“Hours and hours.”
“Hours and hours and hours,” she said. “My mouth is chapped. Too much making out.”
“Is your voice sore?”
“It really is. Whoo! Gee, I’m going to have to call in sick again. I’ll sleep all day, mm, sounds delightful. The hiss on the phone is very loud now, isn’t it? That companionable hiss. It’s always louder at the end of conversations.”
“Oh, is it the end already?” he said. “Couldn’t we just fade out somehow, talking and talking? I can’t think of a better way to invest my life savings. Not that I’m much of a saver.”
“You’re quite a telephoner, though.”
“You are too! I mean it! I think really this is one of the nicest conversations I’ve ever had.”
“I liked it too,” she said. “I don’t know, though — do you think we talked enough about sex?”
“Not nearly enough. I—”
“Yes?” she said.
“Do you think our … wires will cross again?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know. What do you think?”
“I could give you my number,” he said. “I mean if you still want it. I’ll avoid a possibly awkward moment by not asking for yours. Or we could meet out here again, if you’d rather do that.”
“Out here under the stars? I can’t afford it. Where’s a pencil? Ah, a nice blunt pencil. Tell me your number.”
He told her. She read it back to him.
“Call me soon,” he said. “In fact, call me in a few hours, after you’ve topped yourself off in the shower.”
“You know me too well.”
“I like you a lot.”
“I wonder what you look like,” she said.
“Surprisingly normal. Maybe someday you’ll know.”
“It’s a possibility.”
“We’d probably be a little nervous at first, if we met. But then …”
“Then we’d start masturbating like ferrets,” she said, “and that would quickly break the ice.”
“That’s right. I hope you will call. You remember I have this pair of cotton pointelle tights. Unopened.”
“Size small?”
“Size small. In faun. Put Leona to work, get those legs waxed, I’m on my way. No. But call me soon. Soon soon soon. I hope you will.”
“All right,” she said. “Let me think about things. Let me absorb the strangeness.”
“What’s strange?”
“Nothing,” she said. “I guess nothing. I think I should probably sign off now, though. I have to put a load of towels in the laundry.”
“Certainly. Okay. Thank you for calling this number.”
“Thank you. Bye Jim.”
“Bye Abby. Bye.”
They hung up.