she said with a sudden burst of vehemence. Then her voice softened, and pleadingly she added, ‘Just once.’
‘If it means that much to you,’ he said.
The blonde followed him unenthusiastically on to the dance floor. She was a silly, ordinary-looking thing; he couldn’t see why Nadine took such an interest in her. To tell the truth, Nadine’s whims were beginning to get on his nerves. When he returned to the table, he noticed she had filled two champagne glasses and was looking at them meditatively.
‘You’re nice,’ she said, looking at him tenderly. Suddenly she smiled and asked, ‘Do you get funny when you’re drunk?’
‘When I’m drunk I always think I’m very funny.’
‘And other people, what do they think?’
‘When I’m drunk, I don’t worry very much about what other people think.’
She pointed to the bottle. ‘Let’s see you get drunk.’
‘Champagne isn’t what’ll do it.’
‘How many glasses can you drink without getting drunk?’
‘Quite a few.’
‘More than three?’
‘Of course.’
She looked at him doubtfully. ‘That’s something I’d like to see! Do you mean to say you could gulp these two glasses down and it wouldn’t do anything to you?’
‘Not a thing.’
‘Let’s see you try.’
‘Why?’
‘People are always bragging; sometimes you have to call their bluff.’
‘After that, I suppose you’ll ask me to stand on my head,’ Henri said.
‘After that, you can go home and go to bed. Drink up; one after the other.’
He swallowed the contents of one of the glasses and felt a sudden shock in the pit of his stomach.
‘Now the second,’ Nadine said, handing him the other glass.
He drank it down.
He woke up stretched out on a bed, naked, alongside a naked woman who was holding him by the hair and shaking his head.
‘Who are you?’ he mumbled.
‘Nadine. Wake up, it’s late.’
He opened his eyes; the lights were on. He was in a strange room, a hotel room. Yes, he remembered the desk clerk, the stairway. Before that, he had been drinking champagne. His head ached.
‘What happened? I don’t understand.’
‘That champagne you drank was spiked with brandy,’ Nadine replied, laughing.
‘You spiked my champagne with brandy?’
‘I did. It’s a little trick I often play on the Americans when I have to get them drunk. Anyhow,’ she said, still smiling, ‘it was the only way to have you.’
He carefully touched his head. ‘I don’t remember a thing.’
‘Oh, there was nothing much to it.’
She got out of bed, took a comb from her purse, and, standing nude before a full-length mirror, began combing her hair. How youthful her body was! Had he really held that lithe, slender form, with its softly rounded shoulders and small breasts, against him? Suddenly she realized that he was studying her. ‘Don’t look at me like that!’ she said. She grabbed her slip and hastily put it on.
‘You’re very pretty!’
‘Don’t be silly!’ she said haughtily.
‘Why are you getting dressed? Come over here.’
She shook her head and Henri, suddenly worried, asked, ‘Did I do something I shouldn’t have? I was drunk, you know.’
She walked over to the bed and kissed him on the cheek. ‘You were very nice,’ she told him. ‘But I don’t like starting all over again,’ she added, walking away. ‘Not the same day, anyhow.’
It was annoying not being able to remember anything. He watched her putting on her socks and suddenly he felt uneasy, lying there naked between the sheets. ‘I’m getting up. Turn round.’
‘You want me to turn round?’
‘Please.’
She stood in a corner, her nose to the wall and her hands behind her back, like a schoolgirl being punished. In a moment, she asked mockingly, ‘Time enough?’
‘Ready,’ he answered, buckling his belt.
Nadine looked at him critically. ‘You are complicated!’
‘Me?’
‘You make quite a fuss about getting into bed and about getting out of it.’
‘What a head you’ve given me!’ Henri said.
They left the hotel, walked towards the Gare Montparnasse, and went into a little café which was just opening up for the morning. They sat down at a table and ordered two ersatz coffees.
‘I’d like to know why you were so set on sleeping with me,’ he said lightly.
‘I wanted to get to know you.’
‘Is that always the way you get to know people?’
‘When you sleep with someone, it breaks the ice. It’s better being together now, isn’t it?’
‘The ice is certainly broken,’ Henri said, laughing. ‘But why is it so important for you to know me?’
‘I want you to like me.’
‘But I do like you.’
She gave him a look that was both malicious and embarrassed. ‘I want you to like me enough to take me to Portugal with you.’
‘Oh, so that’s it!’ He put his hand on her arm. ‘I’ve already told you it’s impossible.’
‘Because of Paula? But since she’s not going with you anyhow, there’s no reason why I can’t.’
‘No, you just can’t. It would make her very unhappy.’
‘Don’t tell her.’
‘That would be too big a lie.’ He smiled
