A Good Little Girl Like You (A Sample)

Sunday, September 16

Rebecca sat down to lunch with Alice at their regular

place. They ordered and then got down to business. "I

finally dumped Quentin last night, and I'm happy about it."

Alice pounded the table and smiled. "Way to go,

Rebecca! That boy was a complete loser."

How embarrassing. Did everyone hate Quentin? She felt

an inexplicable pang of remorse and jumped in to defend

him. "Oh, I don't know if I'd go that far. Quentin wasn't

actively bad."

"No, he was just passively good. Girl, you weren't getting

anything from that boy. You might not be willing to call him

a complete loser, but I am. I'm proud of you-how long did

you put up with him, anyway?"

Rebecca hung her head. "It's been a year. We started

back in business school."

"Was he upset?"

"Strangely, no."

"I rest my case-complete loser. So how's Tarzan? I'm

assuming that he came back and carried you off to his

jungle hut. Did you dance the Watusi?" Alice threw her

arms out to the side and shook them back and forth, her

tongue wagging like a dog. "I'd choose Tarzan over Quentin

any day of the week."

Mmm. Me too. Rebecca would also choose Tarzan over

Quentin, any night of the week. Was she losing her sense of

perspective, or was it merely the contrast with Quentin that

made O.E. seem so appealing?

She gave Alice the facts. "I don't know much about him.

His name is Oscar, but he likes to be called O.E. We're

having dinner tomorrow night."

Alice narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean you don't

know much about him? Didn't you two make out at the

party?"

"Hey! I never said that."

"No, you didn't. You never told me anything when I got

back from my drive-where you'd been, how you got that

dreamy look on your face, or why your mouth looked like it

had been put through a blender."

"Ouch. Was it that obvious?"

"Only to me, but I know better than most. So, did you

boink him?"

Yeah. You'd like to hear about that. Alice was a horny

dog, who expected everyone else to be as horny as her. And

although Rebecca was feeling it, she needed to retain some

semblance of dignity. "Jeez, Alice. Give me a break. We

danced and then we kissed. Once. Just one kiss, all right?"

Lunch arrived, and Rebecca tried to forget that one kiss.

But it wasn't going to happen anytime soon. And Alice

wasn't going to forget about that kiss either. She waited

patiently while the food was served.

The waiter walked away, and Alice plowed on. "One