“Congratulations.”
There was more jubilant chatter from Marie, but finally she hung up. Wearily, Penny crawled into bed. Well, she told herself, all three of her candidates were straightened out now. Any one of them would be capable of taking over Lovelights.
Only then did it occur to her that she was really right back where she’d started from.
All three were equal again. How was she going to choose among them?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THE ALARM pulled Penny out of a deep sleep the next morning. Groggily, she shut it off and staggered out of bed. Still weary, she got dressed and plunged into the subway. When she emerged, she saw that she still had a little time, and decided to stop into a drug store for some coffee.
There was something familiar about the back of the girl sitting next to Penny at the counter. As she swiveled around to pick up her check, Penny recognized her. “Excuse me.” She tapped the girl on the ann. “Aren’t you Lascivia Levine? Studs’s sister?”
“Yes. Oh, I remember you. You were in the Ginza the other night with Studs.”
“That’s right. And how’s the family?” Penny added politely.
“Lousy. Mama had another heart attack yesterday. That’s the third one this week.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Penny said with genuine sympathy.
“Yeah. Well, it won’t kill her,” Lascivia pointed out. “No. I suppose not.” Penny paused awkwardly, not knowing what else to say. “What do you think caused it?” she asked finally, when Lascivia showed no signs of leaving.
“Studs, of course. He’s being drafted, you know. He’s leaving the day after tomorrow.”
“Oh! So quickly!” Penny’s heart gave an unexpected leap. ‘Well, if you see him, ask him to call me and say good-bye.” It was out before she knew she’d meant to say it. “Will do. Well, see you around.” Lascivia left then.
She must have spoken to her brother soon afterwards, because it was only mid-morning when Studs called Penny at the office. “How about going out with me tonight?” he asked without preamble.
“Gosh, Studs, I don’t know. I haven’t been getting much sleep lately. I’m awfully tired, and I really meant to go to bed early tonight. Can I have a raincheck?”
“Afraid not. Uncle Sam has other plans for me. It’s tonight or never.”
“Oh. That’s right, I forgot. Lascivia told me you were leaving for the army day after tomorrow. All right, then. Pick me up at my place about eight. Okay?”
“Will do.”
After she hung up, Penny spent the morning catching up on her work. She worked right through lunchtime and into the afternoon. It was after four when the ringing of the telephone interrupted her again. This time it was Balzac Hosenpfeffer.
“Penny,” he said excitedly. “Guess what? Great news. I’ve heard from the draft board. The Pentagon says they can issue me a new draft card and still grant me my exempt status.”
“That’s wonderful, Balz.”
“Isn’t it? What do you say we go out tonight and you help me celebrate?”
“I’m sorry,” Penny told him. “I can’t. I already have a date.”
“Damn it! Why do I always get one heartache after another. Please change your mind, Penny. I’m aching to see you.”
“Aching, Balz?”
“Yeah, that too. Please break your date, Penny.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t.”
“But what will I do?”
“Take a cold shower, Balz.”
“Another one?”
“Yes, another one.” Penny hung up and went back to her work.
An hour later she left the office and went home. She was ready and waiting when Studs arrived at eight o’clock. He was preceded by the odor of steaming chow mein.
“I thought it might be nice if we had dinner here, just the two of us,” he said. “See, I brought some champagne, too.”
“But I hadn’t—”
“Aw, come on, Penny.”
“Studs, I got all dressed to go out!”
“And you look beautiful. But this is my last night home. And who knows? I might be killed. So humor me just this one time, Penny.”
“Oh, all right.”
“That’s my girl. Now you go and get some glasses for the fizzly while I set out them ricey, noodley vittles.”
An hour later they were starting on the second bottle of champagne, and what chow mein remained was growing cold in its container. ‘The trouble with Chinese food,” Penny was saying, “is that fifteen minutes after you eat, you’re hungry again.”
“Yeah. But I’m not hungry for the same thing.” Studs leered.
“What do you mean?”
“Have some more champagne and I’ll show you.”
“I’ve already had more than I should. I feel tiddly. It’s a nice feeling, though, sort of warm and relaxed.”
“That’s it. You just stay warm and relaxed.” Studs came around behind her and bent to kiss her, his hands sliding down from her shoulders to her avocado-shaped breasts.
“Oh, Studs, don’t Penny murmured. “I promised myself I wouldn’t have any sex until after the baby was born. I mean, isn’t it a sort of desecration?”
“No, baby. Don’t be foolish. Why deny yourself?” Studs kept on crooning the soothing words, overcoming her objections, his hands moving over her body.
And finally Penny did forget her reluctance under his caresses. Studs had always been the one man who could turn her on. He was the only man who had ever taken her. Just that once. And even if Penny wouldn’t admit it to herself, her body knew that it was aching for him to possess it once again.
Passively, she allowed Studs to lead her to the couch. He kissed her on the lips again, a deep kiss, their tongues clashing like flaming swords. Then his lips traveled over her face, grazing the half-shut lids over the blue eyes, nibbling at the high cheekbones of the oval face, breathing hotly into the shell-like ears. His hand surrounded one breast now, and he could feel its panting warmth through the silk of the dress, through the material of the flimsy bra.
Penny felt the clenching of the hand, too, and it made her moan low in her throat. She found herself biting his earlobe, gently at first, and then more violently. She felt the hard quiver of his response then, as he pushed her down on the couch and lay beside her.
His hand reached under the dress, pushed it up, slid along the silken length of her stockings until the fingers touched the burning thigh-flesh. Penny's nails raked his back and then her hand slid inside his shirt and tangled with the thick hair on his chest. . . .
“Come on, Studs.” Penny opened her eyes and looked at him feverishly. “Hurry up!”
“Do I have to—? I mean, should I take some precau-—”
“No. Just come on. Hurry, my darling. I’m burning up!”
“But did you take your birth control pill today?”
“Don’t be ridiculous! That would just be locking the barn after the horse was gone. Wouldn’t it? Now, stop worrying and take me. Hurry!”
And Studs did.
They were on the bed, happy and exhausted, when the sun came up to put an exclamation point to their night of passion. Only once before had Penny ever felt so happy, so satisfied. And that had been with Studs, too. Only this time, somehow, she felt even closer to him. She had never felt so close to anybody before in her life.
It was this feeling of closeness which at long last impelled Penny to tell Studs the truth about his part in her impending motherhood. “Yes,” she told him. “You really are the father. It can’t be anyone else because there never has been anyone else.”
“Gee, Penny, couldn’t you have told me that before I was drafted?”
“I’m sorry, darling.”
“If you’d told me then, I would have married you, you know.”
“And now?”
“Sorry baby. There’s no percentage now.”
“Oh, Studs!” Penny wailed.
“Sorry, baby. Anyway, I got to be moseying along now The Viet Cong w0n’t wait, you know!” Studs got out of bed then and started pulling on his pants. “Like you said,” he continued when he’d finished dressing, “I’ll give them hell!” And then he was gone.