The Necklace - The Dusky Club, June 1962 - Linda S Rice (books to read fiction txt) 📗

twisted the chain back and forth between shaking fingers. She thought that maybe this trip into the past had been a mistake.

James looked around at her, stung by her words and the forlorn look on her face. “Wait! ...Let’s go outside for a minute so we can talk...”

Before she could respond, he moved in front of her, grabbed her by the arm, and then pushed her toward the door. He opened it and pulled her out into the alley.

As they left, Derek looked over at Mindy. “Mark my words, Min, that bird is trouble with a capital T.”

Mindy thought he might be right. She’d seen James angry before, but never so quietly incensed. It was unusual for him to get so upset over a girl, especially since he could pick and choose amongst so many willing ones every night. His reaction to this American bird was interesting, to say the least.

Out in the alley, James backed Susan against the wall of the building. Her purse strap slipped off her shoulder. James put his hands on either side of her head and planted them on the wall. His face was inches from hers. The wall was cold against her back. For a full minute, neither of them anything. They just glared into each other’s eyes, trying to read what the other was thinking and trying to gain control over their emotions. Then James relaxed. Susan bit her lower lip and broke the eye contact. A stray tear rolled down her cheek.

James spoke softly, tilting her chin up with a finger of his hand, turning her face back toward his, and looking into her eyes. He wiped the tear from her cheek with his thumb. Seeing her eyes tear up before they left the practice room and seeing one roll down her cheek made him come all undone. He hadn’t meant to make her cry.

“You want me to say I’m sorry?” he said quietly. “Okay, then...I’m sorry...I really am sorry...I shouldn’t have agreed to the wager...”

He pushed off the wall and turned his back to her. She could sense the turmoil of his thoughts and his struggle to admit to any fault. He turned back to face her. Stubborn and proud were written all over him.

“I didn’t know...I didn’t know you were any different than the rest...I didn’t know until we were at tea...and you told me about your dad...and you listened to me when I talked about my mum...and you seemed to understand...to care...it was too late then...the wager had already been made.”

“You didn’t have to try and follow through to win it, you know!”

His eyes met hers.

“Maybe not...but when you played into the sir and lady thing, I thought maybe you were teasing me...you know...inviting me...flirting with me...And it didn’t take much to get you to go out with me...And then, in the lobby of your hotel, I could tell it would only have taken a bit more persuasion...It was obvious the way you responded to my kiss, even if it only was your hand. I know these things, you see…”

“Of all the arrogant assumptions...!”

“Wait...stop...don’t say any more. I told you I was sorry...I meant it...I truly am...can we call a truce, please?”

He looked deeply into her eyes. She bit her lip again, trying not to drown in the depths of his amber gaze. His eyes were hypnotic. Was this all a game? She’d only met him yesterday! Was he genuinely sorry, or was he just a practiced flirt and heartbreaker as she’d been warned?

What the hell...why fight it...? Why not let the whole thing drop? She’d come here to be with him anyway, didn’t she? And, here he was live, in person, and up very close. Maybe too close for comfort even.

What exactly had she envisioned by coming here into the past? What had she expected after meeting him? Holding hands and walks along a lane somewhere? For a whole week?

Even though he was young, he was a man of the world. He’d been to Europe, and he played in a band at clubs frequented by groupies. Girls fell all over him. He was a virile young man and experienced with women.

And, based on the hand-kissing and his asking to come up to her hotel room last night, it was plain as day that wanted her. She swallowed. It was naïve to think he wouldn’t try to seduce her when she agreed to let him walk her back to her hotel.

“Well, okay...and maybe I shouldn’t have told Sandra about the hand-kissing...I didn’t think she was going to broadcast it all over...” She paused. “Well, actually, I was hoping she would spread it around. I was so very angry and insulted.”

“Truce then?”

“Yeah, truce.”

“So, can I ask you a question?”

“And what’s that?”

The side of his mouth quirked. “Are you really a virgin?”

She stepped back, feeling the heat come into her face, hands on her hips, her mouth forming into a giant “O.” She felt stunned that he would ask such a thing after he’d just made profuse apologies to her. Damn that Sandra, anyway! What should she say now? Holy crap! Her face was quickly darkening to a bright red, thinking that this body she was in really was virginal.

“That’s for me to know!” she responded.

“And for me to find out?” he quipped with a devilish twinkle in his eye.

She couldn’t help it; she started to laugh.

“You’re simply incorrigible!” she said. “Let’s go back to your practice, but no more ‘I’ll have you,’ okay?”

“Well, okay...”

He winked, took her hand, and they went back in.

The boys all had their guitars on and were ready to start. They all looked away when James and Susan came back in. Mindy grabbed Susan’s arm and said, “What was that all about?”

“Nothing. We called a truce,” Susan replied.

Derek stepped back up to the microphone and started singing.

