"Are you okay, hon?" he said.

"I guess so, but my skirt…"

He tried wiping the come from her skirt. "I'm sorry, babe. Maybe your mom won't notice it."

"She always examines my clothes after I go out with you."

"Jesus Christ, you're a grown woman."

"Don't start that again." Using all her strength she pushed his head off her chest.

He sat back while she straightened up and proceeded to arrange her clothes. They were silent, each wrapped up in their own thoughts.

"Saturday night a friend of mine is going out of town," he said after a while.

She hooked her bra and buttoned her blouse.

"So?"

"We can use his apartment."

Old memories flooded her again. Maggie cautioning her not to be too easy. Maggie warning her that girls who gave it away seldom got someone to marry them.

"I don't think so," Pam said now, patting the moist spot on her skirt. "It just wouldn't be right."

"Aw, hon, we do it in the car all the time. What's so wrong about using a friend's pad?"

"What's wrong is that going to an apartment makes it all seem so planned."

"But, hon, we fuck all the time."

"But I'm just overcome, is all," she snapped. "I don't plan on doing it. It just happens."

Silence. "I don't want to fight with you, hon."

"Then don't," she said.

"I'm sorry about what I said about your mother."

Her affection for him overcame her anger. "Please be patient a little longer," she said, opening the car door. "One of these days I'll be ready to marry you. Just give me a little more time."

He kissed the tip of her nose. "Just don't keep me dangling too long, hon. I love you and I want to take care of you, but this car business is getting to me."