raspberry “—which everybody knows we don’t have any of in this job, to say nothing of visiting your sister and having dinner three times a week with one of your gazillion aunts. But you don’t have any fantasies, you claim, about taking him to bed in his loverly newly refurbished bedroom?” She snorted again and took another drink. “What d’ya think, I’ve spent the past ten years masquerading as a vestal virgin?”
Sera laughed. The idea of rowdy, outspoken Maisie as a vestal virgin stretched her imagination to its limit. She was glad the little pub where they were having dinner wasn’t full of people, so they could talk in relative privacy. Not that Maisie cared; she was prone to saying whatever was on her mind at the very moment it came to her, in a voice that carried.
“I haven’t done anything about his loft yet except check some paint samples. And I didn’t exactly say I don’t have fantasies about him.” She felt her skin grow hot and wouldn’t look at her friend.
She’d had more dreams, waking and sleeping, about Ben Halsey in the past week than she cared to admit. "Any female between eighteen and eighty would. I said that I wasn’t sure I wanted to get involved with him.”
“Going to bed is pretty involved, honey.” Maisie could and did switch from teasing to dead serious in a heartbeat. “Unless you’re one of those people whose heart and lower extremities aren’t on the same circuit, having sex is playing with matches. Sex for the sake of sex, that’s a testosterone game guys pretend to play. It’s not about affection or love. It’s about power. And it backfires on them as often as not.”
She narrowed her eyes at Sera. “I was a teenage kid back in the free love hippie days in the Haight in San Francisco, don’t forget. I gave the polygamous approach a damned fair try.” She shook her auburn head, and feathery strands of hair floated and settled again around her pretty, heart shaped face. “Didn’t work for me. I fell in love with the director who was making out with me and the lead actress and the understudy, and it broke my heart. This was before the big AIDS crisis, of course. I was liberated. I did the same as he did, went to bed with whoever was available. It was what you did at that time. God, it’s a wonder we didn’t all die of venereal disease, never mind a broken heart.”
She leaned over the table, her lavish breasts spilling out of the low neck of her flowing dress. She spoke slowly and clearly. “It was the loneliest I’ve ever been in my fife. And I learned a hard lesson about myself. I’m monogamous by nature. Granted, it’s been serial monogamy, three marriages and a couple affairs along the way, but never more than one relationship at a time, and that one with somebody I cared for deeply. While it lasted. Unfortunately things change. I change.” She frowned. “Now I’ve lost my place. Where were we before I got on the subject of my misspent youth?” She dipped her spoon into her bowl of maple walnut ice cream and slowly licked it, her plump face screwed into a grimace of ecstasy as she followed the ice cream with a sip of beer. “Man, this is living.”
“How can you eat ice cream and chase it down with beer?” Sera was drinking bottled water. Beer gave her a hangover, and ice cream a headache. “The chocolate cake’s good, though. For a pub, this place has great food.” She was making an effort to get Maisie off the subject of Ben.
It didn’t work.
“Just don’t get your heart broken, okay, luv? The rumor mill has it that your hunk of a doctor is nothing if not fickle when it comes to women. He deals in multiples, one after the other after the other. Serial monogamy, like me, but way out of my league when it comes to sheer quantity.”
Now why, Sera wondered, did she instantly feel alarmed and defensive? She hid her reaction and kept her voice light. “He pretty much told me that. He said he’d been married, and that he wasn’t
Sera laughed. The idea of rowdy, outspoken Maisie as a vestal virgin stretched her imagination to its limit. She was glad the little pub where they were having dinner wasn’t full of people, so they could talk in relative privacy. Not that Maisie cared; she was prone to saying whatever was on her mind at the very moment it came to her, in a voice that carried.
“I haven’t done anything about his loft yet except check some paint samples. And I didn’t exactly say I don’t have fantasies about him.” She felt her skin grow hot and wouldn’t look at her friend.
She’d had more dreams, waking and sleeping, about Ben Halsey in the past week than she cared to admit. "Any female between eighteen and eighty would. I said that I wasn’t sure I wanted to get involved with him.”
“Going to bed is pretty involved, honey.” Maisie could and did switch from teasing to dead serious in a heartbeat. “Unless you’re one of those people whose heart and lower extremities aren’t on the same circuit, having sex is playing with matches. Sex for the sake of sex, that’s a testosterone game guys pretend to play. It’s not about affection or love. It’s about power. And it backfires on them as often as not.”
She narrowed her eyes at Sera. “I was a teenage kid back in the free love hippie days in the Haight in San Francisco, don’t forget. I gave the polygamous approach a damned fair try.” She shook her auburn head, and feathery strands of hair floated and settled again around her pretty, heart shaped face. “Didn’t work for me. I fell in love with the director who was making out with me and the lead actress and the understudy, and it broke my heart. This was before the big AIDS crisis, of course. I was liberated. I did the same as he did, went to bed with whoever was available. It was what you did at that time. God, it’s a wonder we didn’t all die of venereal disease, never mind a broken heart.”
She leaned over the table, her lavish breasts spilling out of the low neck of her flowing dress. She spoke slowly and clearly. “It was the loneliest I’ve ever been in my fife. And I learned a hard lesson about myself. I’m monogamous by nature. Granted, it’s been serial monogamy, three marriages and a couple affairs along the way, but never more than one relationship at a time, and that one with somebody I cared for deeply. While it lasted. Unfortunately things change. I change.” She frowned. “Now I’ve lost my place. Where were we before I got on the subject of my misspent youth?” She dipped her spoon into her bowl of maple walnut ice cream and slowly licked it, her plump face screwed into a grimace of ecstasy as she followed the ice cream with a sip of beer. “Man, this is living.”
“How can you eat ice cream and chase it down with beer?” Sera was drinking bottled water. Beer gave her a hangover, and ice cream a headache. “The chocolate cake’s good, though. For a pub, this place has great food.” She was making an effort to get Maisie off the subject of Ben.
It didn’t work.
“Just don’t get your heart broken, okay, luv? The rumor mill has it that your hunk of a doctor is nothing if not fickle when it comes to women. He deals in multiples, one after the other after the other. Serial monogamy, like me, but way out of my league when it comes to sheer quantity.”
Now why, Sera wondered, did she instantly feel alarmed and defensive? She hid her reaction and kept her voice light. “He pretty much told me that. He said he’d been married, and that he wasn’t
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