Cast Me Gently Read Online Free Page B

night, he was screwing some girl in the back seat of his car. If Lou knew, and he probably did, he would chalk Gianni’s behavior up to “just being a man.” She sat there, her anger rising at the inequity of all the things Gianni was allowed to get away with. The organ sounded its opening note and everyone stood.

    “They’ve been like that since he was little!” Teresa complained an hour later. “They think he’s an angel.”
    “Of course that’s what your mother wants to think! And your father? Who knows? Like father like son? I don’t even want to think about it.”
    Teresa sat at the table of her oldest friend, Bernie D’Armelio. She knew she was in for a talking to when she got home after stealing away from church while her parents and the aunts went to Communion. She was sure some variation of “it’s a sin” would be awaiting her, but she didn’t care.
    “We’ve known each other since we were two,” Bernie said. She took a deep drag from her cigarette and exhaled. “You always complain about how the boys get to do any goddamned thing they want and the girls have to behave. It’s never going to change. We’re fucking Italians, for Christ’s sake. It’s just the way it is.” She tapped the ash off the end of her cigarette.
    “I know, but it still makes me angry,” Teresa said, reaching for another doughnut and dunking it in her coffee. “And poor Angelina. She thinks Gianni is waiting for their wedding night.”
    Bernie choked on her coffee. “Him? Those goddamned pants he wears are so tight, you can see him get a hard-on every time he looks at a girl. And she’s stupid enough to think he’s waiting?”
    Teresa screwed her eyes shut. “Bernie, don’t. Jesus. You just about made me sick.”
    Bernie laughed. “And you. Still a virgin. If you would ever let a penis get near you—”
    “I don’t want a penis near me, with or without a man attached to it,” Teresa said flatly. “I’ve never met a man who wasn’t a prick. Why would I want that?”
    Bernie shrugged and took another drag from her cigarette. “You’ve got a point there. You know what Tom did last night? He cancelled on me. Said he had to be home with his wife. Goddamned bastard.”
    Teresa looked at her friend and saw tears shining in her eyes. “Why do you—?”
    “Don’t,” Bernie cut her off. “I know it’s stupid. I know I should stop. But I love him. Have you ever loved anyone so much you would have done anything— anything —to be with them? Even when you know it’s wrong? God, just to feel him touching me, kissing me. No one has ever made me feel like that.”
    “You sound like a drug addict,” Teresa said, secretly glad that she had never felt anything so… destructive, she decided was the right word. Not that she would ever say that to Bernie. No matter what, their friendship had always lasted, and it always will, Teresa thought now as Bernie ground out her cigarette.
    Bernie sniffed and reached for another cigarette. “You want to stay for dinner? You know my mom would love to see you.”
    Teresa sighed. “I can’t. I’m in enough trouble as it is. We’re having the aunts over for dinner today. I gotta get home and help or there’ll be hell to pay.”
    “When are you going to move out and get a place of your own?” Bernie asked.
    Teresa laughed. “Who are you to be asking that? You still live here with your mom.”
    “Yeah,” said Bernie. “But I don’t work with my folks. And my mother doesn’t care where I go or when I come home. Your situation is just weird. Too close.”
    “Well,” Teresa said with a sigh. “I don’t even know if I could afford to move out. I haven’t had a raise in ten years. How do you ask your father for a raise? Then he’d ask why I need more money.”
    “You are fucked,” said Bernie.
    “Bernice Jean, stop with the language.”
    “Sorry. I forget. But you could get a job somewhere else. Some other pharmacy.”
    Teresa’s eyes got big. “Oh, that