Psumner turned a corner. It was too cold now for his jacket and no one was out walking. He glanced at himself in a shop window and scowled. He felt fine.
Old Town had been decorated for Christmas. A twenty-foot tree by the door and real garland behind the bar, an enormous wreath in the center of the garland wishing everyone a Merry Christmas with a glittery sign they must have bought in the sixties.
Psumner hadn’t been listening to Sarah. He was staring at the owner of the bar hanging candy canes on the tree. A mess of silver hair and glasses askew on his face, he always wore a sport coat over a polo shirt and khakis with penny loafers. In the summer he lost the coat. Old Town is Psumner’s favorite bar. The candy canes stopped about seven feet up the tree.
“It’s the music, I think,” said Sarah. She pushed her curly hair up onto the top of her head. It fell back exactly the way it had been. The light from the windows glinted off her glasses, eyeless for a flash.
“Yeah.” Vague Psumner.
“Around Christmas.”
“I’m seeing someone.”
“I’m telling you I’m unhappy. Always at Christmas.”
“Because of the music.”
“I don’t know. That’s part of it. That’s what brings it out.”
“They say suicide goes up around Christmas.”
“The holidays.” They laughed.
Burl Ives played on the sound system.
“You’ve been single long enough,” said Sarah.
Psumner walked north on Broadway. Anthea smiled at him over coffee. He thought about the easiness of their coming together. Over the past few years Psumner had developed a state of constant availability to every woman. An offhanded flirt who’d perfected the open-ended sentence. Since Anthea that had fallen away. He’d begun to notice a new comfort some women seemed now to enjoy around him. If he ever thought about it closely he might feel strangely about this, but he didn’t. He thought about Anthea. A graceful walker with a long neck and a quick smile. There was no seduction. No wedge he’d needed to develop. That had caught him off guard.
“Chuck, did you know Sumner was dating someone?” Sarah had asked when Chuck arrived. Chuck was drunk as any Texan Psumner had seen. Beefy with hooded eyes with bags and an unnaturally pale face. He wore his shirt tucked in.
“Oh yeah?” Chuck had a hard Texan stare. Psumner hadn’t wanted Chuck to be there. Chuck and Sarah had been friends years before they met him. “That’s great news man.”
“Sure,” said Psumner.
“He felt he had to tell me,” Sarah said.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You asked me to meet you. When was the last time we had a drink?”
“It’s Christmas.”
“Like I’m some kind of goddamn rite of passage. Did you know that, Chuck? He felt the need to run it by his ex.”
“Oh hell yeah,” said Chuck. “Listen buddy, I’m ‘own buy you a shot. What’re we drinkin’?”
“Kentucky Gentleman,” said Sarah. That had been a joke between the three of them.
“The only corked whiskey,” said Psumner.
Chuck ordered shots and leaned on the bar. Happy now, he wore a constant half-smile. He stared at Psumner’s belt buckle when he spoke.
“Sumner,” he said, “Great job, buddy.”
Psumner caught a downtown R train at 23rd Street. There was a man standing across from him wearing an elf hat. The most unhappy man. When he was younger, Psumner had seen someone who he thought looked just like him. Remarkably similar. He began telling friends he’d seen his doppelgänger. He knew this wasn’t the case. You live your life building a brace of stories to share with friends and some of them stick. He thought occasionally about what his doppelgänger might be doing with his life. Might he be leading the secret life Psumner wished he had? And what exactly did he wish for? Might the doppelgänger wonder about him? Psumner considered for a moment that he might be the charmed one. Sarah had been right. He’d needed to meet with her. Nothing is real until you tell someone. He thought it would be a good idea to tell Sarah. She’d reacted like Sarah. Irritable Psumner.
When he was with Anthea Psumner found himself speaking in the incredibly long-term. He was not normally given to do so. Realistic Psumner. He thought again about the places which would be ruined for him when they broke up. He could never return to the coffee shop, nor the bar, nor that one restaurant with the upstairs. Is it worth it? Psumner thought about poetry.
