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But is co? the maraschino cherry inyou’re taught in kindergarten, after all How to share each other’s toys I groaned softly, rubbing my pal is, Iris, I’ve never liked the idea of compromise In films and in stories, people who love each other--really love each other--ive kidneys, they move across the world, they die Or become the undead, because you know I like that sort of book Basically, the heroine’s lover calls, and she answers Which is stupid You knohy?"
Iris shook her head
"Because he’s always fucking calling"
Iris nodded, pushing nored it and took another drink of olden-brown, new best friend
"So I’ve never liked that idea, Iris You knohy?" Iris again shook her head "Because I think that sometimes, when you really love somebody, you don’t ask them for the kind of comproives up everything they have, everything they are, just so they can be with the other person And you certainly don’t expect that shit You don’t expect someone to prove their love To love you that little bit ht ofwas thirsty work, and I needed to wet the old whistle Then I could wax poetic Or babble like a drunken lunatic, the cherry ht ahead and digested it into sub ive him Not now, and maybe not ever I don’t knohether it’s because I don’t love hi like that from me Or because he doesn’t know ive him my whole life And that’s what he wanted fro, and I wanted him to love me for what I had already offered" I paused, suddenly worried And because I had to hiccough
"Iris, am I a bad person?"
"No, honey, you’re not a bad person," rab my hand
I blinked for two reasons when she touched me The first was that I realized, suddenly, that I was completely shitfaced The second, however, was because I also realized that despite the fact that I was schlitzed, and still a basket case fro that had happened over the last week, one up, totally reflexively, the minute Iris reached for me
"I think I learned a lot on vacation," I whispered atconspiratorially across the table toward her
"I think you did too, honey," Iris said, laughing
"And I figured out that thing with the two fingers and the Twizzlers you toldal there with ht just have been the booze I knew I still had to deal with Ryu like an adult, but we-- around in my stomach--were secretly thrilled that I’d walked out like that I felt… sassy Like I should be in a rock video
Then it waswhen Iris told one down in the bookstore while I ay I’d had a long talk with Grizzie and Tracy as soon as I got back to Rockabill They had been a Basically, Grizzie had said she didn’t have a leg to stand on, since she was constantly disappearing herself And Tracy said that she understood life souilty, however, and I had prole-handedly, and even when I wasn’t working that day--for the next month so they could sleep in
But they’d also been sketchy about what had happened while I ay I think they didn’t want to uilty So Iris spilled the beans
Apparently, Miss Carol had taken Linda on as her cause célèbre Don’t get nome But she firmly believed in consensual lechery So she’d refused to let Linda purchase any of her pulp-fiction rape fantasies Instead, Miss Carol had started Linda on an initial course of feminist antibiotics: Wollstonecraft, Millett, and Greer When Linda hadn’t responded to treatressive If Linda wanted violence, Miss Carol would give her pain tempered with philosophy So poor Linda left Read It and Weep buried under a stack of Henry Miller, D H Lawrence, and the Marquis de Sade She’d returned, two days later, clutching a copy of Justine and crying her eyes out Before Miss Carol could slip Linda Philosophy in the Bedroom, Amy had intervened She’d sent Linda ho Miss Carol about ta Rob Roy out ofI recovered fast when she said, "Hold on," and held the phone out toward er off ?"
I took a deep breath, then a sip of my water, then shook my head
"No, I’ll talk to him"
She passed o chat with Marcus at the bar
"Jane?"
"I’m here"
"You made it home okay"
"Yes, I’m fine"
There was an aard silence
"I tried your cell--"
"I have it on silent," I cut in
Crickets chirped
"Why did you leave like that?"