Chapter 2
"Hello! Richter Hospital speaking. Valerie! Hello, darling! How's my girl? Yes, I'm fine. Loving it, darling... only been working here a fort-night and it, seems everybody's my friend.. .doctors, nurses, patients, everybody. Get together this evening? Of course, darling! Six, six-thirty, that suit you? You sound so mysterious, Val. I'm intrigued. 'Bye, sweetheart!"
Slowly, dreamily laying the telephone horn back in its cradle, Brenda wondered what Valeria could have to tell her that was so urgent and so confidential. Her impatience to know what was on her friend's mind made the afternoon seem painfully long, so that for the first time since she started work in the secretariat of the hospital, she longed for the hour at which she could put her typewriter to bed until the morrow.
At half-past five she hurried to the underground and shortly after six o'clock she ran eagerly up the stairs leading to Valerie's cozy apartment. Her finger had scarcely touched the bell-button when Valerie opened the door and they threw their arms about each other, the hand of each wandering luxuriously over the curves of the other's shoulders, waist, bottom, hips, and thighs. Open-mouthed, they kissed-with much tongue action-while each gently caressed the buttocks of the other, pressing their crotches into the closest possible contact. When finally their sensuous embrace came to its lingering, sighing close, Valerie preceded Brenda to the sofa where they sat, almost rec-lined, very dose together. Brenda's hands paid tender homage to Valerie's proud, fine breasts, while the hostess caressed her guest's cheeks, chin and mouth, one of her fingers stroking the visitor's teeth and seeking her sprightly tongue.
"Will you have tea with me, or do you have to hurry home to feed your brute?" Valerie asked after several minutes of almost silent communion.
"Kiss me, darling! I'll stay to tea. Lew's rarely home when I arrive in the evenings. He comes home at midnight or later and I neither know nor care where he's spent his evenings."
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I know where he's spent three evenings during the past week. Your surprise at my knowing doesn't surprise me. Listen, darling! The last thing I want to do is to spoil whatever there is between you and Lew, but you don't sound very enthusiastic about him, nor does he about you."
'Was it so obvious at a first meeting?"
"I felt it, darling, but it's become clearer since. You see, I've seen Lew three times since you introduced us last--? Thursday, wasn't it? The following evening he knocked on my door and I let him in, supposing he'd brought some message or other from you. I made tea and even an hour later he hadn't given me an inkling of why he'd come. I opened a couple of bottles of beer, and then a further couple. He wasn't at all what you'd given me to expect. He was polite in his own 'gauche' way, very friendly and considerate, quite gallant; in fact, almost like an awed young man visiting the object of his hopeless affections. He complimented me on my face, my figure, my gait, my taste in interior deco-ration, and my intelligence. I felt myself attracted and at the same, ,lime in some sort of danger. I wanted to ask him why he'd come, but I was afraid to give him the impression he wasn't welcome. What you'd told me about him made me fear that if he thought I was hostile to him, he'd take it out of your hide. Hoping you and I were going to see a lot of each other I supposed I'd be seeing him often as well and I wanted him to feel I approved of him, which, in fact, I do. I can't think why you find him so-so unpresentable..."
"I know the real Lew, darling. He got me with-out much of a struggle, so he's never had to play the lovesick swain with me. He has me and he takes me for granted. But he's out to get you and he's smart enough to be as charming as he can until he's firmly installed between your thighs."
"If you find him so loathsome, why stay with him? It's not like you."
"He comes home every night, having tried to get another, but always having failed," Brenda said, her hands fondling Valerie's thighs, under her skirts. "He's full of what he's taught me to want. We have great nights, of which I'm neither proud nor ashamed. I'm just glad to have him; but he's not so important to me that I'm going to fight to keep him. I shan't leave him but I shan't weep if he throws me out. I've got a good job and I think I can find a room or a couple of rooms somewhere without being dependent on Lew or any other man. I think I'd welcome his giving me up. I haven't the courage to risk a quarrel by leaving him-that or I just can't be bothered to change, but I'd really like to be free, free to flirt, have friends, be courted, be tempted, resist for a long time and then, perhaps, surrender deliciously."
"Do you mean you wouldn't mind if I filched your lover?" Valerie asked, raising her lips from the firm nipple of Brenda's left breast.
"Lew and I aren't 'lovers:' We just beast it together. And don't think I undervalue our nights of lechery! He transformed my curiosity about sex into lust; but I detest him and he doesn't give a fig for me. Apart from the uncomplicated act of getting together in bed, on the bed, on the kitchen table or on the carpet, there's less than nothing between us. Far from being indifferent, I loathe his uncouthness, his spivey, his secretiveness, his indolence, his manner of speech, his smart, informed ignorance; and I'm what he most hates, a prissy middle class Miss with an evening gown, a cocktail frock, and a one-guinea accent and memories of our finishing school in North Wales."
"This is the first time my fingers have touched your pussy since he befouled it. It's just as soft, moist and warm as before; and yet I ought to hate him, because he's rendered me unnecessary to you. Brenda, darling, I can't hate him. I think he's very nice. It may be a trick of his. I don't care I think-I think I'm in love with him."
"Love him then, gosling! Love him! Take him from me! Set me free, but don't say I haven't warned you. Love me? Bless you, darling! Let's go to bed! Darling! My honey! Sweet! Valerie! O, my Val!"