“I tried to do my best for you, Johnny.” She took his hand and kissed it.

The pasta turned out to be a bit sticky and glutinous, but the marinara sauce laced with chunks of sausage was delicious. He loved the vulgar bite of garlic, a spice never known in his parents’ house and for that matter rarely used in the heartland in those days. There was a vaguely sour note when she wouldn’t let him have his cup of coffee after dinner.

“I said wine is the food of love. Not coffee. Coffee and sex are enemies.”

“Who says?”

“My experience talks loud. Coffee is antilife. Trust me, Johnny. Please.”

“We can’t exactly go on like that all the time.”

“Johnny, limits are set by man not God. How do you know what you can do? Maybe you can fuck like a Greek god all night.”

“Maybe you got a point.” He was flustered by a woman saying fuck.

“Few of us know our potentials,” she went on. “Fewer still know our sexual potentials. And fewer yet develop their sex skills. Sure, men learn football, baseball and what have you, but what about sex?”

His mind blurred, thinking of practicing sex in the manner of a high school football workout. Lundgren, the coach might say, you’re going to learn how to be a first rate pussy-eater or you’re off the team. Now get down there and go at it like a real man. Put your balls into it. Put your weight into it. Put your heart into it. Put your life into it.

After another extended session he discovered in the shrill light of her bathroom that his dickie was losing its hide. There were rawish splotches. Must he continue injured, as it were? She had even put it in her hinder, a variation that he had only heard of in jokes and locker room talk. There was a definite hankering for sleep.

She sat nude in the kitchen with a largish glass of the food of love. He drank water, then two shots of whiskey. They both sighed deeply, she for more, he for the bed and a book.

“You might be curious about my personal philosophy.” She brushed her damp hair back. “I’ve got idiosyncrasies. For instance I’m from Pennsylvania. I’ve been here five years and most take me for a native. Nope. I’m from Philadelphia. I learned keypunch operating and I’ve worked hard. You didn’t know I was married once?”

“No. I didn’t even guess at it.”

“Sad but true. The Korean War took him. I am thirty-five but I don’t look it, do I?”

“No. I don’t know. I’m no good at ages. I go for the person, not the age.”