I kept an eye on them, just in case I might pick up a few pool-shooting tips.

Leonard said, “It’s so interesting to watch a straight guy work. The way you casually observe those women, check the men out over at the bar, know they are the object of those two gals’ attention. Then I get to see you feel sorry for yourself because the women don’t know you’re alive. It’s all so… curious. And pathetic.”

“Yeah,” John said to Leonard, “like you haven’t been checking those guys out over there.”

“I suppose,” Leonard said, “I did turn an eye in their direction.”

“I think it was both eyes,” John said. “Don’t turn it there too often, okay?”

“Okay,” Leonard said. “Besides, those guys are straight.”

“Well, don’t overdo the looking anyway,” John said.

Leonard reached out and gave John’s hand a pat, then turned his attention to me. “So he offered you one hundred thousand dollars and a month off from the plant? And a month for me?”

“Yep.”

“He didn’t happen to offer me a month off from the aluminum chair factory, did he?” John said.

“Sorry, John,” I said. “He doesn’t own the aluminum chair factory.”

“Maybe he’ll buy it,” John said.

“It could happen,” I said.

“I’m guessing since the owner’s name isn’t Deerstone, then there isn’t a Deerstone,” John said.

“There was. He sold out to Bond nearly twenty years ago,” I said. “But they kept the name because it had commercial value.”

“We get our jobs back when the month’s up, I reckon,” Leonard said.

“Of course,” I said. “Frankly, I feel funny taking his money. You know, I didn’t intend to, and I tell myself I did it for the guy and because Charlie convinced me, but I know deep down, hell, not that deep, that I did it because I wanted the money.”