The Stork Club is the setting for Willie Keith’s uneasy reunion with May Wynn and her agent, Marty Rubin. In a scene that turns a late arrival into a confrontation, the club brings Willie’s jealousy and pride into the open and shifts the focus from Rubin’s presence to the strained relationship between Willie and May. The meeting ends with the pair leaving for Club Tahiti to continue their dispute, so the Stork Club marks the beginning, not the resolution, of their argument.

Setting and Arrival

It is twenty past six when Willie rushes into the Stork Club. At the checkroom he catches sight of May, and the apologies he had been preparing slip from his mind. She is seated with Marty Rubin, her agent. Willie greets them coolly, establishing at once that the meeting is not a relaxed social visit: his attention is fixed on the man who has been keeping May company while Willie was absent.

Rubin congratulates Willie on becoming a midshipman and says that he envies Willie’s uniform. Willie compares his brass-buttoned blues with Rubin’s civilian suit, regarding the contrast with quiet irony. Rather than sit beside May, he takes a chair opposite her, leaving Rubin physically between them. The arrangement gives visible form to the emotional distance that will govern the conversation. Willie orders a double scotch, while Rubin orders scotch; the drinks accompany an encounter in which courtesy is present but ease is not.

Rubin’s Presence and Willie’s Jealousy

Rubin soon excuses himself, describing his presence as a contribution to the war effort. May tells Willie that the gesture was kind and that she had not known Rubin had done it. Willie concedes its kindness but calls it vulgar and says he dislikes having favors pressed upon him. His objection is therefore not simply that Rubin is present: he resents the favor and the position it puts him in, as though another man has occupied a place Willie believes should be his.

May answers sharply. She identifies Rubin as her best friend in the world and includes Willie in the comparison, refusing to accept that Willie can dismiss the man without also challenging her judgment. Willie replies that he understands the closeness between them. The exchange makes the club’s social triangle explicit: Rubin’s departure does not remove him from the dispute, because Willie and May are now arguing about what his friendship means and what Willie’s reaction says about their own relationship.

The Argument Turns Personal

Willie says he has apologized for being late, but May points out that being left alone for an hour could have made her appear available to be approached. The exchange gives the lateness a consequence beyond inconvenience: May has had to manage the social situation while waiting, and Willie’s apology does not erase that experience. He tries to reset the encounter, saying that he is glad Rubin was with her, that he is sorry he had to leave her, and that they are together now. He takes her hand; she slips it free.

May challenges him over what she presents as his dislike of Jews and Italians, linking that suspicion to his hostility toward Rubin. Willie asks whether she wants to fight. She answers that the issue is not Rubin but the two of them. Her clenched fists make the change in subject unmistakable: the agent has become the point of entry into a more intimate disagreement. Willie sees her in a gray dress, with dark red hair falling to her shoulders, and his heart aches; nevertheless, he tries to defer the confrontation by asking whether she would rather eat first. May refuses. Willie says he could not eat either and proposes that they go to Club Tahiti for a drink and then fight.

Narrative Role

The Stork Club scene changes the apparent problem from Willie’s discomfort with Rubin to the unresolved tension between Willie and May. The physical details of the meeting—the chair opposite May, Rubin placed between them, and May pulling her hand away—make their distance legible before either of them names it. Rubin’s exit clears the immediate social arrangement but does not settle Willie’s resentment or May’s dissatisfaction. Instead, the conversation narrows toward the couple’s own conflict, and their move to Club Tahiti carries that dispute beyond the Stork Club without supplying a resolution here.