Page 27 of Tell Me Why
He laughed as they got outside, putting his fingers through his hair, then settling in to walk next to her the way he always did.
“We could just about make it work from just that,” he said. “Bennie and Evan are connected. I could smell it on them.”
“They like you,” Tina said.
“They like you, too,” Tell said. “You did very well.”
“My trick is to not talk to anyone about anything,” Tina said confidentially, and he laughed again.
He scratched his chin with his thumb, then nodded.
“Two more tonight,” he said. “Two tomorrow. We’ll have the planners come in and get us set for a party this weekend.”
“It’s not going to be like the ones at Viella, is it?” she asked, and he shook his head.
“It will bear resemblance, but an open party always draws elements who are less self-controlled.”
“Lessself-controlled than the ones who have to be rolled out in handcarts at dawn?” Tina asked, and he laughed.
“Fair point.”
She knew what he meant, all the same.
They walked in silence for a moment before Tina spoke again.
“They’re so easy,” she said. “Fountains are one thing. They know and they’re literally there to offer themselves to you, buteveryone else…”
He nodded.
“It’s how we’re designed to survive,” he said.
“They wouldn’t have known,” she said. “And they wouldn’t have objected.”
He shook his head.
“We used to compete to see who could go through an entire party first, just taking sips off of everyone. No one ever knew what was happening.”
It sounded like fun.
“Boy, that is seductive,” she said, and he nodded.
“Very easy to lose yourself to it,” he agreed.
“How did you get out?” she asked.
“I got bored,” he answered.
He looked over at her.
“We’re working,” he said. “Life isn’t all a game, and the choices we make matter. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying your time for what it is, but when you find that you do nothingbutindulge your pleasures… that’s when you run the greatest risk of becoming the monster.”
She nodded, and he nodded back.
“On to the next one?”
“On to the next one.”
In the end,they ran out of time rather than out of the attention that the city would have lavished on them. Tina turned over the numbers she’d collected and went to bed, already feeling the sun, and Tell sat up another hour, making calls and arrangements for the weekend.
