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“You too,” I answered.
Her hair was longer, and her clothes and jewelry were elegant. She wore large diamond earrings. In college she’d been adamant about not wearing anything but the small gold ball studs she told me she’d gotten when she first had her ears pierced.
“I hear you’re a bigwig at a successful company now,” she said.
She had done some research on me, because our little company wasn’t front-page news, or easy to find.
“We’re trying to make a go of it. You remember Samantha Tiffany?”
“Sure, she was two floors up right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. She and I started a chocolates company a while ago, and we’re slowly growing it.”Slowlywasn’t the right word, but I didn’t want to brag.
“That sounds so fun. I wish I could do something like that.”
The waitress came by to get our orders.
I asked for a glass of Chablis, and Natalie ordered the same.
The waitress stood and looked at us expectantly.
We took a quick look at the appetizer menu and added an order of fried calamari.
She left satisfied.
“You look quite successful,” I told her. “What are you up to? As I recall you were heading off to law school when we graduated.”
“That’s right. You have such a good memory. I went to Columbia for two years.”
I didn’t want to ask an embarrassing question, so I nodded and waited for her to continue.
“I got married,” she added.
“Congratulations. That’s great.”
The waitress brought our wine.
Natalie took a sip. “That put an end to law school.”
“Maybe you could finish up later,” I offered.
She looked down and shook her head. “My husband wouldn’t approve.”
I immediately felt sorry for her. “Maybe you could change his mind.”
She took down some more wine and shook her head. “No. We live here, and a year at Columbia is just too much time away.”
It was a problem I could understand. “Maybe transfer to Harvard or BU to finish up,” I suggested. There ought to be a way to finish without having to go back to Columbia.
“Just not in the cards right now. Maybe later.”
The silence encouraged us to both attack the calamari the moment it arrived. It tasted quite good, and the dipping sauce was spicy.
“I heard you married Matt after graduation. How’s he doing?” she asked.
It was my turn to introduce bad news. “We divorced, so right now I don’t know or care how he’s doing.”
She reached across to touch my hand lightly. “I’m sorry to hear that. I thought you made a cute couple. What happened?”
