“Not precisely the sort of panties one wants to be wearing in a horrible automobile accident.” She held them up for Charyn to see. “There are many things in this world I don’t understand,” Nona said, apparently apropos of nothing.
“Aren’t there any with elastic?”
“Yes, here.”
“Very amusing, but better than nothing, I suppose.”
“I’ll try nothing.”
“Oh, aren’t you the daring one? And what will Alex, the mighty hunter, say when you striptease out of these clothes tonight?”
“My Alex? He’ll do what he usually does,”—she faked a long yawn—“and then he’ll go off and play with himself.”
“There’s no gratification like self-gratification.”
“So they say. You know,” she confessed, “I once thought of getting a dildo.”
“It’s that or a lover,” said Charyn after a moment.
“No,” she shook her hea
