Page 61 of Pity Parade

“You would never hire someone like that matchmaker, would you?”

I shake my head. “Not at all. Being that I don’t plan to remarry, I’d feel like I was hiring a pimp or something.”

Clearly not trying to spare my feelings, she agrees. “That’s exactly how it would look.”

As we near her apartment, I ask, “Want to go for ice cream? I told my brother I’d get a double scoop of bubble gum like we did when we came to Elk Lake as kids.”

Trina doesn’t answer right away. I can almost see a little scale in her head as she balances the pros and cons of spending more time with me. Hoping to sweeten the pot, I tell her, “We can keep talking about business.”

She shakes her head. “No business.”

“Then what should we talk about?”

“Let’s talk about our childhoods.” Her posture suddenly relaxes as she announces, “Did you know that I was on the bowling team in high school? My average score was one ninety.”

“I didn’t know that, and I have no idea if that’s a good score or not.” I pull over the car and park in front of her apartment. I figure this way we can enjoy a nice walk to the ice cream parlor.

“Anything over one seventy-five is really good,” she tells me. “Even though the pros make over two hundred, one ninety in high school is a pretty big deal for a kid.”

“I played basketball in high school,” I tell her.

She opens the car door and gets out, so I do the same. Eyeing me up and down, she says, “That tracks. Were you a shooting guard?”

“You know your basketball, huh?” I ask before stepping up onto the sidewalk. “And yes, I was a shooting guard.”

Walking with me side by side, she says, “The girls’ basketball coach recruited me when I was a freshman, but then she saw how I played.”

I can’t imagine Trina not being great at everything she does, so I ask, “And then she started you on the varsity team?”

Trina stops walking to laugh. “No. Once she saw me dribble the ball on my foot, she told me to find something that didn’t require any coordination.”

“Really? You were bad?” I love that she has such an easy time laughing at herself.

“I was atrocious.” She adds, “It was kind of sad being the tallest girl in school and not being good at sports.”

“Enter bowling …”

“Yes. The good news was that I could walk a straight line and apparently fling a bowling ball in a straight line.”

“And you were the coolest girl in school because of it,” I predict.

Trina punches my arm playfully. “I was the captain of the bowling team, Heath. That has never classified a kid anywhere near cool. In fact, I’d say it was right up there with being captain of the chess club or first piccolo in the marching band.”

My eyebrows shoot up questioningly. “You were captain of the chess club?”

She shakes her head. “No.” Then she confesses, “But I was in the marching band.”

“First piccolo?” I guess.

“Second French horn. So, you see, I wasn’t even great at that.”

As we near the ice cream parlor, I realize I’m having more fun talking to Trina than I can remember having with a woman since Jess died. Yes, I’ve dated, but I’ve not really let myself get to know the other woman because I knew there wasn’t going to be a relationship. I don’t bother dissecting that right now. “Please tell me that you’ve gone back to every high school reunion and rubbed everyone’s face in your success.”

“I haven’t gone back to one,” she says almost proudly.

“I predict you’d have the time of your life if you did,” I tell her.

“I’m not sure. While most people might consider me successful, small-town Illinois women tend to consider marriage and motherhood the ultimate achievement.”

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