“You really want to give it another try?” Grady asked, his sexy lips curving into a smile, and Alice couldn’t take it anymore. She rose on her tiptoes and kissed him fully.

No tongue, yet. Remember, keep your tongue to yourself.

Grady kissed her back, his lips warm on hers, and he pulled her to her toes in a way that made her forget the no-tongue part. She kissed him more deeply, her hands clinging to his back, and she could feel his shoulder blades flexing under his shirt, which drove her crazy.

“I missed you,” Grady said, coming up for air, and Alice could see he had the look of love. She kissed him again, and the idea that she was about to screw Bennie’s boyfriend got her so excited that she yanked his shirt out of his pants in back and ran her hands underneath to his shoulders, aroused by the warmth of his skin.

“Let’s go upstairs,” Grady said huskily, releasing her embrace and taking her by the wrist. He tugged her up the stairs, and they hit the darkened bedroom, where he picked her up and tossed her backwards onto the bed. She kicked off her Birkenstocks, tore off her T-shirt, and was about to take off her bra when he crawled on top of her, stopping her hands.

“You know that’s my job.” Grady reached around her back, unhooked her bra, slipped her out of it, and tossed it aside. “Some things you never forget.”

Alice kissed him and threw her arms around him, pulling him on top of her, loving the feel of his shirt against her bare breasts. His hands moved to her nipples, which set her on fire. She couldn’t wait to feel him inside her and she knew she’d be better than Bennie. She had his shirt off in record time, throwing it over his back, and her fingers flew to unhook his waistband and unzip his pants.

“Down, girl!” Grady chuckled. “What’s got into you?”

Oops. “I’m happy to see you, is all.”

“Right answer.” Grady moved to unfasten her baggy shorts, but Alice unzipped his fly.

“Beat you.”

“God, you’re so… different.”

“Don’t be silly.” Alice warned herself to back it down. She leaned over and kissed him slowly, setting a more relaxed pace, so he wouldn’t be suspicious. “You can’t even remember how I was.”

“I know, it’s been too long.” Grady caught her hands when she went to take off his boxers. “I don’t have a condom. Do you?”

“It’s okay.” Alice went for his boxers, but Grady stopped her again.

“This, coming from you?”

“Let’s just do it. Just this once.” Alice freed her hand, reached between his legs, and slipped her fingers inside his boxers. She hit paydirt, but there was a problem. There was no ignition, and she wondered if Grady’s body knew something that his brain didn’t-that she wasn’t the real Bennie. “Okay, you’re right, wait a minute.”

“Good.”

“Be right back.” Alice rolled over, groped the night table for the drawer, and stuck her hand inside, feeling around for condoms. She could tell the difference between a Trojan and a Durex by feel, but all she could find were pens and pencils.

“Any luck?”

“Stay tuned.” Alice jumped out of bed, ran for the bathroom, flicked on the light, and tore open the medicine chest. No condoms. She rummaged through the trays and found combs, vitamins, and mint dental floss, but there were no condoms anywhere.

“How we doing?”

“Almost.” Alice flicked off the light and hurried across the bedroom to Bennie’s dresser. She rooted through the underwear, but nobody who wore CVS panties would have a box of condoms. She hurried back to bed and threw her arms around Grady, who let her pull him on top of her again.

“Well?”

“Forget it, please, please, please.” Alice kissed him, writhing beneath him, and getting hot all over again when he finally responded, grinding into her. But there were still no signs of life in the southern hemisphere.

“I’m sorry, let’s just rest.” Grady stopped and propped himself up on an elbow, looking down at her. She could see the outline of his head, and his shoulders.

“I can try-”

“No, please. I guess this is all happening so fast. Too fast.”

“True, that.” Alice made herself relax. She didn’t know if this happened all the time with him, and she had to be careful not to arouse his suspicion, if she couldn’t arouse anything else. “Okay, we’ll just rest.”

“I guess there’s a first for everything, even this.”

“Right. It happens.”

“Not with you, though. We never had a problem before.” Grady sounded puzzled, but she didn’t want him wondering.

“Look, it’s been a terrible night. You’re probably thinking about Bear, and you must feel exhausted from the flight. Don’t worry about it. I’m upset about Bear, too.”

“I know you are, sweetheart.” Grady hugged her close, and Alice snuggled against his chest.

“Good night.”

“Good night,” Alice said, trying to sound sleepy. He definitely believed she was Bennie, which was good.

Because if he started suspecting anything, she’d have to kill him.

Mary was up early Sunday morning, showered and wrapped in her bathrobe, pressing floppy contacts into her eyes, feeling terrific despite the tequila. She had fallen asleep easily, which was euphemistic for passed out on her bed, and had awakened with new resolve. Today was a day in which she would confront her problems rather than avoid them. If she was going to be a boss, she’d have to start acting like one.

She slicked her hair back into a ponytail, padded out of the bathroom, shed her bathrobe, and slipped into clean underwear, a fresh white cotton tee, a blue cotton skirt, and leather sandals, then picked up her BlackBerry and waited for Anthony to pick up.

“Hey, babe,” he said, characteristically cheerful, which touched her.

“So, you still want to look at open houses? I found some good ones online and in the paper.”

“Good, let’s do it. Judy feeling better?”

“Nothing a hundred proof didn’t cure. I’ll be at your place by noon, so that we can start by one o’clock, okay?”

“What about work? That brief you had to do?”

“The brief is reposado, which is Spanish for legally sufficient, though it can also mean really delicious.”

Anthony laughed. “Reposado is a type of tequila and it means ‘rested.’ ”

“That’s just how I feel. See you at one.”

“Love you,” Anthony said, but she hung up before she could tell him, which was an accident. She slipped the BlackBerry into her back pocket, grabbed her purse, left her apartment, and grabbed a cab to South Philly. She had to make a stop, first.

She got out of the cab in front of her parents’ house, waved to the neighbors, and went up the stoop to the screen door, with its fake-Gothic D in aluminum. She remembered a time when everybody on their block had a D on their front screen, and growing up, she had thought it stood for Door, until she realized it was DiCrescenzo, D’Antonio, and DeJulio. The neighborhood had changed since then, but not the DiNunzios. She opened the door and went inside.

“Ma, Dad?” She dropped her purse on the chair and walked through to the kitchen, which was packed with her father and her favorite octogenarians, his friends The Three Tonys-Pigeon Tony Lucia, Tony-From-Down-The-Block LoMonaco, and Tony “Two Feet” Pensiera-all of whom were sitting at the table, enchanted by resident temptress, Fiorella Bucatina.

“Maria, ’allo, Maria!” Her mother was at the stove making meatballs, and the air smelled like saturated fats.

“Hi, Ma.” Mary kissed her, catching a whiff of AquaNet and fresh bread crumbs. “I thought I’d drop in and see you and Pop.”

“Good, alla good.” Her mother set the meatball in the hot oil, where it sizzled aromatically. “Everybody come here aft’ church, for base-a-ball game.”

“I understand,” Mary said, but she didn’t. Her father never watched the Phillies with anything but his cigar.