Mine 'Til Monday
eased her hands into warm suds.
    “Well, I guess so. But obviously you said yes. I mean I don’t blame you, a rock like that. The guy’s got bucks, huh?”
    Dorothy merely nodded. Ordinarily she prized her sessions with Janelle, who called things exactly the way she saw them. Janelle was honest, she was funny, and most importantly, she was one of the few girlfriends Dorothy could claim, given her schedule.
    Today, though, she wished Janelle would keep her curiosity to herself.
    “So, what’s he like?
    “He’s, um, well, he’s perfect,” Dorothy mumbled. “Have you got any new colors?”
    “French,” Janelle responded without looking up from her work. “You’re going to be a bride, you get the French. Classy. Besides, quit trying to change the subject. What kind of perfect?”
    Dorothy slouched down in the comfortable chair and closed her eyes, giving herself up to the pleasure of the warm water and Janelle’s expertise. What kind of perfect was Mud? The kind whose smile came out of nowhere, quicker than lighting and more natural than drawing breath? The kind whose touch could ignite flames in seconds, whose mere voice raised shivers along her spine?
    “Blond,” she managed. “I guess. Kind of dark blond. Fairly tall.”
    Janelle glanced up at Dorothy and shook her head. “You don’t sound too enthusiastic about him, hon.”
    “We...had a fight, sort of.”
    “Oh, is that it.” Janelle grinned, pushing back Dorothy’s cuticles with a practiced ease. “Lover’s quarrel. It just makes making up that much more fun. Spicy like. You should see me and Darryl, you know, after a big one.”
    Dorothy could feel a blush blooming on her cheeks. The thought of making up with Mud led too easily into thoughts of making love with him.
    “It’s just that I don’t think we’re compatible,” she said more fiercely than she intended.
    Janelle paused and regarded Dorothy frankly. “Well, now there’s compatible and there’s compatible, y’know? Do you click?”
    The latter word was uttered with an exaggerated wink that left little doubt as to what Janelle meant.
    “We click fine,” Dorothy mumbled, cheeks aflame. “We’re just totally different, in every important way. Lifestyle, tastes, ambitions...”
    “Hey, that just makes it sweeter, the old opposites attract thing. You think I’d want a man who was just like me? Forget about it! Can you imagine!”
    Janelle giggled good-naturedly, but despite her cheerful reassurance Dorothy felt herself slip a little deeper, into the gloomy doubts which had followed her from the moment she found herself alone in the bed she had shared with Mud the night before.
    “Look, Janelle. I’ve known him for a long time. We have a history. The first time we...came together, it meant a lot to me. But not to him. He found someone else just when I was falling—”
    Dorothy hesitated; she was going to say ‘falling in love’. But could a young girl really feel something as deep and real as romantic love?
    “...falling for him,” she finished.
    Janelle’s mirth disappeared as suddenly as it had bubbled up. She folded Dorothy’s hands between her own and held them tight. “You poor baby,” she said. “Now you’re just scared to death it’ll happen again. And I don’t blame you, with a guy who’s played around in the past. But you know a man like that waits until he’s ready, and I mean really ready, to settle down. They don’t make a commitment until they mean it. ‘Course some never do.”
    She released Dorothy’s hands, spun the engagement ring gently on her finger. “But hey, the proof’s in the pudding, right?” Dorothy nodded numbly, but Janelle’s words echoed in her ear.
    Some never do.

 
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Dorothy paused at the wide glass doors of Miranda’s solarium, and gave a final tug at her tennis skirt. The crisp white pleated fabric barely covered her bottom, and she felt extremely self-conscious. Usually she played in shorts and

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