her way to getting laid. She began to tremble inside. If he found out she was a virgin, she
would be finished. And what was she going to talk about when she was in bed with him?
Did people talk when they were actually doing it, or did they wait until it was over? She
didn’t want to be rude, but she had no idea what the rules were.
“Have you had dinner?” Ron was asking.
“Dinner?” She stared up at him, trying to think. Should she have had dinner? If she
said yes, then he could take her right to bed and she could get it over with. “No,” she said
quickly, “I haven’t.” Now why did I say that? I’ve ruined everything. But Ron did not
seem upset.
“Good. Do you like Chinese food?”
“It’s my favorite.” She hated it, but the gods certainly weren’t going to count a little
yellow lie on the biggest night of her life.
“There’s a good Chinese joint over on Estes. Lum Fong’s. Do you know it?”
No, but she would never forget it as long as she lived.
What did you do the night you lost your cherry?
Oh, I went to Lum Fong’s first and had some Chinese food with Ron Peterson.
Was it good?
Sure. But you know Chinese food. An hour later, I was sexy again.
They had reached his car, a maroon Reo convertible. Ron held the door open for
Catherine, and she sat in the seat where all the other girls she envied had once sat. Ron
was charming, handsome, a top athlete. And a sex maniac. It would make a good title for a
movie. The Sex Maniac and the Virgin. Maybe she should have held out for a nicer
restaurant like Henrici’s in the Loop and then Ron would have thought, This is the kind of
girl I want to take home to Mother.
“A penny for your thoughts,” he said.
Oh, great! All right, so he wasn’t the most brilliant conversationalist in the world.
But that wasn’t why she was here, was it? She looked up at him sweetly. “I was just
thinking about you.” She snuggled against him.
He grinned. “You really had me fooled, Cathy.”
“I did?”
“I always thought you were pretty standoffish—I mean, not interested in men.”
The word you’re fumbling for is lesbian, Catherine thought, but aloud she said, “I just
like to pick my time and place.”
“I’m glad you picked me.”
“So am I.” And she was. She really was. She could be certain that Ron was a good
lover. He had been factory-tested and approved by every horny coed within a radius of a