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and everything will be fine between you and Jo Anne. It’s just spring. That’s all. A touch of spring fever. In the spring you get restless and discontented.
    I took a long shower and went to bed. I tried to laugh at myself again. Marriage to Jo Anne was inevitableand an attractive prospect. She certainly wouldn’t be a cold bride. And then I had to dream of Emily. It woke me up. She was standing at the top of an enormous staircase, beckoning to me with one slim crooked finger. And I was running up the stairs until I thought my heart would crack in two. And running up the stairs became a compulsive rhythm and she wore nothing but white satin tights with a black doorway embroidered on them and the black doorway swung open and I was flung awake in that moment into a jaded nastiness.

Chapter Three
    A ll day Thursday I thought of the girl working upstairs. I thought of the dark head bent over the work, of the prancing nimble fingers, of the measured quality of her smile. There had been no good reason for her to cover me with Limebright. He had no authority over me, but when he got down on you, he could be as venomous as a wasp.
    “Get a look at Emily yet?” Sam Grinter asked, during a lull.
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Nice little package, isn’t it? So prim and quiet and demure. She’s not kidding anybody, Kyle. All she has to do is walk and it’s like she was picketing the place carrying a big sign with just one word on it. Or maybe even two.”
    I stared at him. “You think so?”
    “Think so! If Limebright was a man instead of a little pansy, he would have seen when he interviewed her that a thing like that spells trouble in any bank.”
    “I think you’re wrong, Sam,” I said.
    “Kid, I’ve been around fifty-two years. I’ve seen ’em like that before. When you see ’em walk as though they were trying to hold a silver dollar between their knees, you take my word for it, if you can get next to it, you’ll get yourself the best …”
    A man coming up to his window stopped the conversation. I was glad it was stopped. I didn’t want to hear the rest of it. I was sorry I had heard as much as I had. I didn’t want Sam dirtying her with words like that.
    But while I was sitting by myself on the bench out by the lockers, eating my lunch, Sam came out and got his lunch out of his locker. He sat down with a heavy sigh. As he opened the black japanned lunch box he said, “Had to go check something with Limebright. Got another look at that item. Wish I was young and single.”
    “What would you do?”
    “When I was young and single, I was also stupid. Somecharacter said that youth is a fine thing, but it’s wasted on the young. That little girl is new in town. She’s living at the YWCA. Now the YWCA, as even you probably know, is pretty devoid of opportunity. Those other girls aren’t going to help her find a place. You can tell that by the way they look at her, and by the way they stop talking when she comes around. Now you got a perfect pitch. That rat hole you live in isn’t expensive. I’d jump in there quick before some other joker thinks of an angle. Tell her you’re getting married and vacating the apartment this summer. Maybe she’d like a look at it. But I’d set the scene first. Cocktails for two. Some mood music on the record player. Take her there right from work, like tomorrow. That gives you tonight to get the place shined up. Better contact her today, though. So she’ll have tomorrow open. And look. Don’t be like I was at your age. I was a damn fool. I used to hint around and sort of ask them. Then they always say no. Just take it for granted that the answer is yes. I mean, you don’t have to be rough. Just positive.”
    I got my chance a little after two when a woman named Mrs. Marsh wanted her balance figure. “Cameron speaking. Current balance, please, on Mrs. Marsh, Katherine A.”
    “One moment, please.”
    She gave me the figure. I wrote it down, pushed it under the grille, and said,