Last Dance, Last Chance

danced with Karen.
    In the days to come, she saw Anthony often at the night spots where they all went on weekends. And then, on the Fourth of July weekend, he asked her to dance. Just as Debbie had pictured it, she fit into his arms perfectly. She had never felt like that with a man before.
    Although she could be strong-willed, Debbie had never been assertive with a man; she was much too shy. That night, she surprised herself. “We were dancing, and the record changed from slow to fast. I remember that it was Donna Summers singing ‘Last Dance.’ I guess the song title got to me; if I didn’t speak up, he would be out of my life. So I looked up at Anthony and I said, ‘I wish I’d met you before Karen did…’”
    He smiled down at her and seemed pleased. She sensed that he apparently felt the same way she did.
    Anthony broke up with Karen that night. He asked Debbie to go out with him on July 8. Would she like to see the movie Grease? She accepted happily.
    It was a golden summer for them. Anthony and Debbie went out several times a week and talked on the phone every single day. With the winters in Buffalo so bitterly cold, summers were packed with events scheduled to take advantage of the balmy weather. They went dancing, of course, and to movies, picnics, concerts, and the beach.
    When they talked about birthdays, Anthony said his was on May 12—her mother’s birthday! Such a coincidence had to mean something. Debbie was surprised to learn that Anthony was actually ten months younger than she was, although he seemed far more sophisticated. He was going to college at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was a junior, majoring in mathematics, although he didn’t seem very interested in math. He belonged to one of the top fraternities there: Phi Gamma Delta—whose members were known as Fijis. She dreaded the fall when he would be going back to college, worried that he would drift away from her. Sometimes she was afraid that she was only a summertime girlfriend.
    Anthony’s world was so different from Debbie’s. He had never known anything but wealth and privilege. His father, Ralph Pignataro, was a prominent surgeon in the Buffalo area, and Anthony had grown up in a lovely home in West Seneca. He’d attended the Nichols School, a private school where the tuition was $11,000 to $15,000 a year. Anthony had an older sister, Antoinette, and younger brothers, Ralph Jr. and Steven. None of them had ever known what it was like to wish for something their parents couldn’t afford. Dr. Ralph Pignataro wanted his family to have the best. Anthony told Debbie that his father was wonderful and that he could always count on him for advice. He idolized the older man, and Dr. Ralph was beloved throughout Buffalo.
    Her first months with Anthony were a wonderfully exciting time for Debbie. She was so much in love that her parents worried sometimes that she might end up with a broken heart. When Anthony left in late September, it was as if somebody had turned the sunshine off in her world. Debbie continued to work in the drugstore, but she lived for the weekends and vacations when Anthony came home from Lehigh.
    Debbie and Anthony wrote to each other at least three times a week, and talked on the phone when they could. Anthony came home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then Easter. He seemed to be just as interested in Debbie as he had been during their first summer. And she certainly never looked at another man.
    In June 1979, they were together again and jubilant that their romance had survived the long school year. During their second summer together, Debbie and Anthony were with each other constantly. Both sets of parents felt left out sometimes because the couple seemed joined at the hip and spent little time with their families, but they knew it was the natural progression of life. It was only natural that Anthony and Debbie could see only each other.
    Frank Rago was an old-fashioned Italian patriarch and very protective of Debbie. In the beginning, it was fine with Frank for Debbie to date Anthony, but she was afraid her father would hit the roof when she asked to visit Anthony at Lehigh for a weekend. He gave his permission only after she explained that a girlfriend was going with her and that the two girls would share a hotel room off campus.
    By that time, Anthony was in his senior year. They weren’t kids, and they could be responsible for their private relationship. Anthony wanted Debbie to be