THE MEN & WOMEN'S CLUB EXCERPT ...

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“Who is the animal?”​

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Animal hurtled through the void that was the emptiness of their lives, an emotive ball of pain.​

 

Ardelle Dennison halted—a black silhouette framed by even blacker shadow—and lied. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

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“You said, ‘If we felt desire,’” Joseph quoted, capturing her every inflection those forty-four days past, that day they had voted into their club a woman who dared to be honest, and for whom they would now all pay the price, “‘we would admit it. But we are guided by a higher moral ground,’ you said. ‘We are not animals,’ you said.”

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“Git your evenin’ news ‘ere . . .” wearily drifted up from the street below. “Globe’ll tell you all. . . .”​

 

Fleetingly Joseph wondered if, come the morrow, the evening newspaper would carry their names, perhaps even their likenesses.

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“Who is the animal, Miss Dennison?” he repeated, question rasping his throat.

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Ardelle Dennison—the only woman he had ever allowed to touch him—remained frozen in the doorway.

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“You, for taking my virginity?” The precariousness of their future crawled on Joseph’s skin like electricity, “Or me, for giving you my virginity?”