Always and Forever by Cynthia Freeman Read Free Book Online Page B

him.
    “What are you going to do back home?” David asked. He knew this photography bit was a one-shot situation.
    “I’m not sure. The old man keeps trying to shove me into the business. I told him I’ve spent three years in the army. I need some time to figure out where I want to go. I can’t go far on the twenty bucks a week the GI Bill gives me for 52 weeks.”
    “You could go back to school,” David pointed out.
    “Are you kidding? I hated school. I never would have finished high school if you hadn’t been there sharing my room,” he reminded. “All I thought about that last year—when we were together at boarding school—was nookie. And college was a drag.”
    “I have to go,” David said. “I’m working tonight.”
    “You’ll be sorry later that you missed Paris,” Phil warned. “I hear the bars and nightclubs are rolling again. But then,” he drawled, “you never really appreciated the great things in life.”
    To Kathy the approach of Hanukkah was unexpectedly poignant here. For how many years had it been impossible to celebrate Hanukkah in Germany? Over half of the group members were Jewish. Kathy knew they shared her feelings about this first. Hanukkah since the end of the war. Brian, who was not Jewish, discovered a menorah beneath the rubble of what had once been a Hebrew school. David whittled down candles to fit into the holders, and for eight nights they lit the Hanukkah candles. For Christmas they decorated a tiny pine tree with designs cut from colored construction paper. But ever close to the surface of their minds were the terrible shortages—food, coal, clothing—that plagued the city despite all the relief efforts.
    Phil kept up their spirits, Kathy admitted to herself. He charmed everybody. Maybe not Brian, she decided after a moment. Brian was annoyed that most of the girls in their group acted as though Phil had personally liberated Paris.
    On Christmas Eve Phil came up with a bottle of champagne after a visit to the crumbling waterfront.
    “I won it in a crap game,” he reported while someone hastily unearthed a corkscrew. “A talent I developed in the army.”
    He’d also come up with a sprig of mistletoe, which he hung over the kitchen door. Kathy was startled when he reached for her beneath the mistletoe and kissed her. But all at once it wasn’t a casual “mistletoe kiss.” She was trembling when he released her.
    “We’ll have to do that again,” he whispered. “Why do you keep running away from me?”
    “I don’t,” she stammered. Nobody had ever kissed her like that. Nobody had ever really kissed her, she thought. Just awkward pecks by self-conscious students who hadn’t been drafted.
    Why hadn’t David ever kissed her?

Chapter 4
    A LMOST OVERNIGHT, IT SEEMED to Kathy, Phil was in pursuit. He made it clear to the others that he was intrigued by her. Not Rhoda, or Claire, or the other three girls. She waited for David to show some indication of his own feelings, but he seemed to withdraw into himself. He was relieved, she tormented herself. He hadn’t wanted anything more than friendship from her. How could she have been so stupid?
    Running from her hurt at David’s withdrawal, she found solace in Phil’s attentions. At intervals the memory of those heated moments beneath the mistletoe dominated her thoughts. She was disconcerted by the physical arousal she felt in his presence. And Phil made it clear he was attracted to her.
    Despite their long working hours Phil contrived to see her alone. They sipped watery beer in a nearby tavern and held hands beneath the table. They managed brief interludes in his dreary basement flat, though only after she made Phil understand nothing would happen beyond passionate kisses and heated touching. And each time she wondered how much longer she could keep saying no to his entreaties. She didn’t really want to stop.
    Then all at once she began to worry that Phil would be leaving before the group began the search