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The Smell of Mortality<br />
Adam Berlin<br />
Let's get this straight. I look young.<br />
I'm at the fortieth birthday party of my friend Steve Borwick. There's<br />
a display of shrimp, sushi rolls and cheap caviar set up on a patio table and<br />
I've already been to the bar. My second gin and tonic is halfway done. The<br />
pool behind me is empty except for two women floating on rafts, lined eyes<br />
hidden by tinted sunglasses. One of them is Steve's ex-wife. The other also<br />
wears a bikini. I haven't seen Steve's wife since their wedding ten years ago.<br />
I've seen Steve an average of once a year since then. I place six shrimp on<br />
a plastic plate, put a spoonful of red sauce next to the shrimp, walk along<br />
the pool to where Jenny sits under a striped umbrella. She's twenty-nine<br />
and smart and blonde and it was her car service that drove us here. As the<br />
right-hand woman to a major corporate player, she enjoys the perks of Wall<br />
Street profits. As her boyfriend of two years, some of the residuals trickle<br />
down to me. Jenny's halfway through her first gin and tonic. She smiles<br />
when I place the shrimp in front of her, dips one, bites, places the tail on the<br />
side of the plate.<br />
"So let's dish," she says.<br />
"That should be easy. Who should we start with?"<br />
Jenny looks around. She's clearly the best-looking woman here, but the<br />
competition at this party isn't too stiff. The guests are not quite city people<br />
and I've found that the farther from Manhattan the suburb, the less beautiful<br />
the people. Steve Borwick grew up in the city, but his childhood was<br />
sufficiently rough to create dreams of Westchester houses. To his credit, he's<br />
fulfilled his dream.<br />
"What about the two bathing beauties?" Jenny says. "They look kind<br />
of rough."<br />
"One of them is Steve's ex. She's the one on the left. The other one I'm<br />
not sure about. I think she may be one of the secretaries he's screwing."<br />
"Did you go to his wedding?"<br />
"I was there. I knew it wouldn't last."<br />
"You always say that."<br />
"Well, I'm right fifty percent of the time."<br />
"Great," Jenny says and bites into another shrimp. "You're a real ge-<br />
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