ACDC-181 She Loves He Loves He

Excerpt

“Nice apartment,” Jack says, looking around.

“Well, good of you to say so,” Don replies, “but I know it doesn’t begin to compare with yours.”

“No, but on the other hand, you don’t have a job with all kinds of crazy hours, which isn’t a job at all, but an endless series of jobs, each one new and different and containing within itself the possibility of failure.”

“Hey, you sell, that’s what it is.”

“Your sympathy is overwhelming.”

“So’s your paycheck.

“And if you weren’t good at what you do and you weren’t getting the results, you wouldn’t do it, right?

“I mean, face it; each deal is just a little bit sexual, isn’t it?”

And Jack grins.

“Yeah. Sometimes more than just a little.”

“Well there you go, then.

“So what’s with the sympathy ploy?”

“That what it was?”

“I’d say so.”

“Sorry.”

“‘Sokay. Just don’t let it happen again, all right?” They laugh.

But Don knows better.

He knows that he was supposed to talk about how lousy his job was.

So that they could end up feeling sorry for each other.

So that they could then make what would pass for very sincere love.

And Don wonders, as they undress, if this is the same shit he tries to pull on Alice.

Not his fault, really, Don supposes. That’s also part of being a salesman.

Because the only product a salesman actually sells is himself.