disappears into the bathroom. Julian takes off his tie and vest, unbuttons his shirt, loosens his belt and lies down on the bed to wait for her. She draws a bath that seems to last hours. He may have fallen asleep. “Are you okay in there?” he calls through the closed door, too tired to get up. “Come on out. You’re going to dissolve in that water.”
“Like a sugar cube,” she says in a purring voice. “Jules, it’s so nice. It’s so nice. I haven’t had a bath in months. Why don’t you come in here with me? Walk in, my lord, walk in,” she burbles. “It’s from Troilus and Cressida, in case you were wondering.”
As he is about to come in, there’s a knock on the door. It’s Liz. She doesn’t even notice that Julian is half dressed, his shirt unbuttoned, his chest bare. She looks panicked.
“Uh-oh,” Julian says, off the expression on her face.
“I need to ask Maria a question.”
Julian points to the bathroom.
Liz wants to know if she should take Wild up on his offer even though she knows he will not marry her, even though she knows he doesn’t really love her and will not stay with her. And if she does take him up on it, which room should they use? She asks Mia for other advice, too, advice that is too hushed for Julian to eavesdrop on.
There’s giggling, intermittent exclamations, a “What?” and an “Oh, my goodness, I can’t do that!”
There’s another knock on the door. It’s Shona and Sheila. This time, the women have come to Julian for advice. Duncan has made them an offer—to love them both—and they don’t know if they should accept. “At the same time!” says Sheila.
“Not in tandem, but at the same time, Julian!” says Shona.
“Yes, um, I got that,” Julian says.
“What do you think?”
He looks over the women’s glistening faces, their beguiled expressions.
“I think it would be extremely patriotic of you,” he says. “You will be going above and beyond your call of duty for the war effort. Just think about how happy you’re going to make that man. Trust me”—Julian smiles—“Dunk is going to have a smile on his face for a month. He needs that to work the bomb sites every night.”
They’re excited, but they want a second opinion. Julian points them to the bathroom.
There’s another knock. It’s Frankie. With all the potential debauchery about to go down on the fifth floor, Frankie wants to know which room she and Kate can sleep in, because they’re tired and have had too much to drink. Julian gives her the key to the second room. Wild and Duncan can divide the suite bedrooms between them as they see fit.
He barely has time to let Frankie out before Duncan and Wild crowd the doorway. “Has the party moved in here? Where did our dates go? Only Kate was left in the suite, and she looked so terrified of us, we had to scram before she called for security.”
Behind the bathroom door there’s mad exalted giggling.
“What are they yakking about?”
“Take a guess,” Julian says.
There’s a pause. “How long is that going to take?” Duncan says.
“I guarantee, longer than the act itself,” says Wild.
“Yeah, if you’re crap at it,” says Duncan.
“Shut up.”
“You shut up.”
“Swedish, when are they coming out?”
Julian knocks on the bathroom door. “Mia?”
“Don’t come in,” she says. “We’ve run Liz a bath.” There are peals of laughter.
“Liz has her own bathroom, you know,” Julian says. “We don’t all have to live in one room like communists.”
There is no answer, only hilarity.
Duncan and Wild stretch out on their backs on the bed, while Julian sinks into the armchair.
By the time the girls finish talking and bathing, dry off, and leave with the boys, it’s nearly two in the morning.
Julian finishes with his bath in five minutes, but it’s five minutes too long. Still damp, wrapped in her robe, Mia is unconscious on top of the covers. He rolls her inside the bed, climbs in himself, and is asleep before his hand can find her.
Some time later he’s awoken by her feline voice.
“Jules,” she’s whispering. “Jules!”
He bolts straight up like he’s in the army. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. But . . . you’re naked.”
He falls back on the pillow. “You woke me up to tell me that? I know I’m naked. What time is it?”