The R stopped running at Union Square. He had to transfer to the L then take the G to Fort Greene.
Everything ends. Psumner thought about Sarah and her downturned mouth. Had it always been like that? Would he eventually make Anthea unhappy? Sarah had broken up with him. Things were going too well. Uneasy Psumner.
Fort Greene was quiet. He walked down Clinton Avenue under the trees. It was already dark.
Anthea sat at the bar of Roman’s, elbow on the bar, her chin perched on her upturned palm. Low lighting on the white tiled walls. Brightly colored framed mosaics at regular intervals around the room. Tiny white tiles for the floor. Psumner half-recognized the music under the din of the crowd. No one on the streets; everyone was at Roman’s.
Psumner was hot. He stripped off his jacket and sat down, feeling under the bar for a hook.
“Goddamn it,” he said. Anthea took his jacket and hung it on her hook. “Sorry I’m late.”
“I just got here.”
“The R stopped running.”
“It’s okay.”
“They didn’t even announce anything. The doors just stayed open.” Psumner looked around for the bartender. He was chatting with a waiter at the service bar. “Maybe someone jumped on the tracks.”
“Jesus!”
“I mean, I don’t know. Might have gone down like that.”
“Or there was train traffic.”
“It stopped running,” he snapped. “What are you drinking?”
“He hasn’t come over.”
“Fucking Brooklyn.”
“I just got here,” she said. “It’s nice to see you.”
“Totally.” Anthea leaned in, he kissed her cheek.
“You’ve been having a great day.”
“I have been, thanks.” Psumner wondered what he was doing.
The bartender came over and they ordered cocktails. Psumner looked around the room. Four seats away at the bar was a woman Psumner knew. She sat with what he took to be her boyfriend. He remembered they lived together, and had done for a while. Psumner thought that it was a small world. The smallest ever.
“How are you?” he asked and took a drink.
“I’m good,” she said after a pause.
“Great.” He wasn’t looking at her.
“You’re distracted.”
“I’m fucking great.”
“Okay. I’m going to the bathroom.”
Anthea got up. Psumner glanced over at the woman four seats down the bar. She met his look, then looked away.
Anthea came back. He looked into her face. The band of tension that had been tightening in his chest since he’d left Old Town snapped. It evaporated. Things were okay. Look at her. Psumner becomes overwrought. He finds himself untrusting; himself and those around him. He obsesses and it paralyzes him. There is no moving forward while running scenarios in your mind: they never pan out the way you think they will anyway. The coffee shop, the bar, and the restaurant with the upstairs would never be ruined. He would visit them with Anthea forever.
I’m sorry, I’m sorry, he thought. “I’m sorry,” he said.
He leaned forward and kissed her. She smiled.
“I love you,” he said. He hadn’t meant to. They hadn’t said it yet. He hadn’t thought it over. He wasn’t worried if she’d say it back. He felt it and out it came. She smiled.
“Psumner,” she said.
He beamed.
Suddenly pain exploded in his jaw. When he thought about it later, he wouldn’t say it was actual pain immediately, more of an immense pressure coming from the inside of his face. He was on the floor. Looking up he saw the woman’s boyfriend standing over him. Psumner tasted blood and swallowed. His face felt three inches too thick on the left side. He felt the jagged edge of a molar with his tongue. It had broken and the edge had cut deeply into the inside of his cheek.
Our children will have crooked teeth, he thought, then began to laugh. This was right. This was the shoe he’d been waiting for all day. Something like this. It didn’t matter now, though. This was already the past. Psumner didn’t believe in punishment.
Tableau: People around the bar in various states of standing or stooping form a bowl around Psumner. He lays on the floor, the bottom of the bowl, laughing loudly, blood streaming out of his mouth dripping on the bright white floor. The boyfriend is about to kick him in the stomach, the woman from four seats down the bar glares at her boyfriend, Anthea’s hand has shot to her mouth, but stopped just before her fingers cover it.
Psumner, still laughing and looking up at her, manages, “That was all before I knew you...”