Chapter 21
When they reached the far end of Carytown, they turned around at the Martin’s grocery store and crossed the street to start back the way they’d come. Edie felt her heart flutter; a short walk would deposit them back at their cars, and then what? Would Joanne invite her home, or expect Edie to extend a similar invitation? Would she spoil the evening by saying no?
Did she wantto say no?
Earlier Edie had told herself she wouldn’t go too far, but now she wasn’t sure what it was she wanted. Or, no—she knew what she wantedalright; she just didn’t know what she should do. She didn’t want to rush into anything. Joanne was upfront and blunt, and Edie appreciated that, but she didn’t want to hurry things along and hate herself in the morning because she hadn’t been able to restrain herself. This was only the first date. If she played her cards right, it would be the first of many. But if she blew it, then she only had herself to blame.
She was so preoccupied with what might happen once they reached their cars, she almost didn’t realize exactly where they were until Joanne nudged her in the side.
“Ever been here?” Joanne asked, nodding at the two-story brick building with orange awnings overhanging large windows that fronted the street. Loud pounding music thudded inside, rattling the glass and seeping out into the night.
Edie glanced at the sign in white script scrawled on the glass door. Babe’s.Richmond’s only lesbian bar. With a grimace, she nodded. “Yeah, once. My ex loved this place, though for the life of me, I don’t know why. You?”
Joanne shrugged. “A few times, but that scene gets old realquick.”
They had slowed as they passed the bar until they were almost standing still in front of the windows that let them peer in at the crowded dance floor. Women of all ages pressed against each other inside, moving as one in time to the rhythm of the beat. To Edie they looked like a nest of writhing serpents, and she couldn’t imagine how anyone thought they’d find love in a place like that.
Joanne’s voice was tinged with disgust as she murmured, “Look at them. I mean, seriously. Were we ever like that? I don’t remember being that bad, not even in college, you know?”
“I sure wasn’t.” Edie tugged on her arm. “Come on, let’s go.”
“Just standing here gives me a headache,” Joanne admitted.
She let Edie pull her a step or two, then turned when she heard the bar’s door open. A pair of women their own age tumbled out into the night, giggling like mad and obviously intoxicated. Drunker than either Joanne or Edie had been when they left the brewery, that was for sure.
Wrinkling her nose, Joanne asked under her breath, “I mean, really. Would you ever—?”
Before she could finish, one of the women caught sight of them and shrieked. “Edie? Ohmigah, izzat you?”
Oh please, no,Edie prayed.
Too late. Her grip on Joanne’s arm tightened as her date asked, “Does she know you?”
Edie wanted to say no, but her tongue seemed to be glued to the roof of her mouth. Her lips wouldn’t open; her throat had clamped shut. Of course the woman knew her.
It was Charlene.
In a drunken stumble, on wobbly high heels, Charlene began to cross the few feet of pavement separating them. “Edie!” she called out in a singsong voice. “Woohoo! Girl, have you been ignoring me or something? You neveranswer my e-mails anymore! And I call you like allthe time! What’s up with that?”
“Who is this?” Joanne asked again.
Edie shook her head and moved away, as if that might help distance her from her annoying ex-girlfriend. There was a reason she didn’t answer those e-mails and yes, she wasignoring her. “No one. Come on.”
But Charlene wasn’t about to be shaken off so easily. “Edie!” she cried, growing angry now. “Damn it, stop and listento me! I said I was sorry, didn’t I? Jesus ever-loving Christ, I’m not a fucking saint. So I like dick. There, I said it. Happy? Happy?”
Edie pulled Joanne’s arm and hurried along down the sidewalk, but Charlene’s voice grew louder, trailing after them. Edie felt her whole face flush with embarrassment; people were beginning to stop and stare now, and some were whispering.
“So I fuckedhim!” Charlene hollered after her. “And yeah, I liked it, so what? But I said I was sorry! What the hell more do you want? Get off me, bitch! Get off!”
Edie risked a glance back and saw Charlene’s friend was trying to restrain her, with little success. Charlene stumbled against the side of the building and pushed her friend away, then kicked a leg out to try to connect with her friend’s knee but missed. The movement sent her off balance and she fell back, landing with an audible thudon the curb on her backside.