to catch his eye. But there were a lot of beautiful dresses there that night, too many to count, so it wasn't the dress that held his attention but the way she wore it. Nervously. Self-consciously. Touching it with a him of apprehension. Adjusting and readjusting it. Palms pressing down,on the shoulder pads.
It was borrowed. Or rented. She'd never worn a dress like that before. It terrified her. So much so that she couldn't be sure if men and women looked at her out of lust, envy, or pity.
She'd caught Teddy watching as she fidgeted and pulled her thumb back out from the bra strap. She dropped her eyes, the color rushing up from her throat, and then looked back up and Teddy held her eyes and smiled and thought, I feel stupid in this getup too. Willing that thought across the floor. And maybe it worked, because she smiled back, less a flirtatious smile than a grateful one, and Teddy left Frankie Gordon right there and then, Frankie talking about feed stores in Iowa or something, and by the time he passed through the sweaty siege of dancers, he realized he had nothing to say to her. What was he going to say? Nice dress? Can I buy you a drink? You have beautiful eyes?
She said, "Lost?"
His turn to spin. He found himself looking down at her. She was a small woman, no more than five four in heels. Outrageously pretty. Not in a tidy way, like so many of the other women in there with perfect noses and hair and lips. There was something unkempt about her face, eyes maybe a bit too far apart, lips that were so wide they seemed messy on her small face, a chin that was uncertain.
"A bit," he said.
"Well, what are you looking for?"
He said it before he could think to stop himself: "You." Her eyes widened and he noticed a flaw, a speckle of bronze, in the left iris, and he felt horror sweep through his body as he realized he'd blown it, come off as a Romeo, too smooth, too full of himself. Yo.
Where the fuck did he come up with that one? What the fuck was he--? '
"Well," she said...
He wanted to run. He couldn't bear to look at her another second.
"... at least you didn't have to walk far."
He felt a goofy grin break across his face, felt himself reflected in her eyes. A goof. An oaf. Too happy to breathe.
"No, miss, I guess I didn't."
"My God," she said, leaning back to look at him, her martini glass pressed to her upper chest.
"What?"
"You're as out of place here as I am, aren't you, soldier?" LEANING IN THE cab window as she sat in the back with her friend Linda Cox, Linda hunching forward to give the driver an address, and Teddy said, "Dolores."
"Edward."
He laughed.
"What?"
He held up a hand. "Nothing."
"No. What?"
"No one calls me Edward but my mother."
"Teddy, then."
He loved hearing her say the word.
"Yes."
"Teddy," she said again, trying it out.
"Hey. What's your last name?" he said.
"Chanal."
Teddy cocked an eyebrow at that.
She said, "I know. It doesn't go with the rest of me at all. Sounds so highfalutin."
"Can I call you?"
"You got a head for numbers?"
Teddy smiled. "Actually..."
"Winter Hill six-four-three-four-six," she said.
He'd stood on the sidewalk as the cab pulled away, and the memory of her face just an inch from his - through the cab window, on the dance floor - nearly short-circuited his brain, almost drove her name and number right out of there.
He thought: so this is what it feels like to love. No logic to it - he barely knew her. But there it was just the same. He'd just met the woman he'd known, somehow, since before he was born. The measure of every dream he'd never dared indulge.
Dolores. She was thinking of him now in the dark baOkseat, feeling him as he was feeling her.
Dolores.
Everything he'd ever needed, and now it had a name.
TEDDY TURNED OVER on his cot and reached down to the floor, searched around until he found his notebook and a box of matches. He lit the first match off his thumb, held it above the page he'd scribbled on in the storm. He went through four matches before he'd ascribed the appropriate letters to the numbers:
18--1---4--9--5--4--19--1--12--4--23145
R - AD - IE - D - SA - L - DW - N - E
Once that was done, though, it didn't take long to unscramble the code. Another two