Umh... Martin, I'm afraid I can't go out with you Friday. You see, I met this junior yesterday, and he asked me out, and I kind of forgot about our date, so I told him I would go out with him."

(What?) "Well, that's okay, you can get hold of him and tell him you already had a date, can't you?"

"Well... yeah... except I don't know where he lives, and he didn't leave his phone number."

MARTIN exhaled. "Hmm, that's pretty bad. Oh-why don't you call information and ask for it? That's easy."

"Uh... okay. I'll call you back in a few minutes." She hung up.

Martin looked at the receiver in his hand as if it were a snake. What had happened? Jean had sounded unenthused, to say the least; and he had sounded like an eighth-grader! What was the matter with him? That same kind of stuff had worked so well at home; what was he doing wrong? Martin hung up the phone and crawled back to his chair.

That really pissed him off, though. How could she forget that she had a date with him on Friday? I mean, no girl could just outright forget a date! He had stood there on the porch, stuttering and awkward, and suddenly they had kissed-a lingering, deep, open-mouthed kiss, much more than the peck he had anticipated-and then he, breathless, had said. "See you next Friday, okay?" and she had said, "Yes," and he said, "I'll call you next week, we'll probably see a movie," and then he had run all the way back to the Yard; she had forgotten this?! No, she was too nice. Such fine girl! So good-looking and what a body! Martin thought again of that kiss, how she had pressed her body against his-he had met her only that afternoon! But then... she had met that junior only yesterday afternoon. No... she couldn't do that. She wouldn't deliberately break the date. It takes a real bitch to break a date, and she just wasn't a bitch. But what a bitch she would be if she broke that date! Damn!

The phone rang and Martin dived for it.

"Hello, Jean?"

"Yes, it's me, Martin. I... uh... couldn't get his number, so I guess I'll just have to break our date."

"What?" Some unknown force within Martin caused him to rise to his feet without knowing it. The short cord of the receiver was fully stretched, and the phone dangled at Martin's knees. Again he said, "What?"

Jean repeated herself, this time a little louder: "I couldn't get his number, so I'll just have to break our date."

"Oh... I see."

"I'm really sorry, Martin. We'll make it for some other time, okay?" She hung up before he had a chance to answer.

Martin dropped the phone, and it clanged to the floor. She had done it. She had broken a date with him so she could go out with some goddamned junior! Well, so be it. Any girl who breaks a date is not worth dating. But how could she do that to him? How could she make him feel so good one week and then stomp on him the next? What a thing to do to a guy!... And he had just taken it. He had stood there, not saying a word, taking it. She had squished him like some earthworm in the garden, and he had just taken it.