"Jake, I asked where Joanie was tonight." They were in the kitchen now and Pat was loading up her plate with food: fried chicken, pizza, potato salad.
Soundtrack: What’d I Say Parts I & II----Ray Charles
Pat glanced up, a query on her smooth, round face. "Annie? You mean Joanie’s here with her. I mean..." she stumbled over her words. Jake was sure she would have turned red with embarrassment if she could have. He laughed.
"Well, I dunno. That's a good question. She certainly didn't come here with me. I haven't seen her, really, in months, you know." Strictly speaking that wasn't true; he had seen her...at midnight, for one. But, what he was thinking was that there just didn't seem to be any fire in their relationship any more and they might as well not have seen each other.
"No, I didn't know. You mean that you and she aren't...?"
"Definitely not! That's been over for almost six months. I mean, not that we haven't made it in six months, but you know, not really, um, maybe once or twice in the fall, but it just isn't there any more for us." Jake felt better about putting it this way. It made it sound like it was his choice…whether or not and when he screwed Joanie, even if it wasn’t, strictly speaking, true. Truth was, he couldn’t remember when Joanie and he last balled or when and why they’d stopped doing it.
Pat smiled despite herself. Jake was feeling good about this. That cat Jukie wasn't the only stud at this party. Jake was doing all right too.
"Jake, I thought you were hungry," Pat said, chewing on a drumstick. "Help yourself, why don't you?"
"Uh, yeah, sure," Jake replied and began perfunctorily loading up his plate, although his mind was elsewhere. Jake was considering the second floor of Bill's house. Let's see, three bedrooms. Bill's was out; he'd be up there soon enough with one of his little chickees, Christine most likely. And, hmm, Jukie and Donna were probably in one of the others. With any luck, the third bedroom would be free. He grabbed a beer from the fridge, opened it and drained it in one smooth motion.
"I guess you were thirsty!" Pat laughed, her eyes sparkling invitingly. "Now, how about that hunger?"
Jake stared at her fixedly. "I suddenly have a hunger for something else entirely." His eyes moved from her face to the stairs. Her eyes followed his.
"I don't think so, Jake," she said. Once again, Jake was taken aback by Pat’s unexpected reaction to him. Had he misread her body language? He heard the words she was saying, but he couldn't make much sense out of them. Something about not being prepared. Jake was startled. What did she mean? Prepared? Prepared for what? Pat evidently saw his confusion because she moved closer to him, leaned up, and kissed him sweetly near, but not on, the mouth.
"Jake, I really dig you. I really do, but I'm right in the middle of my cycle and I don't have my diaphragm... I mean I didn't come here expecting..." She stopped. Jake just stared at her. What gives?
"Jake? Jake, what's wrong?"
Jake was having trouble focusing his thoughts. Diaphragm? Middle of her cycle? Wow. When was the last time he'd heard any chick talk like this? Every girl he knew was on the pill or had one of those IUDs in her twat that meant any day was cool. Diaphragm? Wow! It was only older women who still used diaphragms. He recalled the time he'd found one in the medicine cabinet when he was a kid and asked his mother about it. She'd been terribly embarrassed, but to her credit, she did explain a few things about the birds and the bees to him. In fact, that'd been the first (and only) explanation he'd gotten from either of his parents about the "facts of life"... unless you counted his father's warning to him when he first left for college six, seven years ago to "keep your pecker in your pockets young man." Back then, there had been a couple of chicks who still used them, but not now? Wow! This was one square mama.
"Jake? I... uh..." Jake focused on the black woman standing close to him. She was clearly uncomfortable with his silence. In fact, he could see that she was becoming genuinely embarrassed and he felt kinda’ bad about that.
"Oh, yeah. Listen babe. It's OK. It's just that I was a little surprised. I didn't realize chicks still used them, you know. I mean it's OK. I was just surprised. And, disappointed. Yeah, that's it; I was disappointed. I was feeling that you and me could make some beautiful love tonight. But it's OK. Really it is."
"Oh Jake, I feel like such a jerk. I don't know why I didn't bring it. I wish I had, but you know, I, well, to tell the truth, it's been a long time. To tell the God's honest truth, it's been a ver-r-r-y long time since I last made love."
Then Pat launched into this long riff about the cats on campus preferring white girls and all. Jake wasn't really listening too carefully. His interest in her was waning greatly by the moment.
"Yeah, well that's OK. Don't sweat it! It's just I was surprised. That's all. Just surprised and disappointed, you know. It's OK. We'll do it another time, OK? Another time."
"Sure Jake, another time," Pat said, but he could hear in her voice that she suspected there wouldn't be another time, that she could read his mind, could feel his almost total loss of interest at this point.
Jake began munching on the food he’d been piling on his plate while Pat blathered on. It tasted great, better than anything he'd eaten in days. Fact was, he couldn't remember when he'd last eaten. That was the trouble with horse. You weren't hungry most of the time, and you couldn't totally remember where the time had gotten to. Jake was beginning to tire of his habit. Actually, he was becoming totally exhausted by it. Maybe he'd stop. Maybe, he'd make a New Year's resolution and stop. Maybe, starting out in a new place would give him the opportunity to stop. Yeah. Yeah. He'd stop. Tonight was as good a time as any. Yeah. He'd stop tonight.
Jake looked down at his plate. It was empty. He glanced up at Pat. She looked kind of sad.
"Say, Jake, I've got to be going home now. Big day tomorrow. I know it's a holiday for most people, but I've got a Law Journal issue to put to bed," Pat said, flashing him a flirtatious smile.
He could see that she was already regretting the brush-off she'd given him and was attempting to re-open the possibility of making it with him, as she continued: "Hey, let's stay in touch. I come down to the City pretty often. We could...uhm... have dinner, you know. Do you have an address yet?"
"Uh, no. Not yet. But, you know, when I get my pad, I'll call you or drop you a note. I'll send it to... uhm, the Law Journal. I mean you'll have it to bed by then, I expect."
Pat seemed confused by his little joke. "The Law Journal?" Then a smile crossed her face, as she appeared to get it. "Oh? Yes, sure, you can reach me there. Yes, that would be fine." Jake thought she looked tickled at the thought of getting a private note from a big shot like Jake at the Law Journal.
"Yes, that would be just fine," Pat repeated. "See you around, Jake." Once again she leaned up into his face, but this time she kissed him firmly on the lips. He opened his mouth and the tip of her tongue darted in for one quick moment and then she was walking rapidly out the kitchen door, without so much as a glance over her shoulder.
Jake just stood there, dumbfounded. Well, he thought, wasn't that something? A diaphragm. Didn't that beat all? He absentmindedly picked at some of the food on the table for a few minutes, listening to the sexy music coming in from the other room. Man, Pat was one square chick, he mused.
Links
diaphragm
IUD
The Pill
Ray Charles
Go to the next scene in Jake's story
New Year's Eve 1968: Jake Scene 12 "Home, Sweet, Home"
Go to the previous scene in Jake's story
New Year's Eve 1968: Jake, Scene 10 "Dance!"
Go to related scene
New Year's Eve 1968: Pat, Scene 5 "Let's Fuck! Let's Fuck! Let's Fuck!"
No comments:
Post a Comment