ANOTHER MR. BIG (AT ELAINE'S)

Carrie didn't run into Mr. Big again for several days. In the meantime, something was definitely happening. She bumped into a writer friend she hadn't seen for two months, and

he said, "What's going on with you? You look completely different." "I do?"

"You look like Heather Locklear. Did you get your teeth fixed?"

Then she was at Elaine's, and a big writer, a big one, someone she'd never met, gave her the finger and then sat down next to her and said, "You're not as tough as you think you are."

"Excuse me?"

"You walk around like you're so fucking great in bed."

She wanted to say, "I do?" — but instead she laughed and said, "Well, maybe I am."

He lit her cigarette. "If I wanted to have an affair with you, it would have to last a long time. I wouldn't want a one-night stand."

"Well, baby," she said, "you've got the wrong girl."

Then she went to a party after one of those Peggy Siegal movie openings and ran into a big movie producer, another big one, and he gave her a ride in his car to Bowery Bar. But Mr. Big was there.

Mr. Big slid into the banquette next to her. Their sides were touching.

Mr. Big said, "So. What have you been doing lately?"

"Besides going out every night?"

"Yeah—what do you do for work?"

"This is my work," she said. "I'm researching a story for a friend of mine about women who have sex like men. You know, they have sex and afterwards they feel nothing."

Mr. Big eyed her. "But you're not like that," he said.

"Aren't you?" she asked.

"Not a drop. Not even half a drop," he said.

Carrie looked at Mr. Big. "What's wrong with you?"

"Oh, I get it," said Mr. Big. "You've never been in love."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"And you have?"

" Abso-fucking-lutely."

They went back to his apartment. Mr. Big opened a bottle of Crystal champagne. Carrie was laughing and carrying on and then she said, "I have to go."

"It's four a.m.," he said. He stood up. "I'm not going to let you go home now."

He gave her a T-shirt and boxer shorts. He went into the bathroom while she changed. She got into the bed and lay back against the down pillows. She closed her eyes. His bed was so comfortable. It was the most comfortable bed she'd ever been in in her life.

When he came back into the bedroom, she was sound asleep.