This was roughly twenty years ago. In some ways Larry's asking Feldman for the loan was a good sign, or so Feldman thought. Larry would never ask a favour of this magnitude of him if he had slept with his wife, or so he supposed. But then Feldman thought, if Larry had slept with Elaine, why not ask for a loan of twenty grand? In for a penny, in for a pounding was one of Feldman's favourite sayings. In any case, Larry paid back the twenty thousand when he said he would. 

Feldman could not quite shake free of the awfulness of Larry's betrayal, if betrayal it in fact was. Innumerable times he thought of calling Elaine, who was now living in Los Angeles, married to a man named Levinson working for the William Morris talent agency, and asking her if she had in fact slept with Larry, or instead just said so in the heat of the moment to add to his feeling of defeat in their marriage. He tried to word the way he would bring up the matter, but every rough draft he composed in his mind sounded utterly hopeless. "Oh, hi, Elaine, Allan here. I have been meaning for years to ask you if you were really serious when you told me that you had slept with Larry Goodman." Or: "Oh, Elaine, quick question: what you said about having sex with Larry Goodman when we were married: a joke, right?" Or: "Not that it matters after all this time, Elaine, but I was wondering, did you mean it when you said, just before we broke up, you screwed my old friend Larry Goodman?" 

Twenty-eight years had passed since Elaine ended their marriage. Feldman would probably not have ended it himself, being conservative — or was it long-suffering? — by nature. He has remarried twice since. The first time, on the rebound, was a sad mistake, and lasted four miserable years. His third — and final — wife and Feldman married when they were both in their late forties, and their marriage has been satisfactory in every way. Feldman has had no other children. His daughters with Elaine survived the divorce, and both seem to have landed on their feet. Diane is a paediatrician, married to a heart surgeon, and living in Oregon, outside Portland; Miriam's husband heads a hedge fund, and   they and their three kids live in Manhattan and appear to be flourishing. Elaine died of lung cancer three years ago. Feldman saw no need to trek out to Los Angeles to attend the           funeral.

Larry never remarried. So far as Feldman could tell, since his first marriage he never had a real or lasting relationship with a woman, though up through his early sixties he was still in the woman hunt. Then his health began to break down. He had an early hip replacement, and not long after a triple bypass. After his surgery, instead of losing weight as he was supposed to have done, he put on forty or so pounds.