No easy way out Read Online Free PDF Page B

maddening." Diane counted to ten,
sipped her coffee, and tried another approach. "I was watching you.
Don't try to tell me you weren't having fun last night. That wasn't
why you ran."
    "No." Virginia exhaled forcefully and rubbed a weary hand over
her drawn features. "That wasn't why I ran." She leaned against the
ladder-back chair frame and took a deep breath. "You're right, I
was having fun, more fun than I've had in a long time-a lifetime,"
came her truthful confession.
    "Tell me what happened."
    "I needed some air, all that smoke and the music and the noise.
I was out on the balcony when he appeared."
    "He, who?" Diane straightened attentively, her dark blue eyes
wide and bright.
    "The Bandit. He said he was Quimby's houseguest," Virginia
explained. Her fingers drummed thoughtfully on the pink antique
table. "Didn't you see him inside?" she asked. "About six foot,
dressed in black with a scarf eye mask and a Spanish riding hat?"
Her voice slowed and became more expressive. "Nice straight nose,
smoky blue eyes, silver wings of hair at his temples." Virginia's
eyes shifted to stare at the oriental wallpaper, her cheeks taking
on a stain of ruby wine. "Broad shoulders, deep voice, great
after-shave and the most sensuous mouth." A soft musical sigh
escaped her lips.
    "I wish I did," Diane echoed that sigh. "So?"
    Virginia looked at her and blinked. "So what?"
    A short scream pierced the room. "You are so ... oo dense! What
happened on the balcony that made you run?" She stubbed out her
cigarette and tapped the cellophane pack for another.
    "The balcony, the balcony. . . that damn balcony!" Virginia's
voice rose in anger and self-condemnation. She wiped her damp palms
together. "What happened on that balcony was a combination of too
much moonlight, too much fantasy, too many drinks, and too many
smoked oysters!" "No kidding," Diane breathed. "Right on the
balcony!"
    "Don't look like that!"
    "Like what?"
    "Like the ecstatic fairy godmother from Cinderella," Virginia
retorted harshly. She pushed herself from the chair and restlessly
prowled around the room. "I feel cheap and disgusted and
embarrassed." Her index finger stabbed the air. "What's worse, I
feel so stupid for running."
    "Why did you?" Diane asked, her curiosity momentarily overriding
her acquisition of yet another filter-tipped cigarette.
    Virginia dropped back into the chair. "Midnight chimed and . . .
and the Bandit wanted the masks off." She hid her face in her
hands, her voice muffled. "I couldn't... I just could not take off
that mask." Her hands fell heavily against the table. "I don't
know. There I was, necking and petting and being totally
uninhibited with a stranger in the moonlight -that damn costume was
half off-but when it came to that tiny scrap of a satin mask-no! I
couldn't take it off." Virginia's glum expression focused on Diane.
"I ran like hell off that balcony."
    "God, Ginger, don't you think everyone felt stupid and
embarrassed? You should have seen all the sheepish, mottled faces
when those masks were peeled off." A burst of giggles erupted from
her throat. "The guy in the bumblebee suit turned out to be Frank
Webb from the engineering library!"
    Diane tapped Virginia's nose. "My guess is that you were more
confused by your overactive hormones than anything else." The
ensuing silence confirmed her pronouncement. "Ginger, you should
take a break from reading How to Split an Atom and start
dipping into the best sellers. Nice Girls Do turn into The Sensuous Woman and Every Woman Can learn How
to Make Love to a Man. It has nothing to do with moonlight and
aphrodisiacs. So you played slap-and-tickle with a stranger on the
balcony. You don't have to be ashamed of that. Men are all for
aggressive women these days."
    "But that wasn't me!" Virginia returned, her voice high and
forceful. "I'm not like that. I'm . . . I'm
    Diane interrupted her stuttering. "We're all like that. All it
takes is the right man, the right moment, the right surroundings.
For