"Sounds good." I guessed one of her school friends had just been.
Meaning prestige was on the line. I was right.
"Sharon's dad took her there last weekend for her birthday and it
sounded really neat. She said you can see everything. It's probably a
lot nicer than Top of the Six's."
Where, in case you hadn't guessed, I'd taken her on _her _birthday.
"Food's standard, but I think we can piece together a spread that'll
meet your guidelines. Will your mother let you go?" Joanna had total
weekday custody, and she played it for all it was worth.
"She's got a big date tonight. That creepy real estate guy I told you
about. The one with the new silver Saab he thinks is so hot."
"Don't tell me about it. And don't call your mother's friends creeps.
I'm sure they're all very nice."
"Want to bet? This guy is total weirdness. But she'll let me go. No
sweat. What time?"
When I was a youth, I don't remember young ladies using phrases such as
"no sweat." Probably an imperfection of memory, one of many.
"Pick you up at seven-thirty sharp. Call me if there's a problem."
"Okay."
"And Amy . . ."
"Yeah."
"Uh, think about wearing an actual dress. Not one of those experimental
East Village--"
"Daaad. I'm gonna look so straight. You'll see."
"Never doubted it for an instant."
That night I'd intended to explain that her college fund was currently
being hedged via a comparatively unorthodox investment scenario.
However, she was too busy marveling over the lights of Manhattan a
hundred stories down to give me much time to talk.
What I really wanted to tell her but somehow didn't was that I'd had
this spiritualist vision we'd been reincarnated as a couple of those
crazy sheiks at Monte Carlo--when I'm the guy who never ventures past
the quarter slots next to the door. It was as though I'd pillaged the
hundred grand carefully hoarded for her future and spread it over a
giant roulette play, stacking chips on every number on the board. Who
knew where Dai Nippon's wheel would stop, but when it did, one of them
had to pay off a hundred to one. Noda couldn't touch us. Right?
No sweat.