Read Online Women Drinking Benedictine by Sharon Dilworth - Free Book Online Page A

compliment.
    â€œIs that a new one?” Mitch asks when she gets into the car. The air conditioner is on high, and Carol shivers with goosebumps.
    â€œNew to me, but not a beginner,” Carol says. “His other teacher just quit the program, so I got him.” Her body adjusts to the cool air, and the bumps on her arm disappear. She asks Mitch how his night went.
    â€œDull. We went back to the house and watched videos.”
    â€œDid he talk?”
    â€œThree, maybe four words,” Mitch says. “I feel like quitting. If this is what it means to be a Big Brother, I don’t want to do it. I’m not helping him like this.”
    Mitch’s little brother is fourteen years old and quiet. He prefers to watch cable TV at Mitch’s house rather than play baseball or visit Boblo Island, an amusement park on the Detroit River—things Mitch had planned to do with him. One night he asked Mitch if he could mow his lawn, and Mitch told him he could do it whenever he wanted. It’s the only thing he shows any interest in.
    â€œYou can’t quit. We’re in this together,” Carol says. If Mitch quits doing volunteer work, they won’t have a reason to see each other.
    Mitch nods and asks if Carol wants to eat pizza. She agrees, though she doesn’t like the Italian restaurant in their neighborhood. The place is too loud, too bright, and there are always too many people. She and Mitch are not lovers, but Carol has been attracted to him ever since he bought the house next door. He is exactly the kind of person she wants to date. He is kind. He is interesting. He is good-looking. He has a job. He has all his hair and he doesn’t complain about every little thing—a trait she finds difficult to deal with in both men and women, but especially annoying in men. Carol is used to men’s attention, and Mitch’s aloofness confuses as well as depresses her. As it stands, she has no idea whether he finds her sexually interesting, even mildly attractive.
    On Thursday the secretary from the Literacy Program calls Carol at work and relays the message that Donald will not be able to make tonight’s lesson. He wants to reassure Carol that he’s serious about learning and that he will definitely be there next week. Carols takes the black magic marker and draws a large X on her desk calendar. Then she calls Mitch and pretends to be relieved that she has a week’s reprieve from the volunteer job. She tells him that she’d still like to get together for dinner. Mitch asks if he and his little brother can watch TV at her house. The temperature at noon was in the upper nineties, and he knows his house will be a hotbox.
    â€œMy living room’s not air-conditioned,” Carol says. “We could sit out on the back porch. There might be some sort of breeze.”
    â€œLet’s move the TV into the air conditioning,” Mitch says. “I have to get out of this heat.”
    â€œThat’s fine.” Carol is delighted with Mitch’s suggestion and considers it progress that he knows that her bedroom is airconditioned. She thinks again how uncomplicated it would be to start an intimate relationship with Mitch. They are already friends. They are familiar with each other’s tastes in restaurants, movies, and other kinds of entertainment. They own almost identical homes. There would be none of the awkward getting to know one another that Carol finds so boring.
    At six-thirty Mitch and Kevin arrive carrying stacks of styro-foam cartons full of take-out ribs. The milk shakes are dripping through the paper bag. They stain Mitch’s clean T-shirt with circles of chocolate. Carol opens everything in the sink and transfers it to paper plates. She has been too hot to think about eating, and she doesn’t know how they’ll finish the heavy slabs of ribs, the quarts of coleslaw.
    Mitch spreads a plastic tablecloth on the floor in front of the TV stand and