Read Online Curious Wine by Katherine V. Forrest - Free Book Online Page A

for chrissake, to spread yourself around a bunch of nitwit fad freaks? They just don’t have anybody themselves, that’s their problem. Room to breathe, my ass. I’d tell Arthur I don’t need any more room to breathe, I’ve done all the breathing I want.”
    Madge said, almost inaudibly, “I don’t know… how Arthur would react.”
    “Ah. And that’s the trouble, isn’t it, Madge.” Liz took a deep swallow of bourbon. “But you’d find out , wouldn’t you? And you’ll never find that answer in astrology or eastern religions. I’d tell him no more free and easy breathing, you’d better be enough for him or you’ll break both his balls.”
    “That’s your style, not my style.”
    It could never be my style either, Diana thought.
    “You have to fight for what you love, for what’s yours.”
    I’ve never fought for anything, Diana thought.
    Madge said slowly, deliberately, “You lost.”
    “At least I fought , goddammit!”
    “You might have won without fighting. George might never have left if you’d turned your back for a while.”
    “Maybe. Maybe. And maybe he’d have just broken my back too, like—” She broke off, staring at Madge with glittering dark eyes.
    Then she continued in a soft cruel voice, “What’s it like, Madge, when he waves it right under your nose? How can you let him put his cock in you when he’s putting it in everybody else?”
    “When you love somebody enough — ”
    I could never love anybody enough, Diana thought.
    “Shit, Madge.” Liz’s voice was suddenly heavy, tired. “If what you give him isn’t enough let him go fuck himself. It isn’t worth it.”
    “I’ve got Arthur. It doesn’t matter about the terms. And one of these days he’ll be old. And with me.”
    Dear God, Diana thought, her stomach wrenching.
    “Let’s go on,” Madge said softly. “Let me make my statement about Millie.”
    “Should we really go on with this,” Lane said quietly.
    Liz said truculently, “Why not? It’s not for you to say this isn’t helping some of us.”
    Diana could no longer smell the fresh sharpness of the fire; the cabin reeked of the sweetish smell of marijuana.
    “Once we work through the negatives, all the positives will come out,” Madge said. Her voice was tired; her face was pale and lined with fatigue. “Millie,” she said, turning to her, “I’d like to see you be less naive about people. You think they’re all so good and honest, and they’re not. I’d like to see you approach your relationships with some skepticism, for your own good.”
    “What Madge means,” Liz said heavily, “is you ought to take off that sign that says fuck me and then kick me.” She lurched slightly and caught herself; Diana saw that she was drunk.
    “You’re wrong, both of you,” Millie said. “I’m very skeptical. When you’ve been hurt as much as me— But every time I meet somebody who seems nice I’m like you, Madge. I think this is the time it’ll be different. And for a while it’s always really good. And then it changes, and I can’t keep it from becoming. awful.”
    “It always changes,” Liz said, “that’s what you don’t understand. The romance always fades, he stops sending flowers and carrying you into the bedroom. That’s when you’ve got to be your own person, be attractive as a person, be more than just a pretty body he enjoys screwing. You can’t hold anybody by turning into a nag and a whining baby, Millie. Men want a woman, not a baby.”
    “I’m not a baby,” Millie said with a pout. “Just because I don’t wear hobnailed boots like you doesn’t mean I don’t want to be accepted for what I am, not what somebody else wants.”
    “Jesus Christ,” Liz hissed. “I can understand why men stomp all over you. I’ve got an almost irresistible urge right now to kick you in the teeth.”
    “You’re just a miserable unhappy old hag.”
    “Well, well.” Liz’s smile was wide. “I finally got a little nastiness out of our