Denise was led to a small booth across the aisle from the bar. She sat down and glanced upward at the musicians - a combo, weeping a sad cadence from a raised platform.
Soon a waitress arrived and took her order.
When the drink was served, Denise immediately sipped it, thinking that it was the first alcohol she had tasted in more that two years. A first, she thought, smiling. Then she thought of other things that would become a new, first experience for her again. She worried about it for a moment, thinking how some pursuits for her, once started, could go forever unchecked. She felt a tremble come to her thighs and she knew that it represented an aftermath of the excitement caused by bed-spring sounds of love and the memories that had been provoked.
Denise raised her glass and finished
