Free Capital Sins by Jane Marciano Page B

just some
broad who took advantage of me when I was drunk.'
    'Ha! And
you brought her back here with you to sleep it off, 1 suppose!'
    There was
shrill laughter from her, a raucous sound.
    'Aw, hell,
baby, you don't have to be jealous. You know it's you I want, and only you.'
    Knows which
side his bread's buttered, Connie thought, hating him with every fibre of her
being.
    'I've told
you about this before, Phil.' His wife's voice was warning now. 'I won't stand
for any cheating ... '
    Stinking
gigolo! The word seared through Connie's mind
    'Don't
scold, sweet. Look, I'll make it up to you.'
    'Oh, yeah? And just how are you going to do that?' Her voice had taken on a whining,
petulant note. She had been grossly offended, and he had to pay. 'When was the
last time you and me made it together, Phi!?'
    ' C'mere and I'll remind you, make you remember ... '
    She turned
coy. 'I don't know. You've been a bad boy and I'm very annoyed with you ...
what are you doing!' The voice had scaled a pitch.
    Connie
closed her eyes, sickened.
    'Isn't this
the way you like it?' There was the sound of ripping cloth, and Connie looked
around wildly for her handbag, not wanting to hear any more.
    'Spread
your legs, baby. Now, how does this feel ... and this?'
    The girl
picked up her coat as she raced across the room to the door. She flung it open
and ran from the place as fast as her legs would go. Not having waited for the
lift, the clattering of her heels could be heard as she fled.

 
    'God, it
was awful, Sheila, I've never felt so humiliated in all my life. I wanted to
die!'
    Connie had
just finished relating last night's episode to a sympathetic Sheila Delaney.
Sitting at her desk amid the normal routine of a fresh day, it now seemed as if
it had been a long and horrible nightmare, not quite real.
    'You poor kid. You're sure learning about life the hard way. Connie's fingers pounded
on the typewriter keys as if she were venting her fury on the machine.
    'Men! They're just beasts, rotten to the core!'
    'Not all of
them,' Sheila said fairly.
    'All the
ones I've met have been,' the younger girl snorted. 'I just don't understand
how they can act the way they do,' she complained, her face still bitter as she
recalled the way that Philip Dual had grovelled before his wife.
    Sheila
shrugged, relating to her own experiences but wisely not mentioning them.
    'One's got
to beat them at their own game, be a queen, not a pawn,' Connie went on,
bending over her typewriter to angrily erase a mistake on the paper. 'If I act
all feminine, they treat me like a piece of putty. The secret's to be like
them; hard as nails, and twice as selfish!'
    'You don't
really mean that. You're just saying it now because you've been hurt.'
    'Used!'
    'That way
can also get one into difficulties. Connie. If you act like a hard nut, they'll
treat you like one. You've been unfortunate in your choice ...
'
    'But if I
act naturally, just be myself, they still treat me with contempt!' Connie
grumbled.
    'Oh, lovey ,' Sheila sighed, looking at the girl's blonde head
regretfully. 'You're too young to be such a cynic.'
    ' Tilly says that's the only way to be.' She flung back her
long hair over her shoulders impatiently and peered at her note pad. 'She never
gets involved with any man unless she thinks he can do her some good. Tilly's got a nose about things like that.'
    She chewed
the tip of her pencil and frowned. 'What I'm doing wrong is getting myself too
serious and uptight, I should learn to take things as they come, enjoy myself
with some light-hearted fun – for now, anyway.'
    Sheila
couldn't help smiling at her secretary's intentness. 'But I thought you said
your aim was to find yourself a good man and get married.'
    'I thought
it over in bed last night and decided I've still got plenty of time for
marriage and kids. If I rush, I might make a. mistake, and I don't believe in
divorce, whatever the problem, so I'm going to go out with lots of different
types, and from one I'll