Chapter 809

• "Of course, Mom. That can happen later, after you--" She made obscene gestures with her hands.
• "I'm not having this conversation anymore," Joyce said as she got up and left for her office.
• But as she thought about the matter, she had to admit her daughter had a point. A man trying to establish intimacy with a new woman in his life doesn't want to have the woman's daughter--even a technically adult daughter--just down the hall from where they are making "nookie." So now she had to contrive to get Gerald to take her to his place. Why shouldn't he? She would have a natural curiosity about his residence. The question was when. Could she do it on the very next date? Would that be too soon--too brazen? If she doffed her clothes on the second date, would that make her a "shameless hussy"? The rule of thumb was that you went to bed on the third date, maybe the fourth. If it didn't happen by then, it might not happen at all, and you'd lapse into that most dreaded of fates: "just friends." But would doing it on the second date send the wrong signal?