Come Dancing Read Online Free

have met Jack, who’d always been my favorite.
    But that was in terms of their music. I’d read about the band’s excesses, particularly Jack’s; he was the epitome of the bad boy rock and roller. Even though at this very minute I could have been wrapping my fingers in that wild mane of hair, I knew I would have felt awful the morning after. Aside from my fling with Eric, I’d seen my mother mope around lots of times after sleeping with a guy and then never hearing from him again. Let’s just say I’d learned from her example.
    Maybe I’m not really missing Art after all this time , I thought as I clumped upstairs. I was probably just lonesome from the solitary weekends spent editing. But I wasn’t about to have a one-night stand with a rock star, no matter how much I liked his music. That would be the dumbest thing I could do.

 
     
     
Chapter 3
    Wrong Idea
     
     
    “I just read in the paper about that rich New York bachelor who’s in real estate,” my mother announced when I picked up the phone the next morning. “Why couldn’t you go out with someone like that? He’s with a different girl every week.” Hearing the strike of a match, I pictured Dot, her hair dyed a brassy shade, lit cigarette in the ashtray at the Pennsylvania plumbing supply store where she worked.
    “I don’t think he’d be interested in me, Mom. His taste runs to blonde bombshells.” I started to tell her I’d run into Jack Kipling, but I was too tired to answer a zillion questions about someone I’d never see again.
    “Well, you have to get out more. You won’t meet anyone stuck in your apartment. Time goes by really quickly, believe me. When I was your age, I was married to your father, and you were three.”
    I pictured myself walking into the office, dragging a screaming toddler attached to my leg. “I’m focusing on my career right now. Anyway, it’s hard to meet people here. Publishing isn’t exactly a hotbed of romance.”
    “I don’t see how it can be that hard. New York is overrun with men. You’re going to be twenty-five next year, Julia. Around here there’s something wrong if you aren’t engaged by then.”
    I twisted the phone cord around my finger. “It’s different in New York, Mom. Not everyone’s biggest goal in life is to get married.”
    “You were dying to move up there, but I don’t see that it’s doing you much good. You could be spending weekends alone back here in Pikesville.”
    “I’m not spending all weekend alone. I went to a club with Vicky last night,” I retorted.
    “I still don’t get why you dance with girls. I think it sends the wrong signal.”
    Our erotic grind would’ve given her heart failure . “It’s not like that here. I can dance with whoever I want. People aren’t hung up over it like they are back home.” I heard cooing, and waved my hand to shoo a pigeon off my open windowsill.
    “You’re not … attracted to Vicky, are you?”
    I couldn’t resist. “Well … she is pretty cute. Those long legs of hers are kind of a turn-on.”
    For a moment Dot was silent. “I was worried something like this would happen. I guess up there, anything goes. Now I’ll never have grandchildren,” she said glumly.
    “But just think, you’ll never have to put up with a son-in-law who leaves his shavings in the sink.”
    “What am I going to tell Paulette and Joan?” she wailed.
    “Mom. I’m kidding. I still like guys. You don’t have to tell your friends anything.” I waved my arm again, and the pigeon flapped off.
    “Well, that’s a relief. I mean, I’m pals with a bartender at Buck’s who swings the other way, but…”
    “You can relax. No one of either gender has been beating down my door lately.”
    “I’m going to have to pay you a visit soon,” she said, exhaling smoke. “Get you out of your rut.”
    This proposed trip came up often, but I had mixed feelings about it. I knew she’d turn up her nose at my cramped living quarters, not to mention the