The answer wasn’t long in coming. But before it did, Annie perched on the couch beside Penny and picked up the conversation right where it had been left when she went in to change. “Well,” she asked Penny, “have you decided what I ought to do about Brian?”
“That depends,” Penny told her. “The best thing would be to forget him, of course, but I gather you’ve decided you’re in love with him and you can’t do that.”
“That’s right.”
“And you want to help him?”
“Yes. If I can.”
“Then you have to understand his problem. Male homosexuality is almost always due to psychological causes. To cope with it requires a Freudian orientation. You have to understand that to Brian you probably represent a mother figure. Since you’re female, he probably wouldn’t bother with you at all if that wasn’t true. But his mother was probably extremely authoritative, which could be why he is the way he is. This means that you should try to be the exact opposite. You should never be aggressive with him. You particularly shouldn’t be sexually aggressive.”
“We wouldn’t even have what little love life we have if I followed that advice,” Annie objected.
“Perhaps not. But it’s the only way I can see of coping with it. Have you been able to come up with anything better?”
“Why, yes, I have,” Annie said softly. “I have indeed.” Her arm circled Penny’s shoulder and stroked her cheek. “I think I’ve come up with something better.” She kissed Penny’s neck and began unbuttoning the blonde girl’s blouse.
“What are you doing?” Penny asked, taken by surprise. Annie ignored the question. “Yes, I’ve decided how to handle my problem,” she murmured. She fell to her knees and pushed Penny’s skirt up as high as it would go. Her red hair tumbled over the silken knees as she lowered her face.
“What the—-?” Penny was really alarmed now.
Just before she buried her lips, Annie crooned an explanation: “If you can’t join him,” she sighed, “lick ’em!”
CHAPTER FOUR
SHARP, laquered fingernails pulled the silken panties down Penny’s flushed thighs. Pursed lips found their mark so quickly that she couldn’t control the instantaneous reaction of her body. Her hips arched upward as a wave of exquisite sensation swept over her. Almost, she let herself be carried along by it.
Almost, but not quite. Even in the midst of the liquid feeling, the very proximity of the hungry mouth recalled to Penny her condition. Passion was flooded away by guilt. The thrill was dissipated by her conscience whispering dire warnings of the possible effects of pre-natal behavior of this kind.
Gently but firmly, Penny pushed Annie away. “No,” she told her. “Stop. I mean it. Stop.”
“What’s the matter?” Annie was hurt. “Don’t you like me?”
“I like you very much, but—”
“But?”
Penny didn’t reply.
“You think this is perverted or something? Is that it?”
“No. Really. It isn’t that. I’m not just being moralistic. There are personal reasons why—why I’d rather not.”
“I don’t believe you. What personal reasons?”
“I—I can’t tell you.”
“Then it is me!” Two large tears began to roll down Annie’s cheeks.
“No. Honestly. Please don’t cry. Believe me, there’s no reason to feel rejected.”
“Why not?” Annie was sobbing now. “I am rejected, aren’t I? First Brian, and now you. No matter which way I turn, I’m rejected.”
“Believe me, that’s not it.”
“No? Then you’re just being spiteful, is that it? Oh, I know your type! Always so Simon-pure!”
“Annie, please don’t be angry. Look—” Penny decided to take a chance. “I’ll explain if you’ll promise to respect my confidence. You have to swear that you’ll never tell a living soul what I’m going to tell you. At least not for the next few months.”
“All right.” Annie was curious. “You have my word. What is it?”
Penny took a deep breath. “I’m pregnant,” she told her.
“You’re kidding!”
“Yes. If you want to call it that.”
“You’re really pregnant?”
“Yes. I just found out for sure today. Anyway—I don’t know if you can understand this—but it’s sort of killed my desire for sex. Any kind of sex. Maybe it’s foolish, but I have this feeling that I should keep my body pure until after the baby’s born.”
“That’s sort of locking the barn after the horse is gone, isn’t it?” Annie observed. “I, mean, now you’re safe no matter what you do.”
“Perhaps. And the truth is I used to be terribly eager for any kind of sexual experience, and for one reason or another it always evaded me. And now that I’m reluctant, there seem to be more and more opportunities. Still, it’s the way I feel. I want to keep my body unsullied until after the baby is born.”
“Well, it’s your body. Still, I don’t see why you—”
Annie was interrupted by the ringing of the telephone from the bedroom. “Excuse me.” She went inside to answer it.
While Annie was gone, Penny rearranged her clothing. The redhead was gone a long time, and when she returned Penny saw that she had gotten dressed again, this time in a low-cut but simple black cocktail gown. Penny appreciated style, and now she admired Annie’s. The dress was in the latest Empire fashion, loose-fitting and short, billowing out from the half-moons of Annie’s bosom to just above her knees. She wore calf-high high-heeled boots, white and studded with rhinestones, and a long string of rhinestones around her neck which dipped provocatively into the cleft between her breasts. And she had brushed out her red hair so that it hung long and loose, forming a swirling mantle over the whiteness of her bare shoulders.
“That was Brian on the phone,” she told Penny. “He wants me to meet him. He’s with a friend at the Ginza.”
“The Ginza?”
“Yes. It’s a discotheque. Very chic. Very popular. Do you know it?”
“I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never been there,” Penny told her.
“Then why not come along? You’re invited. Honestly. I told Brian you were here, and he suggested that since he’s with a friend I bring you along and we make it a foursome.”
“Oh, I don’t know. It’s getting late and—”
“Oh, come on. You’ll enjoy yourself. And if I know Brian’s friends, you’ll be as safe from temptation as if you were in a nunnery.”
“But I’m not dressed.”
“It’s not formal. You look fine. And besides, I’d consider it a favor. I always find it kind of awkward being alone with Brian and one of his boyfriends. Feeling about him the way I do, I mean.”
When Annie put it that way, Penny felt compelled to go along. Having encouraged her young assistant into revealing confidences, she now felt obliged to keep her company. Besides, she was curious to meet Brian after all Annie had told her about him.
The two girls took a cab to the Ginza on 58th Street off Madison Avenue. There was a line of people outside waiting to get in, but the two girls were able to bypass it since the men they were meeting were already holding down a table. From the outside it didn’t look like much, but once they were admitted, Penny found herself impressed by the place.
The Ginza combined many unusual elements, some in the latest fashion of what was “in”, others more traditional and designed for comfort. The decor was Chinese, as was the food. But it was served smorgasbord style, with long tables from which patrons might help themselves to the most succulent Oriental dishes at their convenience. The waitresses who brought drinks to the small tables arranged around the sides of the main room were also Oriental dishes — and spiced up with just enough dressing to cover the essentials.