12

Julian is not as tall as you might imagine. He is influential when it comes to arranging things. We should all get together, he says, and we all end up in some den dancing to his music selection. You look wonderful tonight, I say, in that shirt. Julian is consistently dodging praise, he never goes after a compliment. He lets them follow him around. I admire his intuition, the way things come together around him. He is fond of proclaiming that other people are lonesome cowboys. He is insistent that we don't worry about him. I have my museum, he says, stroking his cufflinks, of obsessions to tend to. There are few people who have the ability to finish your sentence without you knowing what you were about to say. You are so good, I said, as he opened another bottle of wine without breaking the cork. At articulating things succinctly, he said. He was smiling as he chewed where the wine has stained red.