“But what?”
“Alan is the only man I’ve ever been to bed with.”
“I won’t even comment on that,” Madison said as she stubbed out her cigarette.
“There was a boy in college who was interested in me, but . . . Well, he was rich.”
“Is there a downside to this?” Madison asked.
“Not rich like a computer nerd but old-money rich,” Leslie said. “Kennedy rich. Truthfully, his family frightened me so much that I turned down his invitation to spend spring break at his family home.”
“What happened to him?”
“He’s a senator now. Some say he’s a president in the making.”
“My goodness. Well, Mrs. President . . .” Madison said, lighting another cigarette.
Ellie was looking at Leslie intently. “What else?” she asked.
Leslie took a long drink of her wine. “That’s it. Nothing happened. After I turned down his invitation, he lost interest in me and I never thought about it again. Except . . . In the last year, every time Alan mentions Bambi, I wonder what would have happened if I’d taken that young man up on his invitation. If nothing else, I think it would have been good for Alan to have had some competition.”
“He didn’t? Not ever?” Madison asked.
“None,” Leslie said; then her eyes lost that faraway look and she smiled again. “So how many men have you two had?”
“Thousands,” Ellie answered instantly. “Oh, yes. Thousands at least. Celebrities have access, you know.”
Laughing, Leslie turned to Madison. “And you?”
“Same with me. Thousands.”
“I see. You know, you two aren’t very good liars.”
Both Ellie and Madison laughed.
“Okay, so maybe it’s really two,” Ellie said. “My ex-husband and a guy in high school.”
“Three,” Madison said. “I was married for a few years and there were a couple of others.”
“We aren’t exactly advertisements for the sexual revolution, are we?” Leslie said.
“What about you?” Madison asked Ellie. “What about the man who got away in your life?”
“There wasn’t one.”
Both women scoffed at this. “Sure, sure. You’re just not telling,” Madison said.
“No, really, I’m still waiting for my Jessie,” Ellie said.
“And who was he?”
“No one yet. In the movie Romancing the Stone, the Kathleen Turner character writes romances and the hero of all of them is named Jessie. She says that she’s waiting for him to appear. And so am I.”
“There wasn’t one man in your past, other than the man you married, who . . .?” Madison wiggled her eyebrows at Ellie.
“Nope,” Ellie answered, and they could hear the sincerity in her voice. “All the men in my life are in my head. And I write them down and sell them. I share all my fantasies with the entire U.S. With the world if I’m lucky.”
“So why do I feel that you’re hiding something?” Leslie said, staring at Ellie in the same way that she had been stared at.