Chapter 2
Chapter Two
“I can’t believe you talked me into this crazy idea, Meryl.” Robyn Martin Donahue stared at her cell phone as if it had a contagious disease, even though it looked so innocent laying there on the kitchen counter. “Why am I even listening to you?”
She shifted her gaze to her best friend perched on the stool next to hers.
“Because you know I’m always right.” Meryl took a sip of wine. “And because you deserve to have a guy in your life who will treat you right.”
Okay, that might be true.
Beyond the kitchen window screen, the late summer night was alive with crickets and young party goers hanging out at the park across the street. But in the tiny, well-lit kitchen of her mid-twentieth century bungalow, it was just her and Meryl, having their weekly wine and whine session.
“But, dating an off-worlder?” Funny how that sounded better outside her head. Like maybe this idea wasn’t as crazy as she’d first thought.
Meryl barked a laugh. “I think we can both agree that Earth guys haven’t exactly panned out for either of us.”
That was true. Kevin had been a verbally abusive mega control freak. He still was, with his weekly “check-in” phone calls. Gracious, how had she managed to live thirty-five years with the guy and not suffocate him with his pillow?
“Besides,” Meryl continued. “You deserve someone who doesn’t mysteriously bolt after a couple of dates.”
Not this again. Kevin wasn’t the reason she couldn’t seem to keep a guy around.
If anything, it was her expectations that scared them away.
Yes, she could do better than her ex, and a couple of times she’d thought she had.
Too bad none of the handful of guys she’d dated in the last five years had felt the same about her.
But Meryl wasn’t going to distract her with that old disagreement.
“All right.” She straightened her spine and adjusted her black-framed glasses on her nose. “I’ll submit an application…if you do too.”
Meryl’s hazel eyes widened. “Me?”
“Yehhsss, you.” Because what off-worlder wouldn’t want to date Meryl? She was tall and slim, and had been mistaken for Michelle Hurd more than once. The complete opposite of my pale, blonde, frumpy, librarian-in-a-sweater look. “C’mon, Meryl. Ya know you want to.”
“Date, yes.” Meryl frowned critically at the final centimeter of wine in her glass, then slid it toward Robyn over the Formica countertop. “Date off-worlders, not so sure. Hit me.”
Robyn grinned and tipped the bottle. Meryl was stalling and soon would cave.
The merry chug of liquid was a promise by the crisp white wine to help deliver her friend’s consent.
“Think about it this way: you won’t have to sleep with every man on the planet to prove your theory that all Earth guys suck. ”
Meryl sniffed. “Maybe I want to.”
Darn you, Nathan for screwing with Meryl’s mind like that.
“Oh, please. I know you better than that.” Robyn topped off her own glass and set the bottle down with a clunk. “Unless you think you’re too old for online dating.”
“I’ll have you know, my dear Robbi, that the Silverstar Agency is a successful and reputable matching company.” Meryl tapped one finger against the stem of her wine glass. “And sixty-three is not too old.”
Kind of her not to point out that fifty-nine wasn’t either. “You’re avoiding the question.”
Her friend pushed out her full lips in a pout and glared at her wine glass. The cricket song from outside seemed to pick up, filling the silence in the warm kitchen.
“Meryl?” Robyn dragged out the l.
“All right, fine. I’ll do this with you.” Meryl reached for her own cell phone. “What could go wrong?”
A few possibilities leaped to Robyn’s tongue, possibilities that might give Meryl reason to back out. Not the least of which was that things might work out so well between her friend and some unknown off-worlder, it’d put an end to Meryl’s revenge-sex cycle.
“Okay,” Meryl said. “I’m ready.”
That fast? “Did you…you already filled it out, didn’t you?”
Meryl grinned. “I know you better than that, too.”
A laugh burst out of Robyn. “I guess so. Okay, then, application first, then we do the bio-scan app.” She raised her phone to chest level and peered through the bifocals at the screen.
The Submit icon blinked temptingly, like a beacon to a lonely sailor.
Meryl met her gaze. “Ready?”
“I’m ready.”
“In three…two…one…go.”
Once the application and bio-scan had been sent, Robyn blew out a long breath. A sense of giddy anticipation curled in her gut as if she had done something very naughty. And in a way, she had.
“So.” Meryl set her phone on the counter. “That’s done.”
“Yep.” Robyn nibbled at her bottom lip. “How long do you think it’ll take?”
“Hopefully a while.” Meryl shrugged her slim shoulders. “I’m not ready for some virile old guy to haul you off to his planet, yet.”
“Ha. Is there a such thing as performance enhancers for off-worlders?”
“No idea.” Her friend waved one hand. “As long as they’ve ironed out that four-hour-erection ER-visit issue, I’m good. I wonder if the time is doubled if they have two dicks?”
This time Robyn doubled over, wrapping one hand around the seat of the backless stool to keep from falling off as laughter shook her.
