“Don’t ask so much of yourself. Don’t think about it for now.”

“It’s easy for you to say. You know what you want. You’ve advised me more than once to stop thinking. Do you like me brainless?”

“I like you when you see yourself as you really are. You’re an accomplished, polished young lady. I saw that the night I met you. You have a right to be proud of yourself.”

“Do you know that you terrorized me that night?”

“So?”

“Tough guy, I feel safe with you now.”

“That’s a hell of thing to say tonight.”

“I’m not going to have sex with you, Joe. Don’t try to make me. I don’t want to get started on that.”

He said, “I think we ought to change the subject. And get out of this room.”

In the living room he tuned the radio to a dance band broadcast. She had lit a cigarette, and when he turned to her, she put it in an ash tray. He took her closely.

“I’m not going to spoil this for you,” she said.

“Don’t talk that way,” he said.

“You know, there are times now when you still frighten me.”

“Now?”

She kissed his neck. “Yes. I had a dream about that fellow at the hospital that night. You didn’t see your hands. They looked so strong.” She put her arms around him. He had not stopped taking pleasure from how soft and supple she was. Before he had met her, he had not thought that anyone so slim could be so soft. He kissed her ear. “Let’s try to finish this one dance, anyway,” she said.

“I was thinking that.”

“I haven’t done much, Joe. I really haven’t.”

“I wasn’t thinking about that.”

“You’re the first one who’s ever excited me,” she said.

“Is that what made you afraid?”

“I guess so. Yes.”

“Don’t think about it—there I go again.”

“Sometimes it’s good advice,” she said. “Sometimes I just want to hold you and not think anything.”

“Now?”

“No.”

She was afraid. When the number ended he let go of her and turned out the light. His palms were wet. He loved her. He was sure that there was nothing about her that he did not love. In the darkness she took his hands. “We might as well sit down,” she said.

They went to the couch. On the radio the dance band began again. He kissed her on the mouth and she kissed him back. They tried to press their bodies together, awkwardly. He reached down and pulled the laces of his shoes. She saw what he was doing and slipped out of hers. They kissed again, leaned back, and wrapped their legs together. He felt the sharpness of her garter against his thigh. She shifted back a little, not moving her legs.