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"On the one hand, you need a backup for Greg," Cynthia said, all business.

"And on the other, Joe Garvey looks and acts as if he should be working the lights for the senior play," Whittaker said.

He walked to the bar and made himself a drink, then returned to the couch and sat down, slumped against the rear cushion, his legs stretched out straight in front of him, holding his glass on his stomach.

"He's not trained for anything like this," Cynthia said.

"Neither am I, according to good old Eldon Baker," Whittaker said.

"You're going out of your way to be difficult, aren't you?"

"I'm about to start," he said.

"Excuse me?"

"While I was off in Merry Old England," Whittaker said, "I was fucking a duchess."

"For God's sake, Jimmy!"

"Elizabeth Alexander Mary Alexandra, Her Grace the Duchess of Stanfield," he said.

"Her family owns Whithey House. He's in the R.A.F. Missing in action.

I'm sure there is a word for what I was doing. And it was my fault, not hers."

He me

t her eyes until she averted them.

"And then, when I was in Cairo, I was fucking another married woman.

Her husband was off with Charles de Gaulle and the Free French."

"Why are you telling me this?" Cynthia asked.

"You think it's funny?"

"There's a punch line," he said.

"I don't think I want to hear it," she said.

"I used to ask myself, Cynthia," Whittaker said, looking at her, "sometimes at very inappropriate moments, "Why are you doing this? If you love Cynthia, why the hell are you screwing somebody else?"" He looked at her as if he expected a response.

"No answer came, Cynthia," he said.

"The conclusion to be drawn, therefore, is that I am an unprincipled sonofabitch."

"Another possibility is that you don't really love me," she said.

"Not that way. For God's sake, Jimmy, we have known each other since we were kids. I used to take care of you when you were a little boy."

"I have loved you since you were about fourteen," he said, matter-of factly

"You were climbing out of Chesty's pool in Palm Beach, and I got a look down your bathing suit. My heart stopped, and then jumped. My heart still stops and then jumps sometimes when I look at you. What this equation means, I'm afraid, is that I do in fact love you. That way."

"What about Garvey?" she said.

Whittaker nodded his head as if he expected not only her change of subject but even that particular question.