“What’s the matter?” Sheridan asked, conscious of her movement.
“Nothing.” Janet felt stupid, childlike.
“You’ll have to guide me,” he said, as they crossed the parkway into Rosslyn.
She directed him to the apartments at Radnor Heights. Her uncertainty increased when he opened his door as he turned off the engine, walking around the front of the Volkswagen to let her out. Momentarily Janet hesitated and then swung herself from the vehicle. Her apartment was in the first of a matching block of three, each with its wide, open-planned vestibule before the elevator bank screened first by the doorman and then by a security clerk-cum-telephonist behind the mail counter. Janet walked with her hands tight beside her, knowing what she was expected to say but unsure whether she could bring herself to say it.
She stopped just before the main entrance, turning to face him, making him stop too. Sheridan kept a distance between them.
“Would you like to come in for a drink?” she said, with great effort.
“No thank you,” he said at once.
Janet just stopped herself from blurting out her surprise. Instead she said: “I enjoyed the evening: the last part, anyway. Thanks for saving me from the party.”
“I enjoyed it as welclass="underline" I think we saved each other.”
“Good night then,” she said, hoping he would not try to kiss her.
“Good night,” he said, making no move. “I’ll stay here until you’re safely inside.”
Which he did. Janet looked back as she entered the elevator and he was still there, and when she entered her fifth-floor apartment, at the front of the building, she went immediately to the window and stared down. There was no sign of the unobtrusive man or his unobtrusive car, neither in the parking lot nor in either direction on the passing road: John Sheridan seemed able to disappear as easily as he materialized.
He had not asked for her telephone number, Janet realized. Or if he could see her again. She did not know what she would have said if he’d suggested either.
3
It was an established ritual-one of the few outings she allowed herself-for them to have Sunday brunch at the American Cafe on the Hill, but Janet half expected Harriet to call off, pleading the previous night’s party but she didn’t. She was late, though, as usual. She flustered in fast enough to create a breeze in her wake, not pausing to be shown her seat because she was confident Janet would have gotten their customary table, close to the wall at the back. Harriet was wearing button-fly 501 jeans and loafers and a poncho, and her hair was still bubbled as it had been the previous night. Her face was scrubbed completely clean of makeup. Harrriet was talking before she actually sat down, a breathless litany of who’d screwed whom and who hadn’t screwed whom and who’d been caught and who’d got away with it. She complained that someone called Jake or Geoff, she wasn’t sure which, had been a disaster and couldn’t get it up and tried to blame the booze but said she didn’t think it was booze at all but that he’d been a momentarily reluctant gay trying to pretend that he wasn’t.
“Can you imagine it, an experiment to prove his fucking manhood! Literally! At my own party!”
“I think you’re silly, taking the risks you do.”
They both ordered eggs Benedict and Bloody Marys and Harriet said: “I don’t.”
“Too many,” insisted Janet. “You don’t even know his name, for Christ’s sake! What if he is gay? Or bisexual?”
“Believe me, darling,” said Harriet. “The only thing I risked catching last night was a cold, hanging around waiting for something to happen that never did.”
“I still think you’re mad.”
“You should see the house! It looks like the Red Army went through in a hurry, without saying excuse me.”
“Would you like me to come back to help this afternoon?” asked Janet. The lecture was still only half-written, she remembered.
“Forget it,” Harriet said. “Mrs. Barrett comes in tomorrow: I’ll slip her an extra ten dollars.”
Harriet worked as a senior administrative assistant for a Virginia senator who thought an Englishwoman on his staff conveyed the impression of European culture and indicated an awareness of international affairs. Janet wondered if her friend’s brittleness were necessary for the job. Politely she said: “I thought it was a great party.”
They held back for the drinks to be replaced and Harriet said: “You ducked it, without saying goodbye!”
“I didn’t think you’d miss me. And I didn’t duck it. I was there for over an hour.”
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“What happened, that’s well what?”
Janet was conscious of blushing, positively red-faced. She hadn’t thought Harriet had seen her leave. “We had a drink, that’s all.”
Harriet reached across the table, covering Janet’s hand with hers. “Darling!” she said. “This isn’t headmistress’s question time. I think it’s wonderful you found a guy and had a drink. It’s about time. There’s no reason to get embarrassed.”
Janet smiled and said: “I just don’t find it easy.”
“You’re going to have to learn, my love. Life goes on. But yours hasn’t, for far too long. You’re so vulnerable-so innocent-it almost hurts. You’re like a virgin in a whorehouse: I worry about you crossing roads!”
How recently would remarks like that have irritated her, wondered Janet, unperturbed. She said: “How well do you know him?”
“Not at all. He mean anything to you?”
“Of course not!” said Janet.
“OK, so I can be honest. I thought he was a boring asshole. He spent all night propping up the wall with one drink in his hand, talking to no one.”
Like me, thought Janet: did Harriet Andrew secretly think she was a boring asshole, too? Janet said: “His name’s John Sheridan.”
“That much I know.”
“And he’s not really boring,” Janet added, defensively.
“Sorry!” said Harriet, archly, stretching the word like elastic.
“Why did you invite him, if you don’t like him?”
“A research assistant on the senator’s staff knows him: they belong to some racquet club or something,” said Harriet, staring into her glass as if she were surprised to find its contents gone. “I wanted to make the numbers match and told this guy to bring another man. His choice was Sheridan: a mistake that won’t be repeated.” She smiled. “Celibate women like us need alternatives: I’m going to have another. How about you?”
Janet shook her head. “I’ll pass. He said he worked in State.”
Harriet was screwed around in her seat, trying to catch the waitress’s eye. “Something like that,” she said, succeeding in her attempt and turning back to the table. “And don’t ask because I don’t know if he’s married or not.”
“He said he’s not,” Janet remembered. “But it doesn’t matter whether he is or he isn’t, does it?”
“That’s what they all say, darling,” Harriet said cynically. “But no, if it doesn’t matter it doesn’t matter. Cheers.”
Janet consciously let the conversation move away from John Sheridan. Harriet was organizing part of the senator’s staff to visit NATO headquarters in Brussels, and she gabbled on about the clothes she was having to buy and of the hoped-for sideways trip to Paris and said wouldn’t it be terrific if they could meet up in London when Janet made her twice-yearly visit to her parents and Janet agreed it would but warned she had not made any definite travel plans at the moment. She joined Harriet with another Bloody Mary and offered again to help clean up the Dumbarton Street house and Harriet waved away the suggestion as she had before.
It was almost three o’clock before they got up to leave, Harriet snatching up the bill and refusing any contribution from Janet. Outside they walked without any intentional direction towards the Capitol Building.