Chapters (47)
- 1. Cover Page
- 2. Title Page
- 4. Author’s Note
- 5. Dedication
- 7. Prologue
- 8. Part One: Umbertina 1860 - 1940
- 9. Chapter One
- 10. Chapter Two
- 11. Chapter Three
- 12. Chapter Four
- 13. Chapter Five
- 14. Chapter Six
- 15. Chapter Seven
- 16. Chapter Eight
- 17. Chapter Nine
- 18. Chapter Ten
- 19. Part Two: Marguerite 1927 – 1973
- 20. Chapter Eleven
- 21. Chapter Twelve
- 22. Chapter Thirteen
- 23. Chapter Fourteen
- 24. Chapter Fifteen
- 25. Chapter Sixteen
- 26. Chapter Seventeen
- 27. Chapter Eighteen
- 28. Chapter Nineteen
- 29. Chapter Twenty
- 30. Chapter Twenty-One
- 31. Chapter Twenty-Two
- 32. Chapter Twenty-Three
- 33. Part Three: Tina 1950 –
- 34. Chapter Twenty-Four
- 35. Chapter Twenty-Five
- 36. Chapter Twenty-Six
- 37. Chapter Twenty-Seven
- 38. Chapter Twenty-Eight
- 39. Chapter Twenty-Nine
- 40. Chapter Thirty
- 41. Chapter Thirty-One
- 42. Chapter Thirty-Two
- 43. Chapter Thirty-Three
- 44. Chapter Thirty-Four
- 45. Chapter Thirty-Five
- 46. Afterword
- 48. About the Author
- 49. About the Feminist Press
- 50. Also Available from the Feminist Press
She laughed and put her arms around his neck. “Oh, Pooh, I do love you!”
But, she wondered, was love enough?
40. Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty
Jason came back from market one morning his arms full of bags, his mouth stretched wide in a broad grin. He had brought her a tee shirt with “Melt in Your Mouth” emblazoned in hot pink letters across the front.
“God!” she said, pleased.
They sat on the front steps against an arch of the veranda and began snipping beans from one of the market bags.
“You’d make someone a great wife,” he teased.
“So would you.”
“It’s funny how you do all the essentials so well—you like to cook, make love, go with a guy on trips, talk, swim—and yet you have this hang-up about getting married.”
“Jason!” she remonstrated in what he called her schoolmarm tone. “I promised myself not to marry until I had my degree. I’m not going to be just dragged along as baggage on my husband’s career.”
“Tina, you know I respect your educational commitment. Jesus! that’s what I like about you. I don’t want some dummy who has no mind of her own. I’ve told you I would never interfere in your plans for yourself. You can and should have your own career.”
“How can I be free if you’re ‘bestowing’ this gift on me?”
“I don’t mean it that way—”
“No man does! But I don’t want this kind of magnanimity from anyone. I just want to do what I have to. I can’t commit myself to a man before I’ve even started my work. And my work isn’t solely to be a wife.”
“Well, then, I’ll wait.”
He reached for her arm, fondling it. “You’ve got this pouty look, you know, like you want to discourage anyone from getting close. And then you smile and it’s like flares going off up in the mountains. God, you’re so pretty!” He looked at her intently. “I don’t see why you can’t continue your studies with me, in Boston.”
“And then what, Jason? After I finish all these years of graduate school and begin looking for a place, what happens if it turns out to be in Michigan or California, or even the University of Hawaii?”
He was silent for a while. “What happens about love?” he asked with a troubled look. “You know how I feel about you, Tina. You know I love you and we have all these things we share together. Yes, we could go on like this but it seems sterile, leading to nothing. No future.”
“I don’t want that future at this point, Jason.”