2

In a taxi en route to the airport from downtown, Cindy Bakersfeld leaned back against the rear seat and closed her eyes. She was neither aware, nor cared, that outside it was still snowing, nor that the taxi was moving slowly in heavy traffic. She was in no hurry. A wave of physical pleasure and contentment (Was the right word euphoria? Cindy wondered) swept over her was Derek Eden.
Derek Eden, who had been at the Archidona Relief Fund cocktail party (Cindy still didn't know which Archidona); who had brought her a triple-strength Bourbon, which she hadn't drunk, then had propositioned her in the most unimaginative way. Derek Eden, until today only a slightly known Sun-Times reporter with a second-grade by-line; Derek Eden with the dissolute face, the casual air, the nondescript impressed clothes; Derek Eden and his beat-up filthy-inside-andout Chevrolet; Derek Eden, who had caught Cindy in a barriers-down moment, when she needed a man, any man, and she hadn't hoped for much; Derek Eden who had proved to be the finest and most exciting lover she had ever known.

Never, never before had Cindy experienced anyone like him. Oh, God!, she thought; if ever there was sensual, physical perfection, she attained it tonight. More to the point; now that she had known Derek Eden ... dear Derek ... she wanted him again--often. Fortunately, it was unmistakable that he now felt the same way about her.
Still leaning back in the rear of the taxi, she relived mentally the past two hours.
They had driven, in the awful old Chevrolet, from the Lake Michigan Inn to a smallish hotel near the Merchandise Mart. A doorman accepted the car disdainfully -Derek Eden didn't seem to notice-and inside, in the lobby, the night manager was waiting. Cindy gathered that one of the phone calls which her escort had made was to hcre. There was no formality of checking in, and the night manager showed them directly to a room on the eleventh floor. After leaving the key, and with a quick "goodnight," he left.
The room was so-so; old fashioned, spartan, and with cigarette bums on the furniture, but clean. It had a double bed. Beside the bed, on a table, was an