“but you’d never know it.”
I reached out and put my hand over hers, and I heard her breath catch. She let her hand go limp beneath mine, and when she looked up again into my eyes, she was entirely different.
I hadn’t realized it at first but she is a small woman. I suppose I didn’t notice because her appearance is so striking, her presence so magnified, but everything about her is small. Her hands are tiny, her fingers as narrow as tightly rolled dollar bills. Her facial features are small, her eyes, her teeth. And, looking closely, I had a sense her shoulders ended a long way before her blouse began. She was what my mother would have called “petite,” and with my hand on hers, her face told me she didn’t mind that I knew it, even if few other people did.
“Let’s talk about something else,” I said cheerily, giving her hand a squeeze and then taking mine back. “There’ll be plenty of time to figure all the rest of this out.”
“I like that idea,” Katherine said. “Do you want a glass of wine?”
“Can you drink wine?”
“You bet your ass I can drink wine, and right now it sounds awfully good.”
“All right, I’ll have a glass.”
“Perfect,” she said, “and I’ll have the rest of the bottle.”
This time, she smiled.
Two glasses later, she began telling me how bored she is.
“You know, I always wondered what I was missing by working all the time,” she said, slurring only slightly. “I realize now I wasn’t missing anything. Trips to Paris, London, Aspen, maybe, but you can’t do that all the time. This week I have been sitting in my apartment watching television. I have over eight hundred channels and there isn’t a single thing worth watching.”
“I love game shows,” I said.
Katherine almost did a spit take. “Oh my god, those are the worst of all!”
I laughed. “I love them. I love the people.”
“The people?” she exclaimed. “They are the worst part! I have to believe the stupidest people in the world are the contestants on these game shows. Because if there are actually stupider people out there, we are doomed as a civilization.” She refilled her glass.
“Oh, but they’re so earnest,” I said, “they try so hard.”
“Please.” She took a gulp of wine. “I was watching Family Feud this morning, the old version, when Richard Dawson used to kiss all the women—which is so gross, and could be a whole other reason I hate game shows—but anyway, after this woman gets finished kissing Richard Dawson he asks her to name a country in South America, and she says ‘Spain.’ And I’m thinking, ‘All right, she’s not Magellan, but it’s not the end of the world.’ Then her idiot brother is next in line and Richard asks him to name a country in South America and he looks up, totally cross-eyed, with an expression like a dog going to the bathroom, and he says: ‘You know what Richard? I really thought she was right, I’m going to have to say Spain too.’”
I burst out laughing.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said, shaking her head, though I could see my laughter was contagious, it was spreading toward her, and then she started to chuckle too. “I guess it is funny, if you think about it.”
“It’s hilarious,” I said, “and it’s so sad. I feel sorry for the people on those shows, they try so hard. It makes me cry sometimes.”
She looked me square in the eyes. “You cry watching game shows?”
“All the time.”
“I see,” she said, shaking her head. “Well, we’re going to get along just great.”
“That’s right,” I said, using the linen napkin to wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes. “We’re going to be BFFs.”
“I like that,” Katherine said. “Breast Friends Forever.”
KATHERINE
I LIKED HER IMMEDIATELY.
What is there not to like? She’s a sensitive, sweet, intelligent person. If she were a man, I would have fallen in love with her before the cork was out of the second bottle. Maybe I did anyway. Maybe you can fall in love with someone without wanting to make love with them. If you can, then I did. I fell in love with Samantha the first time I met her.
The only thing I told myself before she arrived was that I would have to be fully honest with her. It seems the time for playing games in my life is over, and even if it isn’t, there certainly isn’t anything to be gained by playing them with