A sweat broke out on the nape of her neck.
She felt hot between her legs.
That moment, she wanted his hand on her neck and him inside her.
She would want to understand why she felt like this – but that was to be later.
She did not know yet, nor care, whether what she felt had much to do with him.
Later she did suspect that it did not really have much to do with him.
But this was before that time, when suspicions would stop her dead.
Right now something urged her on.
It pounded in her blood.
She sought no confirmation – no denial.
She sought no understanding – no love
Right now – she was all sexed up.
She did not seek a romantic image of sex.
For a virgin, in that time and place, this was unusual.
She was an unusual girl.
I first saw her with a few other girls – standing outside the ice cream parlor.
It was afternoon
She did not flick her eyes around nor did she have any ice cream.
She swept the street with her gaze occasionally –
taking it all in –
Her eyes did not dwell on anything for long.
She wanted to see someone and she waited for him – ..
Now, this was a condition I understood.
That’s what settled things between us.
Her head turned on her long neck – and stopped.
Her eyes looked straight into mine and stayed.
I felt I knew her. She did not take her eyes away.
Then together we came to the same place the next evening and other evenings.
We got a Sinful Delight each with a cherry on the top.
And we licked each others’ ice creams.
Many years later I spat out the pip of the peach I was eating, and it skittered across the polished floor and stopped near a slender ankle.
The ankle wore a shining, sharp stiletto.
I remembered her then – as my eyes went up the ankle, along the calf, over the thigh, around the waist, over the arm.
I was looking for the face to which this body belonged.
I could not find it. Her head was turned.
I looked at the slender back and came down her legs,
back to the ankle.
The purple pip of the peach shone near the black stiletto.
I remembered her then,
and I remembered those hot summer afternoons,
when I found that I had always known her,
and she just wanted me,
and not wanted to know how or why.