“DON’T WE PAY FOR ALL THE THINGS WE DO, THOUGH?”
Who said that? Hemingway. Lady Brett to Jake Barnes, the protagonist in The Sun Also Rises.
What had she ever done to compare with what I had?
Better yet, is what she said even true? Or is it true for some but not for others? Was Peter Martin paying now that he was a doctor in San Francisco, living in Pacific Heights, attending opening night at the opera in black tie? What about Jamie Gregory, now a Wall Street banker, living in a landmark four-story townhouse in the Village?
The one who really paid was Kendrick, and all she did was get drunk.
Kendrick. Her father. Her mother. And, oh yes, George Becket, living by himself on the Cape, working out of the basement office of a political hack, lying awake at night thinking about how different things might have been.