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“I’m a dentist.”
Paige laughed.
“Something funny about being a dentist?”
“My mother said you had nice teeth.”
“Your mother?”
“She liked your picture. It’s a long story,” she said, answering the quizzical look in his eyes.
“I like long stories.”
“Maybe another time.”
“Another time,” he repeated. “I definitely like the sound of that.”
The waitress approached with his beer.
“Thank you,” he acknowledged, ignoring the tall glass she put on the table to sip directly from the bottle. “Sorry. I always prefer my beer this way.”
“No, I get it,” Paige said. “I like my soft drinks directly from the can. That way you get more fizz. Not so good for the teeth, I guess,” she added. “All that sugar.”
Sam smiled. “We could all use a little sweetness.” A slightly awkward pause. “So, you’re new to online dating?”
“Oh, God. Is it that obvious?”
“No, not at all,” he assured her. “Well, maybe a little…”
“You’re right. Iamnew to this. Well, relatively new. A couple of months.”
“Newly single or just curious?” he asked.
“A bit of both, I guess,” Paige said, continuing without prompting. “I was with someone for three years. Till he decided he’d rather be with someone else. My cousin, actually.” She monitored Sam’s face closely for his reaction, saw his right eyebrow lift only slightly.
“My wife left me for her personal trainer.”
“Oh,” Paige said. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. It’s been almost two years. She’s happy. And aside from the initial blow to my ego, I’m happier, too. And the kids are good, which in the end is all that matters.”
“How many children do you have?”
“Two six-year-old boys. Dustin and Caleb. Identical twins.”
“My father was an identical twin,” Paige said, feeling an immediate kinship.
“Was?”
“He died two years ago.”
“And his brother?”
“Going on eighty.” Paige tried, and failed, to keep the bitterness out of her voice. “There’s this big birthday party for him a week from this Saturday.”
“That must be hard for you.”
“It kind of pisses me off,” she admitted, taking a long swallow of her gin and tonic. “Which I guess makes me not the nicest person in the world.”
“I don’t know about that,” Sam said. “After my mother died—and she died pretty young, sixty-two—I couldn’t even look at old people without wishing them all sorts of horrible deaths.How did you manage to survive when my mother never got that chance?I’d be thinking. My sister caught me staring at this old woman in an elevator once and she said the look on my face was one of pure evil.”
Paige chuckled, taking another sip of her drink and returning it to the table with more force than she’d intended.What the hell,she decided, throwing caution to the wind and looking Sam directly in the eye. He might not be anyone’s idea of a revenge date, but…“On that note,” she began. “That birthday party I was telling you about…”
Sam reached across the table to take her hand. “Yes,” he said. “I’d love to go.”
