“Shirl, stop it—you’ll give me heart failure.”
“No, I mean it. I bought a steak for Mike, the other morning of … that day. It’s still in the freezer.”
“I can’t remember the last time I had beef—in fact it has been a long time since I have seen a piece of soylent.” He stood and took both of her hands. “You’re taking very good care of me, you know?”
“I like to,” she said, and gave him another of those quick kisses. His hands were on the roundness of her hips when she turned and walked away.
She’s a funny girl, he thought to himself, and touched his tongue to the trace of lipstick on his lips.
Shirl wanted to eat in the living room at the big table, but there was a table built into the kitchen, under the window and Andy could see no reason why they couldn’t sit right there. It was a steak all right, a monster piece of meat as big as his hand, and he felt the saliva flow in his mouth when she slid it onto his plate.
“Fifty-fifty,” he said, slicing it in half and putting one piece on the other plate.
“I usually just fry some oatmeal in the juices….”
“We’ll have that for dessert. This is the start of a new era, equal rights for men and women.” She smiled at him and slid into her chair without another word. Damn, he thought, for another look like that I’d give her the whole thing.
There was seacress with it, weedcrackers to sop up the gravy and another bottle of cold beer from which she allowed him to pour her a small glass. The meat was indescribably good and he cut it into very small pieces, savoring each one slowly. He could not remember having eaten as well in his entire life. When he had finished he sat back and sighed with contentment. It was good, yet it was almost too good, and he knew it wouldn’t last: he felt a little gnaw of irritation as the words dead man’s shoes flicked through his mind.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I was more than a little drunk last night.” It sounded crude and he was sorry the instant he had said it.
“I didn’t mind at all. I thought you were very sweet.”
“Sweet!” He laughed at himself. “I’ve been called a lot of things, but never that before. I thought you were angry at me ever since I came back.”
“I’ve been busy, that’s all, the place was a mess and you were hungry. I think I know what you need.”
She moved swiftly around the table and was on his lap, the whole womanly warm length of her and her arms were around his neck. It was a kiss, the kind he remembered, and he discovered that her halter was closed on the front by two buttons which he opened and pressed his face against the smooth fragrance of her skin.
“Let’s go inside,” she said huskily.
She lay next to him afterward, relaxed and without shame, while his fingers traced the outline of her splendid body. The occasional sounds that pierced the sealed window and closed curtains only emphasized the twilight solitude of the bedroom. When he kissed the corner of her mouth she smiled dreamily, her eyes half closed.
“Shirl …” he said, but could not continue. He had no practice in voicing his emotions. The words were there, but he could not say them aloud. Yet the way his hands moved on her skin conveyed his meaning more clearly than words could; her body trembled in response and she moved closer to him. There was a hoarseness in her voice, even though she whispered.
“You’re really good in bed, different—do you know that? You make me feel things that I have never felt before.” His muscles tightened suddenly and she turned to him. “Are you angry at that? Should I make believe that you are the only man I ever slept with?”
“No, of course not. It’s none of my business and doesn’t affect me.” The tautness of his body put the lie to his words.
Shirl rolled on her back and looked at the motes of dust glinting in the beam of light that came through the crack between the curtains. “I’m not trying to excuse anything, Andy, just to tell you. I grew up in one of those real strict families, I never went out or did anything and my father watched me all the time. I don’t think I minded very much, there was just nothing to do, that’s all. Dad liked me, he probably thought he was doing what was right for me. He was retired, they made him retire when he was fifty-five, and he had his pension and the money from the house, so he just sat around and drank. Then, when I was twenty, I entered this beauty contest and won first prize. I remember I gave my prize money to my father to take care of and that’s the last time I saw him. There was one of the judges, he had asked me for a date that night, so I went out with him, then I went to live with him.”