been at the right place at the right time doing the new thing and had made a ridiculous sum of money and then lost the money and done something dumb while wasted and maybe screwed the wrong person and wrecked his marriage and who, really, at this point would give a fuckity fuck. In some ways, that was almost harder for Leo to contemplate: the information about his implosion being made public and landing with an echoless whimper.
And then there was Stephanie’s inexplicable insistence that he should at least talk to Matilda Rodriguez, find out what she wanted. He knew what she wanted, and even if he did decide to distribute some of his money, it wasn’t going to be to the waitress, who’d already profited a nice tidy sum. Stephanie didn’t seem to understand that he was prohibited—legally—from talking to Matilda. (Technically, he wasn’t completely sure this was true but practically he knew it was the right thing to do. Nothing good could come of establishing contact with her.)
Something odd was going on with Jack, too, who was asking a lot of questions, a lot of questions, about trying to set something up that sounded like money laundering. He was asking what Leo knew about offshore accounts and although he didn’t precisely word it this way, how to conceal ill-gotten gains. Leo couldn’t imagine Jack pulling off something that would require such sophisticated financial maneuvers; he didn’t have the balls or the brains. Leo suspected Jack was trying to trick or trap him.
And something else was tugging at Leo. The other day, when he and Stephanie were sitting at her bay window, trading sections of the newspaper, a wary silence between them, one of the neighbors had walked by with a baby in one of those sling contraptions. He’d watched Stephanie watch the mother with the bundle strapped to her chest. She watched them from the minute they came into view until the minute they could no longer be seen. He’d gone clammy. Surely she wouldn’t—couldn’t, she had to be too old—change her mind about wanting a kid now? She’d sensed Leo assessing her and had ducked behind her hair, but not before he saw something resolute in her face, something private and determined and deeply terrifying.
But maybe worst of all was how she looked at Leo these days, like he was a sad sack, like she was just waiting for him to bail. Well, why wait?
The divorce decree had finally come down; Leo was free. He could leave New York whenever he wanted. He could go straight to the airport with nothing but a small duffel and provision himself more fully when he landed. He didn’t mind leaving everything behind, starting from scratch. In fact, he reassured himself, he was looking forward to it. Another thing he’d learned that the other Plumbs hadn’t: the beauty of rediscovering the starting line.
He’d get a few things together and head down to the Caribbean for a bit. See old friends and sort out some financial stuff. Then maybe he’d head west, far west, to Saigon. Vietnam was hot now. He could spend the foreseeable future traveling around Southeast Asia. Keep moving until the Plumbs got the picture. He wasn’t coming back for a good long time, if ever.
“Hey.” A young woman walking her dog appeared at Leo’s shoulder. “I don’t suppose I could bum a cigarette off you?” she asked.
She was tall, fair skinned, and her cheeks and nose were tinged red from the cold and the exertion of her walk. Her black hair was pulled into a high ponytail, her light eyes striking. Her voice was radio pretty. An actress, he thought. She smiled at him apologetically.
“Sure,” he said, taking the pack out of his pocket.
“I’d be happy to reimburse you,” she said, winding the leash around her hand to pull the dog closer. “What are they? Twenty bucks a pack now?”
“Almost,” Leo said. “I haven’t bought one in years, I thought the guy charged me for a carton by mistake.” He turned away from the water again and lit her cigarette from the end of his.
“I know. It’s crazy. Still, if my boyfriend didn’t freak every time I smoked, I’d happily pay for them. I don’t care how much they cost.” She took the cigarette from Leo and took a long, deep drag, groaning a little as she exhaled. “Oh, that’s so good. So good. Does that sound awful?”
“Not to me,” Leo said.
“Do you mind if I stand here