The Moment of Everything by Shelly King Read Free Book Online

could.
    “Mellors overwhelms her in the woods,” said the next woman. “He’s always the dominant partner. This is women’s liberation?”
    “There are no sympathetic characters,” said the next woman in the circle. “I didn’t like any of them.”
    “The profanity got old.”
    I remembered Dizzy whispering passages to me in the library study tables, while I tried not to giggle at the absurdity of a stuffy, bearded, old man trying to shock people by using four-letter words we used every day for dismay at having our bikes stolen to elation about pancakes for breakfast in our dorm. Yes, the novel was sorely outdated by modern standards. I could use that.
    “Everything is dated. What relevance is this to our lives today?”
    I could not catch a break.
    “Clifford’s a bastard. I hate her for marrying him,” said the next woman. “She’s an idiot.”
    Avi sat stoic in her chair, her face impassive as she nodded with each comment, before patiently directing the next participant to speak.
    Even Dizzy got into the mix when it was his turn.
    “The coal pits sucked,” he said. “Reminded me of my first job in the Valley.”
    By the time we reached him, no one had had anything positive to say. It was only because I was sitting next to Avi that I heard her sigh. It was a sigh filled with frustration and anxiety, much like the one that seeped out of me every day when I checked my in-box to find it empty of interview requests. I looked past her to the bookshelves that lined the opposite wall. They were inlaid oak shelves with carvings of vines and leaves winding around the edges. And on those shelves were thick mass-market paperbacks with spines cracked like an old crone’s face and hardbacks with dust jackets worn white on the edges. I’d seen the shelves of people who did not love books. Avi’s books, though, were nearly broken from being loved. Avi was a book geek. She wanted everyone to like Lady Chatterley’s Lover . She was waiting to hear how it moved them, how it got under their skin. But everyone hated it, and Avi was taking it personally. I decided then that I liked Avi Narayan very much.
    As Dizzy clipped along about coal pits being a metaphor for choking despair of being matched with the wrong CEO, I reached into my bag and pulled out my book. The notes had all sorts of tidbits about the book. I’m not sure the SVWEABC would have approved of Henry and Catherine, but I was also pretty sure Henry and Catherine would not have approved of the SVWEABC. H and C loved this book.
    Did you know the original title for the novel was Tenderness ? I love the gentleness of their love. Especially Mellors’s letter in the end. ‘If I could sleep with my arms around you, the ink could stay in the bottle.’ —Henry
    Henry, what a hopeless romantic you are. Tenderness does not suit at all. This is a book of passion. She sheds her skin. She is reborn through desire. It is about great sex and what that does for you. —Catherine
    “And so later when…”
    “Dizzy, I’m sorry, can I interrupt for a moment?”
    Dizzy screeched to a halt and glared at me, while the rest of the group stared at me like I’d just grown a second head. Avi looked at me with polite quiet. I held her gaze for another second, and smiled at the surprise on her face when I gave her a wink. I was going to save this meeting for Avi Narayan.
    “I think everything everyone has said here today is exactly on target,” I said, “except that we’re not talking about what we should be talking about. No one has talked about the sex. The good, old-fashioned, in-the-woods, in-front-of-God-and-everybody sex.”
    Wineglasses stopped in midair. Avi nearly spit out her tea. I had their attention. I felt Dizzy staring at me, willing me to shut up. I didn’t dare turn back now. My heart spun like a hyperactive third-grader without his Ritalin.
    “I’ve been sitting here listening to all of you,” I continued. “And I’m so impressed with all the