One thing was for sure, no matter how long it took, she and Meryl would have fun speculating.
Two months, and still no word from Silverstar.
Robyn tapped the end of her pen against her desk as the young woman on the other end of the phone chattered excitedly in her ear.
It was a good thing she had her job to distract her during the day.
Despite the stress from the divorce, and the necessity for her to return to the ranks of the full-time employed, landing the job as a case manager for Safe Harbor Women’s Advocacy Group had turned out to be one of the best things to ever happen to her.
It wasn’t a glamor position, but it was more than she’d thought possible back in her stay-at-home-mom days.
“Thank you so much, Robyn,” the young woman gushed. “I couldn’t have done this without you.”
“My pleasure, Sasha.” Robyn said her good-byes, then placed the receiver of her work phone in its cradle. “Next to raising my kids, this has to be the hardest, and most rewarding, job ever.”
Her supervisor grinned. “The Sasha Townsend case?”
“Yeah.” Sasha, a young woman the same age as her youngest daughter, had three kids all under the age of six. “She just landed a job with a tech company. They’re giving her day care and flexible hours, and offered to help with her tuition.”
Some days you just won the lottery.
Jayla pumped her fist in the air. “Hell, yeah.”
“Doesn’t get much better.” She glanced at the old industrial analog clock on the wall. “Nice to end the week on a high note for a change.”
“Nothing better. Got any big plans this weekend?”
“Nah.” Didn’t she wish, though.
Face it, Robbi ol’ girl, you were hoping to be snuggling with a hot off-worlder by now.
She’d given up stalking her cell phone for a text or email from Silverstar weeks ago. The only time it was out of her purse recently was for work-related reasons, or to text Meryl.
Maybe she really was too old for online dating. But fifty-nine didn’t feel old. If it was, the agency would have told her by now.
“Um, Robyn,” Jayla said. “Your phone’s buzzing.”
The faint hum came from the direction of her bottom desk drawer. “Oh, shoot. Thanks.”
Must be Meryl checking in for tonight’s wine and whine date. She yanked the bottom drawer of her desk open, and the loud screech of metal on metal filled the tiny, mostly empty, office.
“Gah.” Jayla covered her ears.
Robyn gave her boss a sheepish look. “Sorry.”
Someday, Safe Harbor might be able to replace the original circa-1980s desks, but probably not before she retired.
Buzz.
She delved her hand into her purse, her fingers wrapping around the humming device before pulling it out and holding it at arm’s-length.
It was not Meryl. “Well, it was a good day.”
“What?” Jayla’s concerned expression was heart-touching. “One of your other cases?”
“No.” She gave the phone a severe frown. “Kevin.”
“Oh.” Jayla nodded. “Shit. That asshole just doesn’t take a hint, does he?”
“No, and it’s not for lack of trying.”
Buzz.
Jayla turned back to her desk. “Good thing you don’t have plans this weekend.”
“What do you mean?”
Her boss gave her the “you know darn well what I mean” look.
Why did everyone seem to think Kevin was the reason she hadn’t been able to keep a guy around for longer than a month?
Like she owned zero responsibility for what happened to her?
Real life didn’t work that way, and she wasn’t perfect.
If she had been, she wouldn’t have waited until her youngest daughter graduated college to walk out on him.
Buzz.
You were a coward, using the kids as an excuse. In retrospect, leaving when they were young might have been better than trying to keep up the “happy little family” pretense.
Yep, less than perfect.
“You going to answer it?” Jayla’s question brought her back to the moment.
“Yeah.” She heaved a sigh and tapped the screen. “What?”
“Hello to you too, pumpkin.”
Oh, look. It’s Sweet Kevin. “Hello, Kevin.”
“How was your day?”
“It was going great.” Get to the point already.
“Mine was rotten, until I heard your voice.”
Ho, boy. “Thank you?”
“What are you doing tonight?”
“You know, instead of trying to live vicariously through me, you really should get out and meet some other women. You know…go on a date.”
“There’s never been anyone—”
“You know where I am every Thursday, Kevin.”
Her ex made a scoffing sound. “With Meryl.”
Wow. For once he didn’t say Can’t-keep-a-husband Meryl. “Yes. With Meryl.”
“Did you leave me because you went lezbo with her?”
What the ever-loving…? Sometimes the man was enough to make her want to swear. “Good bye, Kevin.”
She lowered the phone and press the end-call button. “Pizzle brain.”
Jayla snorted a laugh. “Wow. That was bad enough for you to resort to Shakespearean insults. Do I want to know?”
“Probably not. No sense in him ruining both our evenings.”
She dropped her phone into the depths of her purse. It could stay there until Monday, for all she cared. She went through the motions of shutting down her computer, locking up her desk, and wishing Jayla a nice weekend. Home was where the peace was, and she couldn’t get there fast enough.