It's Better This Way(9)

    Julia shook her head in sympathy. “Apparently taking a good photo for Instagram is a prerequisite for a relationship these days.”

“It seems so,” Heath agreed.

Julia was enjoying this and wasn’t about to let him win this challenge. “Okay, okay. See if you can top this. Another friend-of-a-friend situation. I trusted Susan. She’s smart and assured me I was simply meeting the wrong kind of men, and I should put all my past failures behind me. Typically, she claimed she had the perfect man for me. In fairness, she did mention he was a bit older. She described him as mature, established, and financially secure. He sounded too good to be true.”

“Don’t they always?” he asked.

“Right. Anyway, once again we met at a restaurant and Lloyd had to have been in his late seventies, if he was a day. This guy was on his last legs. If that wasn’t enough, when we went to order dinner, it took him ten minutes as he listed off all his physical ailments that prevented him from eating almost every item on the menu. He asked the server so many questions, needing to know every detail of the preparation, that I nearly dozed off. That server had the patience of a saint. The worst was when he went into detail, as to the reason he couldn’t eat red meat, which he claimed gave him diarrhea.”

“Good one,” Heath said with a chuckle. “I had a stalker.”

“A stalker?” she repeated, not sure she could beat that.

“We had a total of two dates. I should have followed my instincts after the first one. Nothing terrible happened. She was pleasant enough, and by this time, I was getting discouraged. Of all the women I’d met, she showed the most potential. I liked that she was enthusiastic and could carry a conversation, so I decided to ask her out again to see how it went.

    “We attended a concert, and afterward she was all over me. It felt like an octopus who had all eight of its arms wrapped around me. I had to pull over on the side of the road and explain I couldn’t drive with her trying to undress me.

“That was enough to tell me it wasn’t going to work. When I dropped her off, she asked when I wanted to see her again. I said I’d call her, to which she responded July worked best for us to schedule the wedding date. Foolishly, I thought this was a joke. If so, it was on me.”

“She was talking marriage after two dates?”

“Oh yes, and that was only the start of my troubles with Candace. It took me nearly three months, a lawyer, and a restraining order to get her out of my life.”

“Okay, you win,” Julia said, lifting her hand in defeat. “I have nothing to compare to that disaster.”

“I’m sure you heard what happened with the concierge,” he said, slowly shaking his head, as if the memory continued to traumatize him.

“Not really. There was some talk around the building, only I didn’t pay much attention.”

“I had to report Melanie to the condo board. She had this business opportunity she wanted me to finance. I explained I wasn’t interested, and left it at that, hoping that would be the end of it. But she refused to give up. It came to the point that I couldn’t even walk into the lobby to collect my mail without her pestering me. If that wasn’t bad enough, she suggested she would be willing to do ‘anything’ if I would back her in a venture even an amateur entrepreneur knew would fail.”

    “Oh dear, she was that desperate?”

“It’s unfortunate the building had to let her go. I felt bad about it, only I wasn’t about to invest in an idea that was doomed to fail. After what happened with Candace, I was leery, and felt I had no option but to report her to the association. As far as I’m concerned, I’m finished with dating. I sincerely doubt I’ll ever remarry.”

“Exactly. It isn’t worth the hassle. The men I’ve met came with a lot of baggage. I’m carrying enough of my own.”

They continued talking long past the time they’d finished their drinks. Julia learned Heath worked as a hedge-fund manager and, like her, was semiretired. She told him about her daughters—he had two sons—and that she had recently sold her interior design business and worked as a consultant, hoping to ease into retirement.

When she happened to catch the time, she was surprised to see that if she didn’t rush, she’d be late for her lunch date with her daughter. They had talked, nearly nonstop, for the better part of two hours.

Scooting back her chair, she stood and reached for her purse. “Thanks for the latte and for saving me from my sister. If not for you, I would have been forced to meet yet another man who is absolutely perfect for me. Not.”

Heath rose with her. “My pleasure.”

She hesitated, and then added, “I enjoyed this.”

    He grinned. “Me, too. See you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” she said, and even to her own ears it sounded like a promise.



* * *



—

Hillary glanced across the table at Julia. “Mom?”

Julia looked up from her salad. “I’m sorry, honey, were you saying something?”

“Where’s your head? You look like you’re a million miles away.”

“Sorry, I was thinking about this morning.” She’d thought of little else since leaving Heath.