A Different Kind of Forever(33)

Sue waited until Diane got in step with them before she elbowed her friend.

“So? Did he call? Did you see him? Tell us. Sharon knows all about it. What happened?”

Diane gave them a sketchy version of the day before. She told them about Rachel. Her two friends listened without a word. When she was finished, they had walked several blocks, and were in the children’s playground. Sue stopped at a bench and sat down, looking at Diane in amazement.

“Holy shit. You met his family and everything? And you have another date? I can’t believe it.” Sue grabbed Sharon’s arm as the woman sat beside her. “And he’s a doll. I mean it. His face is beautiful. And he’s got the body of a little Greek god.”

Sharon was puffing. “I know what he looks like. My Jack plays those guys 24/7.”

Diane was walking back and forth in front of them.

“Diane, sit and speak.” Sharon patted the bench beside her. “I need details.” She turned at looked at Sue, saying excitedly, “This is just like Danielle Steele.”

Sue shook her head. “Not quite. If this was Danielle Steel, he’d be much taller and Diane would be an exiled Bulgarian princess. But it’s still pretty good.”

“What about Rachel?” Diane looked at her two friends. “She’s angry at me for some reason.”

Sharon waved her hand. “Of course she is. She’s been panting after the guy since she was what, fifteen? I remember the last time they gave a concert here. Rachel drove you crazy. She had Mickey Flynn posters everywhere. And he was just a cute kid then. Now he’s older and sexy and paying attention to her mother.”

Diane sat down between the two women. “But Rachel has been with Gary for over a year. They seem good together.”

Sharon snorted. “So what? Me and Richie are good together, but if George Clooney wandered in and crooked his little finger in my direction, I’d be outta here.”

Diane and Sue burst out laughing.

“That’s not true,” Diane protested. “You’d never leave Richie.”

“Wanna bet? Besides, kids never get that their parents have a sex life. She figured you and Kevin did it three times then folded the tent.”

“It’s uncomfortable.” Diane said. “I’m uncomfortable. I don’t know what to do. What should I do?”

Sue smacked her friends’ arm with her open hand. “Go for it. You’re friggin’ forty-five years old. How many more guys like him do you think you’re going to meet?”

“But I’m happy with my life,” Diane said, shaking her head. “You know I am, both of you. I am not looking for a man. So who do I meet? I mean, shit. He’s gorgeous. Okay, so maybe not gorgeous, but, well, yummy.”

Sharon looked at her suspiciously. “Yummy? Did he kiss you?”

“Yes,” Diane said defiantly.

“Any tongue?”

Sue exploded into giggles and Diane blushed. “What is this, high school? Any tongue, my God. We’re grown women here.”

Sharon nodded seriously. “That’s right, and this grown woman wants to know if there was any tongue.”

Diane sat straight. “He’s a great kisser.”

“So, he got you horny, right?” Sharon prodded.

“Okay - yes. Happy?” Diane waved her hand in front of her face to cool her flaming cheeks.

Sharon was nodding. She was very serious. “That’s good, Diane, because if nothing else, you really do need some sex.” The women all laughed again.

“I know.” Diane said ruefully. “I had a hard time sleeping last night. My imagination was getting a little crazy.”

“Want my vibrator?” Sharon asked.

“Get out.” Sue burst out. “You have a vibrator?”

“Hey, Richie’s on the road a lot.” Sharon gave Diane a wicked grin. “So, I guess you’re a cougar now?”

“Oh, shit, why do women who go out with older men have to have a name like that? When it’s the other way around, we don’t call the men anything.”

“Yes, we do,” Sue said. “We call them lucky.”

The women were laughing again, and they giggled and jostled the long way home.





CHAPTER SIX



WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, Diane left the Dickerson campus and walked up the steps of Walter Mosley Hall, which housed the drama department of Franklin-Merriweather University. The building was only a few years old, across a beautiful courtyard from the Walter Mosley Theater. Walter Mosley had left several hundred million dollars for construction of the facility because, he said in his will, he had never been happier than when he worked the lights in the old Merriweather auditorium.