Venus smiled. “I don’t think it works that way, darling,” she said. “Besides, a face is a temporary thing. After a while you find it doesn’t work the same old spell any more.” She spoke soberly. “Then you have to depend on what’s behind it…if anything. Know who told me that?”
Beebo shook her head.
“Leo. My louse of a spouse,” Venus said, blinking. “He told me that when I was seventeen, and I didn’t believe him. I do now.” She stepped back and transformed the mood with a smile. “There, you look completely innocent.”
“Thank you,” Beebo said.
“What for? The mop-up? Or the kiss?”
Beebo swallowed. “Both,” she said.
“Do you have to go, Beebo? Really?” Venus swirled away a few steps, making Beebo want to dash after her. But she stood resolutely with her hand on the door, still too unnerved to know how to behave. “Another heavy date?” Venus asked.
“You might say,” Beebo said.
“Tell me the truth,” Venus said, looking at Beebo over her shoulder. “Was it an ‘old friend’ last time? Or was it a girl?”
Beebo looked up at her slowly, her hand so hot and damp it slipped on the knob. “A girl,” she said finally.
Venus took this shattering intelligence with serenity. “I thought so,” she said. “I warn you, darling, I’m going to order spaghetti all week. You’d better teach her to play solitaire.”
Beebo bridled at the teasing certainty of Venus’s attitude. “Then Pasquini will have to make the deliveries,” she said flatly.
“All I can do is invite you,” Venus said. “I can’t make you come.”
The double meaning was not lost on Beebo. “I don’t think it would be the best approach to Toby if you and I got involved,” she said edgily. She was seeing more than Toby, however; she was seeing Paula. Gentle, sympathetic, pretty Paula, so in love with her. Paula for whom she felt such affection and desire. Paula, who told her to run from Milady Bogardus. She wanted to be safe in Paula’s arms, not here in this silk-lined trap where so many lovers were so neatly netted.
Beebo was deeply suspicious of Venus, anyway. What could such a woman want but transient amusement? Was she gay at all, or just bored and curious?
“Toby is the only human being I’ll ever love.” Venus said it. It would be madness for Beebo to fall in love with her, knowing that. But she had already learned from Paula that falling in love is not a deliberate act at all. Sometimes the only way to fight it is to do as Paula said: run.
“I wish you’d stay a while,” Venus said.
Beebo gazed steadily at her, and then she opened the door and strode out.
The boys looked up from the living-room TV, Toby catching Beebo with worried eyes and wondering what humiliations Venus had invented for her. But the sight of his beautiful mother swishing after Beebo with her face screwed into a scowl consoled him and his heart rose. He wanted Beebo to teach him nonchalance; teach him to laugh and take Venus less seriously, before Venus scared her off.
“Are you going already?” Toby said.
“How would you like to drive the route with me tomorrow, Toby?” Beebo asked with a smile.
Toby threw his mother an uncertain glance, but she said, “Go on, darling. Learn something about the mysterious pasta business.”
Toby grinned at her. He hadn’t smiled at her in so long that Venus merely gazed at him with her mouth open, unable to answer until he had turned back to Beebo.
“I’ll pick you up after lunch,” Beebo said. “Come on, Pat.”
“Just a moment,” Venus said. She caught Pat and put her arms around him, boarding him like an empress her barge, and kissed him soundly on the mouth. “There, darling,” she said alluringly. “Don’t wash your mouth for days. Everybody will die of envy.”
Pat touched his lips and said a startled, “Thank you.”
“Mother, that’s repulsive,” Tony muttered.
“Just wait a year, dear, and it will all come crystal clear,” Venus told him.
Beebo took Pat by the arm and propelled him into the kitchen. She was dismayed at the effort of will it took to leave Venus behind.
“What a spectacular female,” Pat said, scrambling through the door with her. “If I weren’t already in love with you, I’d fall for her.”
“And Jack would be best man,” Beebo quipped.
“You know, something tells me I could fall for a girl,” he said, hoping Beebo would pay attention.
But she only said, “Well, fall outside, will you?” She was afraid if she didn’t get out fast, inertia would set in. The back door latch eluded her skittery fingers.
“Turn it all the way right,” said a crisp female voice.
They saw the cook, still stirring her witch’s brew.
“Thanks,” Beebo said, and they got out at last with a grateful gasp. Pat began to laugh, until he saw Beebo put her head in her hands while they waited for an elevator.
“What’s the matter, honey?” he said. “Was Venus bitchy? I’ll go back and throw something at her.”
“After the bussing you got?” Beebo said.
“How about you?” Pat asked softly. And when she didn’t answer, he put his arms around her, enjoying the contact, standing with her till the elevator arrived.
The wicked witch peered at them through the glass in the kitchen door.
Beebo was gloomy all the way home, answering Pat laconically.
“I didn’t even leave a note,” Pat lamented. “Jack will snatch me bald-headed.”
“Never. He’s too fond of those blond curls.”
“Not so fond he won’t clobber me when we get home. It’s late.”
“You’ve got Jack and I’ve got Paula,” Beebo said, and they brooded about it.
Beebo parked in front of Jack’s apartment. Pat looked up at his windows. “The lights are blazing,” he reported. “And so is Jack, you can bet on it.”
“I never saw him mad before,” Beebo said, looking at him quizzically. Pat’s apprehension seemed silly to her.
“He’s not in
