Anita de Monte Laughs Last

Providence, Spring 1998

Raquel is in Professor Temple’s office. He is disheveled and his office is a mess. He hands her a folder of rare material on Jack Martin, and Raquel realizes that she learned about Martin from Professor Temple, but she has no idea what drew him to Jack’s work. She asks and is amazed by the beauty of his response. Temple discovered Jack at a time of widespread social and political upheaval in the United States, and believed that Jack’s art represented an authentic alternative to abstract impressionism that he had found to be more relevant, timely, and compelling. After sharing this with Raquel, he asks her out for coffee. Flustered, she tells him that she is going to the campus dance with Nick and has to leave. She can tell from his response that he was asking her out on a date, and she feels slightly embarrassed for the older, soon-to-be-divorced man who is hitting on one of his students.

Nick buys her a new dress for the occasion, a beautiful designer piece that she could never have afforded on her own. Although she loves the dress, she realizes that Nick bought it because she would not fit in wearing the silver dress she had already picked out.