You're In A Lesbian Pulp Novel From 1958! What's Distracting You From Work And Causing Your Heterosexual Coworker Nora To Glance Curiously Over At Your Desk?

(Yes, I’ve been reading Beebo Brinker again.)

That bar we went to last night, the one Bill just seemed to know about as if by intuition — that bar didn’t have any windows in it…

The innately feminine curves of your roommate’s hairbrush

Subway full of people on it — the deadening press of bodies — the insolent yet knowing stares of strange men — the queer feeling of being buried alive and yet somehow still in a hurry to get somewhere —

She knows. She knows!

“A butch? What’s that?”

Marsha has the fine, high coloring and the aristocratic step of the Palomino horses your mother used to ride before her accident

Someone made a joke last night and you didn’t realize until you arrived at home. You never realize when someone’s telling a joke, which leads to the wildly destabilizing conclusion that most of the people you know are joking most of the time.

Had that handsome brown voice on the phone that morning belonged to a boy or a girl? And why did it matter so?

Baxter called again for you last night — he says he’s picking you up at eight whether you’re dressed or not

A woman you barely know is rude and has a bracingly short haircut

Nothing’s the matter, Jackie! Please, just leave me alone!

A glass of milk failed to steady your nerves after witnessing a primal scene

A double date with you and Rick? What other choice did she have? This was normal society, and that was the game to be played…

“If I had wanted sarcasm,” Jeff had remarked acidly, “I would have stayed at Chita’s.”

Soft fawn-colored shirtwaist

Learned about coffee shops

Silver flash of hair curlers in the moonlight

Angry belt-tying

Swept laughing through a doorway in the Village

Diner sexuality

Shared a plate of eggs with a softly handsome woman

Saw your roommate kissing a man last night and felt instinctively repulsed and nauseated by the unnatural lines of their embrace

Hung out in a bookstore without buying anything

Weight of newspaper oppressive in your handbag

Spent the night sitting half-upright in bed listening for something, hearing nothing

Roommate wore pajamas last night

Midnight ironing

Your beard has started quoting his analyst to you

Your father.

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