Dex fell silent. All the while, Gena had not budged or attempted protest. Within the utter calm of her security, she lay still. She did not seem to care about the talk. Nor did she seem concerned about whether Dex stayed or went away.
To get away from Ryan, Dex dropped forward onto her belly. She stretched out full-length beside Gena with her nose and mouth touching the side of Gena's breast. The full, creamy breast rose and fell gently against her lips.
"Oh, you look great," Ryan said bitterly. "Just great. Like a teen-ager after her first make-out. And what am I supposed to do? Go home alone in the middle of the night? Maybe you want me to sleep with Madge for company. Or Robard."
"Ryan, please," Dex cut into the rampage.
Ryan pulled her hair back and shut her eyes hard for a moment. Then she swung around and went for the rest of her clothing. "Well, I suppose there's always Morton," she said, her voice just above a whisper.
An icy twinge of revulsion shivered through Dex but she did not move away from Gena's side. "You don't have to be foolish, you know."
"And why not? You don't seem to be doing any better."
Dex held silence. What difference could it make it Ryan passed the time of day with Mort? Why kid herself? Ryan's list of conquests was enormous. What difference could one more make? And yet she could not swallow the idea. All the other women Ryan had slept with had been nameless, faceless and harmless. But Morton was a viper. If Ryan slept with her, something irrevocable would happen.
Dex moved her mouth up along the cool, smooth curve of Gena's breast and let her lips come to rest on the peak of one nipple. How preposterous it was to care about protecting Ryan. Ryan was strong enough and experienced enough to take care of herself.
It was Gena who needed the guidance now. Gena for whom she could do the most good.
"Well, go, then," Dex said to Ryan.
The sound of dismissal was absolute. Its aftermath was like the soft, slithering drop of a stage curtain. The abrupt ending of an involvement, as strange and unexpected as the cutting off of a young life.
Ryan made no further protest. Dex hung onto Gena and buried her face as deeply as she could get into the girl's cleavage while Ryan finished dressing. Dex stayed quite still until she heard the click of the front door.
For a few seconds it did not seem possible to Dex that the end had come so easily. She whipped herself up from the bed and strode to the door, turning the lock from the inside in case Ryan should change her mind and try to return.
When she came back to the bedroom, Gena lay curled up on her side, hugging the pillow in close to her face.
"I guess I'll stay here for the night," Dex said.
"Whatever you want." Gena's voice was far away.
But Dex felt a flash of new energy. The thought of going to sleep seemed impossibly foreign to her bursting good mood. The incredible state of things kept reverberating. The inner core of her being felt a need to celebrate its liberation.
"Come on," Dex said, leaning over to pat Gena's ankle. "You don't want to go to sleep yet. It's early."
"I'm not sleeping."
"So sit up. Put your clothes on."
Gena turned her face slightly.
"I was just thinking about Morton," she said.
Dex felt her mouth snap shut. The sound of Morton on Gena's lips was like the unfurling of a dark shadow. It had no business being in the room with them. Not now. Not tonight.
"What could you possibly have to think about her?" Dex said, straightening up and going to the mirror that hung on the outside of a closet door.
"Morton knows everybody's secrets," Gena mused. "And I'll bet that Ryan is going to tell her about us, too."
Dex examined down the length of her body. Her breasts were full and firm. The nipples were nibs of pointed flesh. Her waist was willowy and firm. Her hips round and welcoming. She was pleased with her body's ability to feel and to respond to the spontaneity of youth.
"So what of it?" replied Dex.
"I don't want Morton to know," Gena said flatly.
Dex tried to see Gena's reflection in the mirror. She drew the door out, turning the mirror at an angle. There was just enough room between the foot of the bed and the closet door to catch a glimpse of the lower half of Gena's body. The sprout of curly blonde hairs at her crotch warmed Dex at the base of her spine. That young, wild body, untamed by love affairs and experience, was hers. Something leaped excitedly in her at the thought of that. But there was more to Gena right now than just a body relaxing after sex. Her mind was obviously ranging far and wide. If only Dex could get into that mind, know it as well as she had succeeded in making Gena's body know her own. It was not enough to know that that ripe mouth had sucked and drunk up her cunt. Because the minute sex was over she had the feeling that Gena had left her, even though her body remained.
Now as she looked at her in the mirror's reflection, she saw that the girl's toes were curling and uncurling like the tip end of a cat's tail when it was trapped and nervous.
"Morton can't get in our way," Dex said, trying to maintain her good mood. "So let's not talk about her." Dex swallowed her resentment. "We're supposed to be having our own private fiesta tonight."
Dex brushed her hair back from her temples. She knew that she was forcing the issue with Gena. It wasn't Gena who cared to be romantic, who wanted to engrave the night upon her memory. Gena preferred to lie in bed alone and work over her own private thoughts. And Dex could feel the letdown flowing through her. She had been trying to predict Gena as if she were like Ryan in the early days. It wasn't possible. The girl remained the gnawing enigma she had been to Dex before. Despite what she had considered to be their sexual breakthrough together, now nothing concrete seemed to be accomplished.
As her mind played morosely with this new realization, something clicked in her mind. It was something Ryan had said while they were all on the bed. It had been deliberately vague. Perhaps she should just drop it, thought Dex. But what she had half-understood when being overwhelmed by her need for orgasm, to feel the young tongue licking her to satisfaction, now came back to haunt.
A shiver random Dex's spine. Ryan and Gena had made love to each other after all. Gena had taken the initiative. She had taken Ryan's pussy in her mouth; she had done all the same things to bring her to orgasm as she had done for Dex.
Dex shook her head, denying her thoughts.
"Okay, never mind," Dex said. "We'll stay home and watch the Late Show or something. Do you keep any beer in the fridge?"
Even as she spoke, Dex felt that her heart wasn't in it. There was something too disappointing about Gena's reaction. She seemed completely passive, emotionless. And now her doubts about Gena's sexual breakthrough in giving her pleasure with her mouth returned in full force.
Dex felt herself going for her clothes. She had to get away from Gena's basic isolation. No matter how far she reached out to Gena, Dex realized that she could never really touch the girl where it would count.
The hollowness of this knowledge made Dex ache throughout her insides. She had allowed herself to fall in love like a school child. She had given up Ryan to possess someone she could neither have nor hold. What kind of possession was this? What kind of life was she going to lead? The tantalizing promise of Gena would dangle out there just beyond her grasp.
Dex was back where she had started from.
"Never mind," Dex said roughly. "You go to sleep. I'm going out to walk all this off. I'll see you tomorrow sometime."
Gena grunted consent. She seemed so neutral. So bland. Suddenly, it occurred to Dex that she did not know the first thing about Gena. What the girl did for a living. If she worked at all. Maybe someone else was paying for the apartment. It certainly wasn't much of a place. Couldn't require a lavish allowance.