I saw the way she glanced at Emma. So this was really their motive for coming to get me, I thought, more gossip and more inside information about my love life.

“No,” I said. I would never tell these two anything close to the truth. “Nor did I expect to. Men like that are like shooting stars. Now you see them, now you don’t. You certainly don’t let them break your heart or give them a chance to disappoint you.”

“He looked much older than us,” Emma said. “That’s what surprised us when we saw you together.”

“I don’t think I look that young, especially not at the Wexler gala.”

“You didn’t, but he still looked a lot older.”

“So what?” I said. “Do older men frighten you? Do they make you squeeze your knees together?”

They both giggled.

“That’s not so funny. Older men want to do more with you right away,” Elsie said with the authority of someone who had been there.

“Oh, so you’ve been with older men and know all about their sexual desires?”

“Noooo!” she exclaimed. “I mean, not that much older.”

“So, you really will never see him again?” Emma asked.

“Why is that so important to you?”

“Just curious.”

“Curiosity killed the cat,” I said.

They both giggled again, never sounding more like children.

I felt like turning around and going home.

“What if you did see him again?” Elsie asked. “What would you do if you and he were alone like you were in the Wexlers’ garden?”

So this was it, they wanted to live some excitement through me. Why was I not surprised?

“I might say, ‘Hello, how are you?’ Or ‘What took you so long to come calling?’ ”

Another giggle.

“And then what?” Emma asked.

“I’d make him take me somewhere expensive and spend a lot of his money on me.”

“He’d want something in return for that,” Elsie said. “Older men don’t just flirt.”

“So?”

“How far would you go with a man?” Emma asked.

I knew this was the main question. It would make their day to hear the answer.

“How far?” I pedaled silently, as if I was thinking hard about it.

They both were paying so much attention they nearly bumped into each other.

“Yes, how far?” Elsie said.

“I think Charlottesville,” I said.

“What?”

The bad angel was laughing on my shoulder.

I sped up, now giggling to myself and leaving them behind in more ways than one.

Chapter 8