“I’m not sure I’m gonna know how to act.”

“I think you’ll remember,” she said.

Our mouths met and I sucked back the pungent taste of brandy, nicotine, and onions. She moved her mouth to my ear and drove me to moaning with the flicking of her quick tongue. “Let’s go in the bedroom,” she whispered with my ear still in her mouth.

I had no sense of undressing as my rising desire for Alice seemed to pressure the clothes right off me. As she undressed, the light from a shaded floor lamp caught the cognac color of her body. We got into bed and I lay my hands on her feverishly, wanting to do everything at once. My mouth found its hunger in her sweet and sour mouth, under her arms, on her breasts, in the creases of her navel, at the peak of her thighs, behind her knees, and on her fingers and toes. Her taste was sweet soap mixed with the salty moisture of her heated odor.

Rolling around the bed like tumbleweed, we finally came to a stop with Alice on top of me. She reached between my legs and as I swelled she sucked and cowlicked me into a frenzy. Moving over top of me, she lowered herself down, guiding me until I was inside her. The feel of how snug we fit set my whole body on fire. We began to move and when my stomach hollowed out in a contraction, her rounded pelvis drove into the space, pushing me deeper inside her. The sheets of the bed hissed under us as our stomachs made a click song, and sweat washed up against the shore of our ribs.

My mouth locked open, but I couldn’t catch enough breath to scream. Tears stung my eyes.

“Ohhh shit! God damn, baby! What you trying to do, make butter?”

“Yeah, that’s right! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” she panted without missing a stroke in the insistent churn of her hips. I was in a crazed state, bucking to come and at the same time not wanting to spend myself. I pounded my fists into the bed; then kneaded Alice’s back with my hands and finally let them ride her writhing behind. But if you move you lose! If you Move you Lose! If You Move You Lose! IF YOU MOVE YOU LOSE!

Lying in the wetness and smell of spent desire, we were curled back to front into spoons with me contracted into Alice’s back.

“Melvin?”

“Yeah.”

“You remember what I said at that party when you asked me if I liked to fight?”

“I remember.”

“Well, I’m serious about that. If I can’t fight with whoever I’m with, I’d rather be alone.”

“But what do you mean by fight?”