Chapter 23 - Getting on With Life
This was not the first time the Junes had an enemy living in Charleston. Jinny had started out as an enemy more than a year ago, and then had turned into a business partner and friend. Roger and Gwen knew that wasn’t going to happen with Stirg. The Junes were lucky in that they were exceptionally flexible minded people and so were able to deal with this situation. This was one of many characteristics they shared, and that allowed for a long term and loving relationship.
They also were like President Clinton in their capability to compartmentalize the forces acting on their lives. Clinton had been able to have his dalliance with a young airheaded woman in the Oval Office, spread across every newspaper in the known world, and at the same time sit across the negotiating table with Vladimir Putin and tell him, “No fucking way, Puty, are we ever going to agree to that shit.”
The Junes were able to live with the results of their visit to Stirg’s house without letting it adversely affect their enjoyment of life. They kept their dinner reservation later that evening, they enjoyed the bottle of Vouvray they ordered with their seafood, and they enjoyed a stroll around the historic district afterwards, though of course both of them carried their guns, and both of them kept a sixth sense of awareness in a heightened state.
The team split up for a few days after the Stirg adventure because they knew Constantine and Henric were coming back to Charleston soon. The plan was to reassemble at that time and figure out a strategy to deal with Stirg. None of the team were under the delusion that Stirg was going to drop the matter that was causing him such intense moral irritation.
The next day the June’s friend Gale came over for coffee late in the afternoon. Gale knew about the Hermitage caper, but was not a full-fledged team member due to a complete inability to keep her mouth shut about anything. Gale was wild in a different way than Gwen was wild. Gale loved clothes and parties and Champagne and men and sex and eating in great restaurants. Gwen loved all those things too, but Gwen also loved Chopin and reading the social novels of Richard Condon and staring at Madonnas painted by Raphael. Gale knew she couldn’t keep her mouth shut about certain things, so she told Roger and Gwen not to tell her stuff, even when she told them that if they didn’t tell her everything, she would tell everyone in Charleston that they were bisexual. There are many people for whom such a threat would be like manna from heaven, because it would increase the excitement in their lives, but the Junes didn’t need that because their lives were quite exciting enough, thank you very much.
So Gwen did not tell Gale about their visit to Stirg the day before. Gwen had invited Gale over for coffee because Gwen wanted some social interaction that did not involve gunplay, Russians, or stealing things, so they talked about one of their usual subjects, sex. Gale asked Gwen if she had read the new book 40 Beads. It was written by a fellow Charlestonian, a woman, and was about how to keep sex alive and interesting and manageable over the haul of a long term marriage. Gwen said she didn’t have that problem, that she and Roger had a system in place called love and respect, and after that the sex took care of itself. Gale said don’t be so highfalutin. What was interesting about the book was the way the author so accurately characterized men, and did so in terms that had meaning to women. Gwen looked at Gale and said, “Are you telling me you don’t know men are sex nuts, sex crazed, sexually addled, totally consumed with the subject?”
Gale said, “Oh God, no. I know that. We all know that. But what the book does is tell women how to deal with that, when there’s a difference in appetite between the man and the woman. That’s not a problem for you and me, I know, but it does happen, evidently, with some unfortunates among us, poor dears. You know, the other nine out of ten women.” Gale sipped her coffee, looking either sympathetic or superior (Gwen wasn’t sure). “You know what she says in the book?” Gale asked. “She says that when men in a relationship think there’s no sex on the near horizon, they feel desperate, and they act like assholes, which in turn, turns the woman off from wanting sex.”
Gwen said, “That’s news? Hell, Egyptian women back in the Fourth Dynasty, 4000 BC., knew that.”
Gale said, “Stop it. It’s the way this woman says this stuff in the book. It’s the directness. She says, when men are having sex regularly, they’re ok. When they’re not, they’re pissed. When their needs are not being met, they hate you. She says this figuratively, but it still means a lot. And then she has this method thing to help couples who are in a rut. What’s cool about this author though, is how she targets women and how she says her stuff. Direct, but kind.” Gale looked pleased with herself, and sipped more coffee. Then she looked thoughtful, which caught Gwen’s attention, and said, “You know, if this woman could figure out a way to talk the same way to men that she talks to women, she might really have something.”
Gale and Gwen talked about this subject for a while, which is what Gwen needed. A little decompression time with a girlfriend, considering how she spent the day before: negotiating at gunpoint with a former Nazi hunter and an Israeli commando. The ups and downs of the June’s existence. Sweet.