“She looked fine,” said Paige. “Brad told me afterward that he’d hooked you up with an opportunity at the Food Channel and didn’t have any strings left he could pull, but Brad knows everyone. He could have gotten her something if he’d really wanted to. Or he could have thrown Lindsay overboard and asked his friend at the Food Channel to get Heather on the judge panel instead of Lindsay. I mean, what’s better for his career? Helping the woman who already interviewed him or helping a reporter from theTimes?”
“So Brad told this woman off for Lindsay’s sake,” said Evan.
Paige looked at Lindsay. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what he did.”
Evan turned to Lindsay, too. “Twice. You slept with him twice.”
“Yes. He’s…kind of irresistible.”
“Sure,” said Paige. “And you’re not back together because…”
“Why would it work out this time when it didn’t the first time?” But even this standard line was starting to ring a little hollow to Lindsay.
“Why wouldn’t it?” asked Evan.
Lindsay didn’t have an answer for that. The idea was starting to seep in that maybe this time it would work out.
“Do you like him?” asked Lauren.
“Of course she does,” said Evan. “She’s been hung up on this guy for years.”
“I have not!”
“You have,” said Evan. “There are restaurants we can’t eat at because Brad knows one of the chefs and we might run into him there. Hell, there are whole neighborhoods in Manhattan we couldn’t go to for a while. You wouldn’t ride the F train for a whole year because Brad lived on the F. You don’t do that for a guy you’re totally over.”
Lindsay sighed. She knew Evan was right. “But I just… What if I screw it up again?” She knew deep down that she was a big factor in their breakup. She hadn’t trusted him or listened to him when he tried to explain what happened with Phoebe, and he’d been kind of right that she’d been expecting exactly that to happen. It was hard to trust. “What if we both screw it up? It would hurt even more this time if we…”
“I know, sweetie,” said Lauren, patting her hand. “On the other hand, what if it’s really amazing? I’ve been spending a lot of time with him lately, and he’s a great guy. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but…”
“No, he is. I just don’t…trust easily.”
“Has this new Brad given you a reason not to trust him?” asked Paige.
Had he? Lindsay replayed every interaction they’d had in the last few weeks, and he’d only been unfailingly honest. “No.”
“Then a date can’t hurt, can it?” asked Paige. “Just a date, not a marriage proposal.”
“I guess not, but I don’t know. I need more time to think about it.”
As if sensing she didn’t want to talk about Brad anymore, everyone nodded. Evan said, “Okay. My turn now.”
“What’s going on with you, Evan?” said Lauren, playing along.
“Well, I’m pretty sure I’m going to break up with Will.”
“What did he do?” asked Paige.
“Nothing, which is kind of the problem. There are just no sparks. Any sparks there were when we first got together have fizzled. Plus, I’m pretty sure he’s still in love with his married coworker, and it’s surprisingly hard to compete with that.”
“Also, Pablo’s single again,” said Paige.
Ah, Pablo. Evan’s longtime crush was extremely good-looking and was a sweet guy from what Lindsay could tell from her limited interactions with him. He and Paige ran an event for kids at the cat café where kids practiced their reading skills on the cats, so she had been spending a lot of time with him recently.
“That’s not the reason I want to break up with Will,” said Evan. “And I think all these years of me pining have shown nothing will ever happen with Pablo.”
“No sparks?” said Lindsay.
“Nada. I mean, mostly we just go out to eat and have sex, which is basically a perfect Saturday night if you ask me, but the sex is…just okay. I don’t know. And I thought by now we’d be in love, but… We’re not. He’s…fine. Which is the issue. Fine is not great or amazing.”
