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Authors: James Jones
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After looking at Buddy, and receiving an affirmative nod, Grant gently and as charmingly as he could made a date with her that night. He was to pick her up at her place, it was over the liquor store and the only tenement on Park Avenue, she said.
“I just did you the biggest favor I could ever do you,” Buddy said sadly as he hung up, and then carried him off to Faye Emerson’s house around the corner where he pushed drinks on him all afternoon, then took him to a cocktail party way downtown with Buddy’s own date, all of it as if now that he’d introduced him he was trying to get him drunk enough and make him late enough so that Grant would miss the date.
When he did arrive, he was forty-five minutes late and more than a little drunk, thanks to Buddy. But he had been emotionally turned on at the cocktail party by a goodlooking girl who wanted to make him (wasn’t it always that way? either drought or flood), and he could feel his not inconsiderable charm working in him like a smoothly purring well-tuned engine. (Ah, if he could only turn it on and off at will!) After climbing four flights of narrow stairs in the tiny building, he knocked and was admitted to a delegation of four girls, three of whom seated on the couch were obviously there to look him over. The prettiest of the four, who had opened the door, put her hand out and smiling nervously said, “Hello, I’m Lucky. You’re kind of late. For a first date.” He apologized, “I very nearly didn’t make it at all, by God!” he added. “I think Buddy was deliberately trying to get me drunk and make me late. So you’d be mad at me.”
“I guess he’s not above it,” she said, her smile still nervous.
Buddy had told him she was beautiful. But that had not prepared him for the kind of breathtaking beauty he found himself facing. All he could think was, It’s unfair, it’s unfair! It very nearly choked off and killed his smoothly purring charm. Her shoulderlength champagne-colored hair was combed straight back above the smoothly rounded forehead in a sort of lion’s-mane effect. She had high slightly prominent cheekbones that slanted her eyes the least tiniest bit. But beneath the short straight nostril-flaring nose, her mouth was her most attractive feature. It was wide enough that it seemed to go all the way across her face although it didn’t, and the full sweet upper lip was so unusually short that it appeared unable to cover a perfect set of prominent upper teeth except by an act of conscious will on the part of its owner. Below the long full lower lip was a tiny cute jaw and chin that further accentuated the mouth. When she smiled with it, even nervously like now, it not only lit up the entire little apartment but appeared to radiate right on through the walls into the apartments around. It was typical of Lucky, Grant learned later, that she should consider her Italian nose her best feature and be embarrassed about that exquisite mouth. But apart from her face, her figure was enough to drive men mad.
Grant never was able to describe the why of her body’s beauty in words, even to himself. It had something to do with the unusual width and squareness of the shoulders, and the long line which tapered down from them to the waist, to flare immediately into a pair of gorgeous, unusually highassed hips; and perhaps because above this width of shoulder rode the slender neck and high small head of a princess. Actually, she needed the wide shoulders to support the big full globes of her breasts thrusting out in the tight black dinner dress. Her calves were perfect, and ended in strong delicate aristocrat’s ankles and the powerful feet of a pro dancer, which it turned out later, she had been. In the tight dress there was suggested just a hint of an equally powerful mons veneris. In her heels she was just a hair shorter than Grant, and she stood very straight, carrying her torso high off her hips, the slender neck extended to carry the small head, in the
“I just did you the biggest favor I could ever do you,” Buddy said sadly as he hung up, and then carried him off to Faye Emerson’s house around the corner where he pushed drinks on him all afternoon, then took him to a cocktail party way downtown with Buddy’s own date, all of it as if now that he’d introduced him he was trying to get him drunk enough and make him late enough so that Grant would miss the date.
When he did arrive, he was forty-five minutes late and more than a little drunk, thanks to Buddy. But he had been emotionally turned on at the cocktail party by a goodlooking girl who wanted to make him (wasn’t it always that way? either drought or flood), and he could feel his not inconsiderable charm working in him like a smoothly purring well-tuned engine. (Ah, if he could only turn it on and off at will!) After climbing four flights of narrow stairs in the tiny building, he knocked and was admitted to a delegation of four girls, three of whom seated on the couch were obviously there to look him over. The prettiest of the four, who had opened the door, put her hand out and smiling nervously said, “Hello, I’m Lucky. You’re kind of late. For a first date.” He apologized, “I very nearly didn’t make it at all, by God!” he added. “I think Buddy was deliberately trying to get me drunk and make me late. So you’d be mad at me.”
“I guess he’s not above it,” she said, her smile still nervous.
Buddy had told him she was beautiful. But that had not prepared him for the kind of breathtaking beauty he found himself facing. All he could think was, It’s unfair, it’s unfair! It very nearly choked off and killed his smoothly purring charm. Her shoulderlength champagne-colored hair was combed straight back above the smoothly rounded forehead in a sort of lion’s-mane effect. She had high slightly prominent cheekbones that slanted her eyes the least tiniest bit. But beneath the short straight nostril-flaring nose, her mouth was her most attractive feature. It was wide enough that it seemed to go all the way across her face although it didn’t, and the full sweet upper lip was so unusually short that it appeared unable to cover a perfect set of prominent upper teeth except by an act of conscious will on the part of its owner. Below the long full lower lip was a tiny cute jaw and chin that further accentuated the mouth. When she smiled with it, even nervously like now, it not only lit up the entire little apartment but appeared to radiate right on through the walls into the apartments around. It was typical of Lucky, Grant learned later, that she should consider her Italian nose her best feature and be embarrassed about that exquisite mouth. But apart from her face, her figure was enough to drive men mad.
Grant never was able to describe the why of her body’s beauty in words, even to himself. It had something to do with the unusual width and squareness of the shoulders, and the long line which tapered down from them to the waist, to flare immediately into a pair of gorgeous, unusually highassed hips; and perhaps because above this width of shoulder rode the slender neck and high small head of a princess. Actually, she needed the wide shoulders to support the big full globes of her breasts thrusting out in the tight black dinner dress. Her calves were perfect, and ended in strong delicate aristocrat’s ankles and the powerful feet of a pro dancer, which it turned out later, she had been. In the tight dress there was suggested just a hint of an equally powerful mons veneris. In her heels she was just a hair shorter than Grant, and she stood very straight, carrying her torso high off her hips, the slender neck extended to carry the small head, in the
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