In Over Her Head by Elsie Russell - Parnasse.com

"No booze."
"No! Em, perhaps a dessert, something light, something
chocolate! We take a walk and talk and then you cook me dinner and
we can celebrate!"
They tiptoed back out through the open space, although who
could've heard them over the terrible sounds coming from behind the
glass partitions of the bathing area?
"My birthday, did you go to Giselle in your new bathing suit?"
he asked as they crossed Mercer.
"Yeah, right."
He said nothing, his hand toying with her hair. Traffic on
Grand was backed up, horns blasting, until a polyethylene turban
emerged from the tangle of cars. The guy snickered to himself as he
shuffled to the sidewalk, his trousers belted with a length of grimy rope.
"Not a performance artist," Penny decided aloud, and dumped
the old shirt into the public trash can on the corner of Broadway.
"Maybe a saint?" Sandro ventured, watching the tiny figure
approach his corner.
Two chocolate opera slices sat waiting for them on the
otherwise empty display shelves of the diminutive bakery. On the
multi-tiered cake carousel was a fruit pie and above it a fat white cake
decorated with coconut flakes. He pointed, grinning.
"The cake, it was a mess."
"Did it taste okay?"
"I did not eat it." He shrugged.
The girl at the cash register looked at him with abject pity. He
gave Penny a twenty and ducked outside.
When she came out he was sitting on the bench. In the street
light she could see how gaunt his face was. Around them the dinner
crowd filed into the brasserie that adjoined the bakery.
"You want to go there instead, Sandro?"
"Non, chez toi, so I can take off your clothes off and feast in
more ways than one."
Not likely, by the looks of him now.
They started down Crosby, Penny swinging the little bag,
Sandro walking beside her jiggling his change.
"You remember Pete?"
"Sure, sound of one hand clapping."
"He finished the book."
"About the Factory?"
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