Five Women Read Online Free Page B

Five Women
Book: Five Women Read Online Free
Author: Rona Jaffe
Pages:
Go to
forgets.”
    â€œI’m afraid to tell you.” She felt like a freak. Why not admit the truth? She trusted her friends. “I haven’t had sex in five years,” Gara said. When the words came out and she had to listen to them, she wanted to cry.
    â€œFive years?” Felicity gasped. “You’re kidding! Five
years?
”
    Kathryn did not gasp. She had not had sex in longer than that; but, of course,
she
didn’t care.
    Gara shrugged. The time had gone by fast and she had been occupied with much more serious things. Every day she remembered how lucky she was to be alive.
    â€œYou haven’t been in mourning all this time for that ex-husband of yours?” Kathryn asked sternly.
    â€œNo,” Gara said, truthfully. “But I was busy. Breast cancer is very time-consuming.”
    â€œBut you’re well now,” Felicity said.
    â€œAnd it’s time to find you a boyfriend,” Kathryn said. “Someone attractive and intelligent, with a sense of humor, with a nice summer house . . .”
    â€œI
have
a nice summer house.” Her little place on the beach in Amagansett had been part of her divorce settlement. She had bought Carl out.
    â€œYou’re not like me, you don’t need anything from a man,” Felicity said. “You have a great deal to offer in a relationship. Not all men want twenty-three-year-olds.”
    â€œYou should take an ad in the personals,” Kathryn said.
    â€œFifty-five-year-old woman with one tit wants to get fucked,” Gara said dryly.
    She watched as they screamed with laughter. Felicity was doubled over, tears coming out of her eyes. Gara knew their laughter was partly in shock at her forthrightness, and partly in admiration for her spirit. She had chosen to keep her cancer an almost complete secret, even from her patients, and she knew the few friends she had told wouldn’t tell. They didn’t understand her secrecy—after all, she had survived—but they honored it. She approached her situation with unexpected humor, and her friends looked upon this with awe.
    But behind the laughter was her secret realization that, without even knowing how it had happened, she had suddenly turned around to discover that she had become one of those women who’d already had her life. As a young girl she’d seen them: the widows, the mutilated, the card players. They seemed to be at the end of their lives as women, a destiny too far away to imagine. Now, except for her career, this dwindling away into invisibility did not seem so far away anymore. But it was still incredibly foreign and strange, and it felt much too soon.
    â€œWhat are you laughing about?” Eve demanded, sailing up to their table like the actress she was and glancing around to see if there was anybody in the restaurant she wanted to sit closer to. Her red hair was the color of fire, and she was wearing feather earrings and had a feather pinned in her hair, and her lipstick was almost black.
    â€œHi, Eve,” Kathryn gasped, pulling herself together.
    â€œAnybody here?” Eve asked. She pulled out a chair and sat down. “Not so lively tonight.”
    â€œIt’s still early,” Gara said.
    The waiter came over and Eve ordered a beer. “So how’s Russell?” she asked Felicity.
    â€œI have to call him,” Felicity said, making a face. She pulled the cell phone out of her bag and dialed. “Don’t sound like you’re having too much fun.” Her voice changed, became sweet, soft, and subservient. “Hi, Slugger.”
    â€œGreat name for a guy who hits you,” Eve whispered.
    â€œWe’re here at Yellowbird,” Felicity said into the phone. “Gara and Kathryn and Eve. That’s all. How’s the game? Uh-huh. No, I won’t be late. Okay. No. Okay.” She clicked off. “Yeech,” she said.
    â€œSuch love,” Eve said.
    They ordered grilled chicken and

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