Page 24 of Across the Universe

"You know," Vicki says, pouring pasta into the pot of boiling water on the stove. "I once worked at a government office in Chicago, and they had these cameras stationed around--for security. Maybe they have those?"

Jeanie frowns. "You mean… video cameras?"

Vicki turns her head to glance at Jeanie over her shoulder. "Yeah, of course. Video. NASA is a top-secret type of place, princess. They have technology there worth millions of dollars, not to mention things they'd like to keep secret as they work on them. Right?"

Jeanie feels her limbs turn to concrete as realization dawns. "You're right. Of course you're right." She slaps a palm to her forehead and leaves the heel of her hand pressed there, just over the bridge of her nose as she squints her eyes to make the image go away. "That means that no one slipped into the stairwell, saw us, and spread eyewitness rumors. What it means is that it's on video somewhere, and there's actual proof of the whole thing. God, I amdumb."

"Oh, you're not dumb." Vicki pulls a serrated bread knife from the butcher block of knives and places it on the counter next to Jeanie. "Here, cut the French bread, will you?"

Jeanie sets her wineglass down and turns her attention to the loaf of bread in paper wrapping. She sets to work slicing off pieces as Vicki goes on.

"You're just a kid with a crush--you can't fault yourself too much. Especially since this guy was complicit." Vicki is bent over in front of the refrigerator, digging through the crisper for a head of lettuce, which she produces with relish. "Aha! We're having a little salad as well. Cut this too." She sets the lettuce near Jeanie and bustles around, pulling out tomatoes, an onion, and some radishes.

"I can't use being a kid as an excuse forever," Jeanie says. Her eyes are on the sharp knife as it slides through the crispy bread crust. "I'm not even that young."

"Sure, sure." Vicki waves this away with her tone. "But you are inexperienced--and I mean that in the nicest of ways."

Jeanie almost laughs. "I'll take it in the nicest of ways--believe me." She's never been one who wanted to sample every man out there, and now that she's the age she is, it actually feels pretty good to have played her cards close to the vest all these years. "But at some point Ishouldknow what I'm doing, you know?"

Vicki has paused her food prep to take a long drag on her cigarette, which she's holding between two fingers with her elbow propped on her hip as she watches Jeanie cut the French bread. "Oh, I'm not saying you didn't know what you were doing, honey, just that you didn't play through the consequences in your mind before doing it.That'sinexperience--not the lack of sexual conquests."

Jeanie sets the knife down and turns to Vicki. "Have you been in this position before?"

"Knowingly kissing a married man?" Vicki looks around nonchalantly. "Sure, I've kissed a few frogs who I knew were toads."

"That's a rather indirect answer."

"Okay, I once kissed my sister's husband at Thanksgiving."

Jeanie makes a gagging face. "What?! Like a goodbye peck on the cheek?"

Vicki blinks at her. "No, baby girl, like we were both shithoused on Tanqueray and I always thought he was a silver fox, so I cornered him in the tiny bathroom under the stairs and shoved my tongue in his mouth."

"Vicki!" Jeanie could not be more stunned than she is by this revelation. "What happened after that?"

Vicki shrugs. "Nothing. He straightened his tie, and we walked back out into the kitchen. Never mentioned it again, and my sister still has no clue. It meant nothing.”

"Are they still married?"

"Eh, he died." Vicki turns back to the stove to stir the boiling pasta noodles. "Heart attack. He was fifteen years older than her--that's why I said he was a bit of a silver fox." She shrugs and carries the pot over to the sink, where she dumps it all slowly into a colander. "Anyhow, yeah, we do some things that we know are wrong--even in the moment--and then we decide how to live with those things."

"Ugh...I could never kiss my sister's husband!" Jeanie is imagining it in her head and the thought is completely outrageous.

"Well, if memory serves, your sister is only about nineteen, and her fiancé has to be the same age, give or take. So unless you're into kissing teenagers, then no, I suppose you wouldn't."

Jeanie has abandoned the bread cutting and ignored the lettuce entirely. She's holding both temples with the tips of her fingers as she processes everything. "You really aren't judging me for this, are you?" It's clear that Vicki is far more open-minded than anyone else Jeanie knows, but it still surprises her not to have gotten a lecture from the older woman.

Vicki turns off the stove and moves the sauce to a cold burner as she gives it one more stir, dips her finger into it, and tastes it. "More salt," she says. "And no, I'm not. I hope my little Thanksgiving story proved to you once and for all that I am a woman who is in no position to judge at all. But even if I were, why pass judgment? You're living your life the best way you know how, and I'm living mine. I like to think that everyone is."

"That sounds so simple."

"And yet, sometimes things really are that simple."

"Occam's Razor," Jeanie says.

"Come again?"

Jeanie shakes her head. "It's just a well-known principle that suggests that the simplest answer is usually the right one."

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