Page 72 of The Dreidl Disaster

The man had layers, and instead of these layers putting Liv off, they pulled her in.

“Ask me anything,” he invited as he drove toward the west side highway.

And that was the statement he made when she couldn’t see his face? Did he want to hide his thoughts and expressions?

But there were many things she wanted to know about him. So many holes she wanted to fill.

But she went for the easiest one.

“How did you get into what you do?”

He took a deep breath as he drove, the fast car flying down the streets of New York. “Friend of mine from college had a relationship end. I don’t remember the details anymore. But there weren’t bad feelings on either side. He continued to live his life, you know. Doing what he does.”

She didn’t want to interrupt to ask what his friend did; from the way it sounded, the friend was some kind of creative.

“Well,” he continued, “it turned out that wasn’t the end of things. Because everybody who spoke to his ex, would ask questions about the end of the relationship and about him. They painted her as unserious, using him as the latest example of how she was a serial dater.”

Yep. She got the hint that this was probably something she was supposed to know about. But the pressure, the situation made sense, for many reasons. Partially because it was her worst nightmare. But she wasn’t telling him that. Instead the situation required something else.

“Ughhh. I hate that. I hate that the world is like that. So what happened?”

“My friend hated it too,” he said. “Drove him absolutely nuts. He wanted to do something about it, but wasn’t sure what to do and didn’t want her to think he was trying to get attention off the end of the relationship. His goal, once he organized himself, was to take the heat off of her.”

Which was a noble thought. Not many people would have thought like that.

“So,” she asked, having organized herself again, “he called you?”

He nodded as they continued on their journey. “He just called me to talk, but he and I ended up working out a plan, and his team followed our script.”

He hummed something, and she wasn’t sure what it was. But he continued humming.

Clearly he wanted her to figure out the song… Images came to mind; a melody on an acoustic guitar.

And a music video opening with guy sitting behind a curtain watching a television. If she remembered correctly, the TV showed a young woman who was trying to escape a maze, covered in newspapers and stickers saying ‘serial dater’ in red letters. She was being yelled at with every step she took.

And the song started playing in her mind:

I could hide behind the curtains, let the world go on without

But then your path is tempest tossed,

full of thorns you don’t deserve.

I know…the world does not make sense.

So I will take a step; step out into the world and

Be the one they talk to

instead of talk about.

I’ll make sure that they know…you’re the one for someone

even though you’ve never been for me.

I will take the heat and clean up all the thorns

because I’ve got a shield, a sword and a decent pair of shoes.

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