"You don't remember, do you?" she said.
He smiled."On the contrary. My minds just full of all those things I can't forget. God know I've tried."
He glanced back at her. Behind her, the first gray gauze of dawn hung in the air of Sunset Strip. The rain had stopped again, and neon filled the quiet puddles outside with fluorescence. A figure straggled by...bald head with mohawk, heavy boots, duster. Madison pulled on the Pall Mall and smiled as he exhaled. The light above the bar highlighted her full lips, tousled hair, drink clasped near her chest. "Botticelli," he said.
"Who?"
"You know," he smiled. "Venus. On the half shell. Surfing out of a sea of clouds and painted beasts into a shore full of seraphim blowing on conchs to announce her arrival."
Cal Murphy dumped the ash tray, refilled Madison's glass and said "that's one hell of a poem, Blake. Don't give up yer day job. Oh, that's right. You don't have a day job, do you?" Murphy rubbed thumb and forefingers together expectantly, and Madison fished a twenty out of his coat pocket, and said "don't you love me anymore, Murph? You act like you don't trust me. Relax. I got money to burn." Murph snagged the 20, saying "no, you're readin' me wrong, Blake. I've always had a soft spot for beautiful losers. Even beat-up ones like you. If you got some cash, why don' you go get a new trench coat?"
Madison sipped the bourbon and said "because this coat's just like me. Dirty, ragged, and out of style since 1973." Murphy chuckled and walked down to the end of the bar where the tv was tuned to Mexican Wrestling, and he stood gazing at it.
"No. I remember you Bunny. I hold you personally responsible for a wrong turn my life took in the late eighties. No hard feelings, though. Still married?"
"No. You?"
"No, I don't think so. Probably not." The California Sun was making a furtive appearance outside, the first few cars rushing by."Why'd you call me up and invite me down here, Bunny?"
Murph had ambled over to the juke box and continued pushing buttons as the Burrito Brothers' Devil in Disguise began chugging out of the speakers.
"I don't know, Blake. I couldn't sleep last night. Maybe it was the thunder and rain. Maybe it was the ten o'clock news. I came down here for something...some human touch."
"So," he said, "you want to get a bottle from Murphy, drive over to Zuma Beach and walk barefoot in the sand? Just like old times?"
Bunny leaned her head on her fist and smiled. "Times have changed, Blake. We'd probably get arrested."
"That wouldn't have stopped the Bunny I used to know."
"Well this Bunny's been up all night drinking. She's tired."
"I thought you were looking for the fun?"
She looked back at him quizzically.
He shook his head. "You didn't send me the note, did you? Or the five grand."
She lifted her glass and drained it, looked at him and said "you were always on some secret mission. I never knew what you were up to half the time. What you meant, what you wanted from me..."
"So it was just the fantastic sex, then."
She pulled on her windbreaker. "No, not just. But we did have fun. And I guess I loved you." She made an attempt to fluff her mop of hair, and laid some cash on the bar. She strode toward the door, and stood in an orange shaft of morning sunlight that pierced the murk of Murph's La Cienega. "Get him another round, Cal. Good luck finding the fun, Blake." And she opened the door and vanished down the Strip.
Cal Murphy put another Four Roses in front of Blake Madison and Blake said "shitty timing." Murphy paused, holding the bottle in the air. "What?"
"She said she loved me. If she'd told me that twenty three years ago I'd be living in Simi Valley with three kids and a degree in archaeology."
"Tough break," said Murph.
"Tell me about it" said Madison to his empty Pall Mall pack.