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believed with Kevin in the need for armed struggle, for having disagreed with him, and for having acted on that disagreement; whereas she felt guilty not for that ideological difference, since she still did not think Leigh had been correct, but for the fact that she had been crazy in love with Kevin.
    “When you admit you’re wrong, you’re irresistible” This time Leigh took her hand and squeezed it hard. For the first time that day electricity began crackling between them. “How’s your lobster?”
    “Great!” She began eating with relish, feeling him looking at her, feeling his desire. “Ha. I got a female. Want some roe?”
    “Absolutely. They’re gay in this place. Gave me a male and you a female to eat out. Ah, my love, your lips are red as a lobster’s roe. Your eyes are green as a lobster’s sweet liver. How’s that for poetry?”
    ”Fine, if you’re a lobster. If not, not. How would you like it? Your eyes are hazel as a stream polluted with algae.”
    “I’ve got a cat now. I call her Babes. You know, she has eyes just as green as yours, and sometimes they look as big. Sometimes I talk to her as if she was you.”
    “Don’t try sex with a cat. If she goes down on you, it’ll hurt like hell with that sandpaper tongue” She was flirting, and yet she felt mildly hurt. A cat. He had not had a pet since Mopsy their spaniel had died—of missing her, it was said, and she had cried. Poor Mopsy. Leigh was being unfaithful to her and to Mopsy with his new cat.
    “They overcooked this. Rubbery. God damn” Leigh looked as if he might make a scene, and she caught her breath.
    “Please, love, forget it. Don’t call attention, please!”
    “All right, all right. But why be meek about bad food?”
    “The clams were good. My lobster’s fine. Have some of mine”
    He smiled sardonically. “You know, my dear, ever since you’ve been … uh, under … your disposition has been far more conventional. Don’t run that red light. Please, it’s turning amber! That’s a No Parking sign. Please don’t litter. Please, no phony credit-card calls! And don’t put the stamps on the letters upside down.”
    “I have to obey the small laws, Leigh, the better to go on breaking the big ones.”
    He tasted her lobster. “It’s almost as overdone as mine.”
    “But Leigh, to me it’s wonderful. I haven’t had lobster in years and years” She wanted to beg him not to spoil her treat, her treasure, by telling her exactly how wonderful it wasn’t against some absolute standard. It tasted fine to her. She could have eaten it all day, and indeed, she was eating slower and slower the way she had as a child when she was licking an ice cream cone and didn’t want it to end. Then it would melt and drip on her shoe, and now the lobster was getting cold. She must finish it. She must enjoy it and let it be done, like this precious time already sneaking past them and away. She wished she could give a bite to Eva, who sometimes ate fish and shellfish. It would be such a treat for her, too. The last months had been especially hard for them in L.A.
    When they were leaving, he put his arm around her shoulders. “I rented a car … Don’t worry, I did it right.” A dark blue Chevelle.
    “You drove here without any tickets?”
    “I drove like an angel.”
    “Sure. Flying all the way.” She slid into the driver’s seat. Leigh was a New Yorker born and bred, one of probably the only collection of men in the country who don’t view the automobile as their birthright. He had his driver’s license, although she had never been able to understand how. It seemed wantonly permissive of the State of New York to certify him, when he was obviously incompetent and actively dangerous behind the wheel of the car. Any traveling they had done by car she had managed. Leigh didn’t care. He preferred to be chauffeured while he talked, pointed, gesticulated. Of course, he did the same thing when he was driving, which was part of the