‘You at a bar?’
‘Yeah. Work drinks. Listen. This new guy started at my firm and he said he’s up for meeting you.’
‘Huh?’
‘The blind date, like we talked about.’
‘Tim. No. I didnotsay I wanted you to set me up on a blind date,’ I whispered furiously down the phone at him.
‘Why not? Honestly, he seems solid. And he’s got all his teeth.’
‘I don’t care. I can get my own dates.’ I could feel Stephen watching me and it was torture. I needed to get Tim off the phone immediately.
‘Lemme just ask him your questions. If he gets them right will you go out with him?’
‘Are you coming to Daisy’s softball thing on Sunday?’ I asked him.
‘No, I gotta go with Delia to visit her family.’
‘Right, I’ll see you back home next weekend for the barbecue then.’
‘But—’
I hung up on him. I wasn’t proud of it, but it sounded like he was drunk anyhow. I reached for my own drink and risked a glance at Stephen. He was still watching me, with a little smirk on his face.
‘Do you have a checklist for people you’re considering dating?’ he asked. ‘How does the interviewing process work? Doyouanswer the questions for them based on your first impressions or do your prospective dates get an opportunity to answer for themselves?’
I took a couple of sips of my half-pint and licked the froth from my lips, trying to summon up the same blasé attitude I used to deflect teasing from my siblings.
‘Everybody has a checklist. They may not admit it, but we all have criteria when we’re deciding who it’s worth spending our time with.’
‘I can’t recall ever using a checklist to make that kind of judgement about a woman.’
‘Of course you haven’t. Why bother waste the time when you could be jumping straight into bed with whoever is willing?’ I crossed my legs. ‘I meant everyone who’s looking for ameaningfulrelationship rather than a one-night stand assesses the other person’s viability.’
‘I don’t only have one-night stands you know.’
‘Do you have meaningful relationships though? That mean something toyouas well; not just to the poor woman.’
He swilled his bourbon around in the glass, his brow knitted as he watched the liquid moving. ‘You’re sounding awfully sexist, Noelle. Why do you assume the women I date aren’t capable of wanting the same arrangement as me? Most of the women I see have busy careers of their own and aren’t interesting in settling down either. I never lead women on. They always know what they can expect from me.’
It was the first time he’d as good as admitted that he never engaged in anything more than casual flings and, even though I’d been aware of it, the bare-faced facts made me disappointed in a way I didn’t care to examine. And annoyed. He’d made a good point about thinking of it only from my perspective. Not thatIwanted to date him. But I had assumed the women who did were looking for the same long-term deal as me, and that wasn’t necessarily the case.
‘Okay, I admit, women are more than capable of wanting nothing other than a physical relationship and I shouldn’t have assumed you were leaving a trail of broken hearts behind you.’ Although Beth had mentioned at least one devastated woman. ‘But you’ve only backed up my argument about the checklist. Even the commitment-phobic such as yourself have criteria. 1) Woman must not expect or desire any long-term prospects. 2) No meeting family. 3) No obligations. 4) Toothbrushes will be taken home again after use. Am I right?’
He lifted his glass to me with a half-smile. ‘You’ve got me pegged, haven’t you? Go on then, what are your questions?’
‘None of your business. You shouldn’t eavesdrop.’
‘I could hardly help it but fair enough.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘How long are we prepared to wait for this lead to arrive?’
I exhaled slowly and decided to take action. Anything rather than sit and think about the humiliation of my brother inadvertently announcing I was desperate to Stephen. I flagged the bartender down. ‘Do you have a guy called Eric come in here regularly?’
‘Who wants to know?’
I bit back my smart retort that it was obviouslymewho wanted to know, since I was asking. This guy was about six feet five and wider than most doorways. ‘He asked us to meet him here.’
‘Then I guess he’ll meet you here.’ He ambled off with a disinterested shrug but after he collected a drink, he went straight over to the table in the corner, crowded with men who looked like him. Enormous, bearded and hostile.
