Page 46 of Semantics

“So, do we go look for the rest?” she asked.

“No, I think we just leave them where they fell.”

Stella laughed silently for a moment and said, “So, you wanted to talk?”

“I don’t do this, Stella.”

“Talk? You’re doing it right now.”

“No, sleep around. Sleep with someone I just met, or–”

“We met, like, ten years ago.”

“Not what I meant. We met then, yes, but we didn’t exactly get along, and it’s not like we hung out. I only just found out yesterday that you wanted to sleep with me back then, and, I guess, you still do. I don’t know. Your message leads me to believe that you do.”

“I do, yes.”

“Do you do this a lot?”

“No,” Stella replied and shook her head.

“No, as in never? No, as in not recently?”

“No, as in never,” she said. “I’ve never just met someone and gone home with them. I guess you, technically, went home with me, but I generally date first and take things from there.”

“Not even in college?” Violet asked.

“What’s college got to do with anything?”

“You seemed so confident back then; not at all like me.”

Stella laughed and said, “I’m sorry; that was you unconfident? I hesitate to think about what a confident Violet Russell looks like.”

“I meant with women, asshole.”

“You had a girlfriend,” Stella reminded.

“My girlfriend and I met about a month before I left for Amsterdam, okay? We decided to be exclusive right away because I asked her, and she said yes, but clearly, that was not what was really going on because when I was gone, she was fucking someone else; possibly more than one person. When I got home, if you must know the truth, she pretended like we weren’t exclusive, like we hadn’t even had that conversation, which I know we had, and we’d agreed. But to her, she was never really my girlfriend, apparently.” Violet shrugged a shoulder. “And she was also the first woman I’d…”

“Oh,” Stella said. “She was your first?”

“Yes, and my only for about two years because I was so devastated after the breakup that I didn’t think about dating anyone else or sleeping with anyone else for a while after. So, what we did last night, I’ve never even come close to doing before, and I’m processing it, but I’m not done processing it, you know?”

“So, you’re here to tell me that you’re still processing it and don’t want to do it again? Or maybe just until you have finished processing and decided?”

“No,” Violet said as she shook her head.

Their drinks arrived then, along with the check, so Violet pulled out a credit card and placed it on top of the receipt before she handed both to the waiter, who left them alone to go process the transaction.

“I came here tonight because I liked what we did. Even though I’m still trying to figure out what it means, I liked it.”

“Me too,” Stella said, smiling at her.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yes.”

Violet picked up her water and took a long – no, very long – drink through the straw.