Free Sex by Francine Pascal Page A

moments she was just… remarkable. Truly remarkable.
    â€œAll right,” she agreed, leaning back toward him as she slid her silky hair behind her ears. “I was going to say that once again, I think you worry too much.About your daughter and about yourself. This solitary life of yours…”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œThis is a choice, Tom. This does not have to be your life. Take tonight, for instance…” She leaned closer to him. “Is it not obvious to you yet… that you don’t have to be so alone?”
    Tom stared at her bold, unmoving eyes. She was proving superior to him in every aspect. Both more innocent
and
more brave. He was so amazed by her bravery, he didn’t even know what to say.
    â€œOh, dear,” Natasha moaned, placing her hands on her cheeks. “Now I think perhaps I have been a little too obvious. I’m sorry, Tom. That was inappropriate of—”
    â€œNo,” he interrupted her. “No,
don’t
be sorry. Don’t.”
    In matters of national security, Tom had more courage than most, but in matters of the heart, he’d only recently begun to understand what a coward he could be. And for just a long enough moment, he finally stopped his mind from spinning with guilt and he let her bravery inspire him.
    â€œYou’re right,” he said. “You’re right. I don’t want to be alone.” He reached out his hand and ran his knuckles gently down the curves of her face. “No one deserves to be this alone.”
    She fixed her eyes on his as he ran his hand through her hair, which was every bit as much like silk as it had looked. And finally he kissed her. For better or worse,he tasted her lips, and it was as human as he’d felt in a very long time.

 
    BARE-BONES EMOTIONAL SURVIVAL was now the name of the game. And that meant very little thinking, no feeling, and absolutely no crying under any circumstances. That meant that no thoughts about Ed or their crapped-on Shiny Happy New York Couple future were permitted into Gaia’s brain. No thoughts about his lips, or his touch, or the perfect night she was straining so painfully to forget.
----
    Someone to Stomp
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    In her new, officially lonely life, there was only one remaining solace, and that was the kicking of degenerate ass.
    Of course Washington Square Park was now completely out of the question. All aspects of her previous life would now be dropped into a large tin can, doused with gasoline, and set ablaze. Besides, she’d had enough of Washington Square Park. From now on it was out with the old and miserable and in with the new and even more miserable. Namely, the Upper East Side. Gaia’s official and unbearable new home.
    â€œBoring” could not begin to describe the Upper East Side. “Dead” would be a more apt description. With its massive gray-and-white tombstones of buildings and its empty streets at night, the entire neighborhood was like some rich old people’s ghost town. Right now West Fourth Street was probably crawling with people. Drag queens and skate freaks. NYU film heads and Long Island imports looking to get drunk at the Slaughtered Lamb. People laughing, screaming, yelling. Drunk off their asses, but undoubtedly alive. Meanwhile, Gaia had consigned herself to the stark, windy silence of East Seventy-second Street, with nothing to hear but the echoes of Ed’s voice in her head and her usual self-hating mantras:
You’re a freak of nature. You’re a liar and a phony and a real bitch on wheels. You didn’t deserve Sam
or
Ed, which is why this will be your life from here on out.
    In fact, there was only one saving grace of her new life on East Seventy-second Street. And that was the vast uncharted territory of Central Park, which was where she’d ended up tonight, drifting through dark paved walkways and wide-open fields.
    She had officially decided that Central Park would be taking Washington Square