It Stings So Sweet
Page 33
“Will it get your Irish temper up if I do?”
“It just might,” I say, throwing my arms round his neck.
“Then I’d better cool you off!” he cries, falling back, dragging me with him. We hit the water with a splash and I yelp with laughter as droplets rain down on us from the fountain above. I try to drag myself up but he holds me against him under the spray until the rapture radiates through my whole being.
“C’mere,” he says, leering. “I want to give you something new to write in your journal …”
He kisses me, heedless of passersby who point and stare. Grinning, I rest my hands on his soaked jacket where I feel something slightly crinkly in the pocket. “What’s this?”
“Another card, but it’s all wet and smeared now.”
A thrill of excitement goes through me. “What did it say?”
He looks down at me sheepishly. “It said: Love me forever.”
My heart squeezes in my chest and I’m filled with joy.
Love me forever.
I know the rules. And this command is one I’m honored to obey.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The Roaring Twenties were a time of sexual liberation, experimentation, and exploration. Having just won the vote, women were at the forefront of social causes and societal change. In spite of—or perhaps because of—Prohibition, the Twenties were boom times. Young women attended college, flocked to major cities to find work, and lived on their own in numbers never before seen in the history of the nation. Homosexuality was more public and more tolerated. Rules for dating changed. Nonmarital sex became common, and women began to demand and use birth control.
Flappers changed the world of business, fashion, politics, and popular entertainment. The Hays Code wouldn’t be adopted and enforced until 1930, which meant major Hollywood films pushed the boundaries of propriety and gave the country some of its sexiest stars. (Clara Bow was one of them, and she served as an inspiration for me.)
In short, the Twenties were a period of social transition—one of those pivotal times in history when women took one step forward, before being shoved two steps back. And because flappers have more in common with women today than almost any generation since, I wanted to write about them.
For me, the beauty of using an historical backdrop in fiction is that you get to comment on the world today. That was certainly the case with this book. So while I spent more time studying the etymology of era-appropriate words and idioms than I did actually writing the stories, I’ve erred on the side of accessibility. The flavor of the Roaring Twenties is reflected in the dialogue and narrative, but an occasional anachronism crops up simply because it made a point or was too delicious to resist.
For reference, the stories in this book take place in 1928 and 1929 before the stock market crash that touched off the Great Depression. The exact chronology of the affairs involving Joe Kennedy, Gloria Swanson, William Randolph Hearst, Marion Davis, William S. Paley, and Louise Brooks have been fudged a bit but occurred roughly contemporaneously.
People from all walks of life came together to agitate for progressive change in the Twenties and, in many instances, African Americans led the way. At the same time, the era saw a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, inspired, in part, by the 1915 race-baiting incendiary film, The Birth of a Nation. Consequently, it was with some trepidation that I used the word Negro, which was polite vernacular at the time.
I want to make plain the fact that while Sophie, my working-class Irish heroine, is first seen encouraging a black coworker to participate in collective bargaining, this should not be taken to diminish the leading role in the social movements taken by African American women like Ida B. Wells, Amy Jaques Garvey, Mary McLeod Bethune, Mary Church Terrell, and others like them.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Love Me or Leave Me
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
When I’m Bad I’m Better
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Let’s Misbehave
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Author’s Note