Chapter Text
Gatsby was waiting for him when he got back, though he quickly turned away as the cab approached, staring at his house.
“Your place looks like the World’s Fair... or Coney Island!” Gatsby spun around. He looked unnerved, like he wasn’t entirely sure where he was or what he was doing.
“Ah, does it? I’ve... I’ve just been glancing into some rooms... Let’s go to Coney Island, old sport, we can take my car-”
“It’s too late tonight.”
“Or we can take a plunge in the swimming pool? I haven’t made use of it all summer...”
“I must go to bed...”
Gatsby’s face fell. He seemed unsure of what to say, in a way quite unusual for him for I had found that Gatsby did not appear fond of silence. He talked and talked like he was afraid if he stopped the world would forget him, or worse find out who he really was. But then he looked so utterly pathetic, so desperately childlike that despite my misgivings I decided to put him out of his misery.
“Happy to do it.” Gatsby looked up in confusion. “I’m going to call Daisy and invite her for tea.” But to my surprise Gatsby’s face just seemed to fall further.
“Oh… I-” He paused for a moment, as if trying to find the right words. “I changed my mind.”
“What? But you-"
“I know. But I’ve changed my mind.” And then he turned back towards his illuminated castle, leaving me gaping on the doorstep of my own house.
How strange, for a man so centred in his desires to change his mind at the last minute just like that. I thought perhaps it was nerves and no doubt that was part of it but there was something else and as I looked at the bright lights of his house and it occurred to me that something must have happened to change his mind.
And then I remembered this afternoon, and meeting Tom. He must have known who he was, that’s why he disappeared so suddenly. Yes, that was it. Meeting Tom reminded him of what he was doing, breaking up a marriage and all that.
By the time I had gotten into bed I had thoroughly convinced myself that that was the reason for Gatsby’s change of heart and it wasn’t until I met with Jordan the next day that I realised that that most certainly wasn’t it.