“Put down your arms and give it all to me (Tra la, la)...

Put down your arms…you’ll surrender, you’ll see… (Tra la, la)

Yeah, (Tra la, la)...Use your lips for kissin’ me...

Sweetheart, that’s just how it’s gotta be (Ooh)…”

Susan shot James a look as if to say, “What the hell is all this ‘surrender’ stuff about?”

He just smiled, shrugged his shoulders, and shook his head as if to respond, “Not my choice of a song.”

“Hmph,” she muttered to herself.

“So, did you go to bed with him or not?” Mindy asked. “I don’t believe that hand-kissing stuff.”

“No, no, and another no!” Susan exclaimed. “Is that all anybody thinks about? Don’t people have platonic relationships around here?”

“And what would that mean exactly?”

“You know, just be friends...or just start out getting to know each other...talk, maybe hold hands, that kind of thing.”

Mindy rolled her eyes. “Well, maybe for some, but if you have your sights set on someone in a band, you gotta be accepting, if you know what I mean. Derek and I were in the sheets a few hours after I met him. No shame in it...it’s just the way it is... an excellent way to get to know a bloke, you know...Most of the girls that come here to the club are hoping for a tumble in the sheets with a nice bloke…Gotta take the opportunity when it’s there, or you can miss out, you know.”

Susan stared back at her in bewildered disbelief. “Girls come here expecting to put out or hook up?! Sounds just like the future music scene! I guess some things never change!”

Derek kept singing.

“Don’t look at me like that, “Mindy said. “We all have our weaknesses, you know. Derek just happens to be mine.”

“And you’ll end up marrying him someday,” said Susan before she could stop the thought from coming out of her mouth.

Mindy raised her eyebrows. “And how exactly do you know that?”

“Because I have intuition, that’s all. I can tell the way he looks at you.”

“Really...and how does he look at me?”

“With love...and…uh…lust in his eyes.”

“Lust is the fun part. You should try it sometime. I didn’t hear what happened last night between you and James, but he was mad as a hornet’s nest when he came in, and all the boys were teasing him about just kissing your hand and nothing else. I think it was Sandra who told Derek out in the club. That’s why Derek thought you might not show up. I didn’t believe it. I’ve never known any girl to refuse James.”

At first, Susan looked like she would go off into a tirade again about how “not nice” it was to make bets on a girl’s virtue, but then she visibly relaxed.

“Oh...umm, yeah, well, let’s just forget it for now, can we? Tell me something about yourself.”

Susan and Mindy floated into a friendly conversation, and the practice wore on.

“Shanna...You came and told me, love...

To let you be free, love...

You think he likes you better than me...

So I might just let you go free...

Run off with him...Run off with him...“

Susan started to sing along,

“For my whole life...I’ve been waiting to find a love...

To want me as much as I want you...

Oh, no, but when I find a love that makes me feel good...

She doesn’t want me like I hoped she would...

So, what am I, love, what am I wanting to do...oh, now, oh now, oh how...”

Mindy was staring at her curiously. “How do you know the words to that song?” she asked.

Susan was startled out of singing.

“Oh...um...Didn’t they sing it last night...I think I remember it...um...it’s a really good song, isn’t it? Who’s Shanna, by the way?”

“Nobody I know,” replied Mindy. “Just odd that you would know the words so good.”

“Well, I guess I’m just an odd sort of person then and remember words easily,” said Susan trying to change the subject. “So, how long does the practice session last? What happens after that?”

“Until about 5:00 or so. Then I’ll go out and pick up fish and chips for everybody...James pays tonight because he lost the wager...then we’ll sit around and talk some more, the other bands will come in, and we’ll listen to them before the boys go on. Sometimes Derek and me will slip off for some private time...”

“Hey, James is motioning to you,” said Mindy.

Susan turned and looked at him.

“For you,” he said, and the boys started to sing again.

“A taste of sugar...

Tasting a lot sweeter than berries...”

Oh, my! She knew the words to the song but dared not make it obvious. Instead, she just smiled. James sang in his clear voice.

“I think of our first kiss…

And now…I can taste you on my lips once more…

A taste of sugar…

Tasting a lot sweeter than berries.”

She extended her arm and hand towards him, then turned her palm upwards. He grinned back at her, sharing the private joke that no one else seemed to notice.

“I will come back, yes, you know I will come back...

I’ll come back for the taste of your berry-red lips and you…”

It was slightly after 5:00 when the practice was close to getting over. Derek gestured to Mindy and asked her to run out for the fish and chips. James said nothing as he reached into his pocket and handed over some money. Derek passed it on to Mindy, who headed toward the door motioning for Susan to go with her.

Derek elbowed James. “Eh, are we on for the same bet for Tuesday supper then? Triple the odds due to her being a virgin, so it’ll be supper and two rounds of ale.”

“For tonight?” asked