“Why’s that?” he asked, hailing the bartender to ask for another tequila and beer chaser for himself and a second Cosmo for the girl.
“I can’t resist a uniform.”
After that the conversation flowed rapidly back and forth with all the ease of confident flirtation. Veronica’s long legs were tanned and bare and her toenails painted dark red to match her fingernails and lips. Whenever she shook back her hair it fell into place perfectly. Her teeth were very white and she smiled a good deal. She seemed to get drunk fast and laughed at all his jokes accordingly. The looser she became, the less the wise Doug drank, leaving his last tequila on the bar before they emerged onto Charles Street in the heavy, humid dusk of evening.
“Are you hungry?” she asked. “Because I live very close by and I have an ice box full of food.”
“Are you inviting me to dinner?” he asked, startled to make this sort of impression on such a fresh, pretty, well dressed and well spoken young lady.
“Pot luck,” she explained with a grin, “but I think you’ll be satisfied.”
They walked the two blocks to Revere Street and then upstairs to the flat in the old brick building. Veronica sat Doug down at the small round table in the tiny kitchen and quickly laid out a spread of cold lamb sandwiches on crusty Italian bread, homemade potato salad and coleslaw, cranberry relish and a good red wine. Her guest was overwhelmed but immediately did justice to the simple repast thinking how much more pleasant this was than waiting for a table in a crowded restaurant on a busy Saturday night.
Even with two fans blowing directly on them, it was oppressively hot in the small apartment, especially after eating and drinking. Veronica encouraged him to loosen his collar and even take off his stiff white shirt. Stripped to his pants and sleeveless tee, the Viet Nam veteran was impressively lean and muscular and his hostess admired his ripped abs and tablet pecs accordingly.
They took their wine and crawled out the kitchen window onto the roof from which many assorted vistas and rooftops were visible including a sliver of the Charles in the dark. A nearby radio was blasting Take It As It Comes and Veronica made him get up and dance with her. They held hands and twisted to the music.
“This song makes me want to have sex,” Veronica confided. Doug looked at her and marveled at how much girls had changed in the few years he’d been out of the country. For example, favors one had to practically stand on one’s head and beg for in the early sixties were now apparently bestowed as a matter of course on the most casual acquaintance. And then of course the immense innovations of the mini skirt and noticeably absent brassiere had done even more to slide the pedestal out from under the modern American girl.
The next thing Veronica knew, she was being pulled back into the apartment, where she presently found herself sitting on his lap, with her arms wound around his neck and his tongue exploring her mouth. Under her trim, firm bottom she could feel his excitement swell and she did not scruple to make matters worse by wriggling against and bouncing up and down on the truncheon like form through their clothes. Then she was being carried into her small bedroom, carefully undressed and thoroughly made love to in three or four positions until the leathery soldier finally allowed himself to expire in her embrace.
“You didn’t come,” he accused a few minutes later, as they put themselves back together and went out into the kitchen, their appetites stimulated by their exertions.
“It takes more than fortitude to make me come,” she explained, setting the plate of brownies on the table beside a jug of milk.
“What does it take?” he asked, consuming the first brownie in a few bites and washing it down with milk.
“Maybe I’ll tell you later,” she said, pulling on a pair of short denim shorts and a dark red halter-top with a pair of denim espadrilles that laced to the ankle.
Sitting down to her milk, Veronica took her first bite of brownie as Doug demolished his second cake and reached for a third. Chewing thoughtfully she said, “Uh oh. I just realized something. Don’t finish that,” she said, an instant too late.
“Why not? I don’t usually eat sweets, but these are great.”
“You don’t want to eat too much on a hot night,” she said, sweeping the plate back into the refrigerator. “Listen, why don’t we go out for a walk in the public gardens?”
“Sure!” he said agreeably and went to put on his clothes.
Walking through the small parlor en route to the bedroom he paused to look at some of the framed photos on the bookshelves.
“Ronnie, who is this girl with you?” Doug demanded, bringing one of the photos back into the kitchen with him. Veronica turned from the sink where she was quickly washing and drying their plates to regard the photo of herself and Virginia that he was brandishing before her.
“Oh, that’s my sister, Virginia. Isn’t she pretty?”
“You’re not going to believe this, but I had a run in with her today at the recruitment office,” he admitted.
“Really? What kind of run in?” Veronica affected amazement.
“Let’s just get out of here before she gets home,” he recommended.
Once they were out on the street, where it was but a few degrees cooler than indoors, Veronica pressed her new escort for details.
“You’re going to hate me when I tell you.”
“Really? Why ever?”
“First of all, let me say that your sister is a little idiot. What does she do today but parade in front of my recruitment office with a goddamned peace sign!”
“No!”
“It’s true. I guess she was on the way to that big anti-war rally outside the State House, but as soon as she saw me, she just had to make trouble. I warned her to beat it, more than once, but she just kept challenging my authority until finally...”
“Yes, finally what?”
“I told her if she didn’t move away from the office I’d spank her.”
“No!”
“But she kept standing there and arguing with me.”
“And did you really do it? Spank her?”
“I did,” Doug admitted.
“Gee, I wish I could have been there to see that!” said Veronica, pressing the traffic button for a green light on Beacon Street. They crossed over and headed towards the public garden.
“So the thought of me spanking your annoying little sister doesn’t make you mad?” Doug asked, feeling suddenly wildly exhilarated. He’d never noticed that the sky above Boston proper could be so completely crammed with stars.
“Sure, mad with envy. I never meet any men who think of spanking me,” she confided, leading the way into the gardens.
“Why? You don’t think that’s a bad thing?”
“No, I think it sounds exciting.”
“Really? Do you?”
“Not that you were right to spank my sister. You’ll be lucky if she doesn’t sue you for battering a civilian.”
“Your sister’s a goddamned hippie.”
“Hey, show a little respect. Thanks to hippie culture, you just got laid for free.”
“God, you’re a fresh girl.”
“Go on, deny that you’d be headed for the combat zone right around now if you hadn’t met me earlier?”
“You know, I was thinking that very thing earlier,” he admitted, “how there used to be good girls and bad girls, but now there are only good girls