This, too, strikes them as very funny.
Out of a later silence Maude says, “You were really nice with Allison.”
“She’s nice, I like her a lot.”
More quiet minutes pass. (The music has gone off sometime back.) Although Maude and Jonathan are unaware of the time, the new year has arrived.
Then Maude says, “I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we go to bed?”
“Yes.” Smiling, he looks at her. They stretch their faces toward each other, they kiss.
Jonathan asks, “But which bed, yours or mine?”
They laugh, both of them shy and a little nervous. Maude says, “I think my room’s more private.”
Gathering their glasses and the bottle, they go upstairs to bed.
A Note About the Author
Alice Adams was born in Virginia and graduated from Radcliffe College. She was the recipient of an Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She lived in San Francisco until her death in 1999.
Books by Alice Adams
Careless Love
Families and Survivors
Listening to Billie
Beautiful Girl (stories)
Rich Rewards
Superior Women
Return Trips (stories)
After You’ve Gone (stories)
Caroline’s Daughters
Mexico: Some Travels and Travelers There
Almost Perfect
A Southern Exposure
Medicine Men
The Last Lovely City (stories)
After the War
The Stories of Alice Adams