Page 42 of The Seven Year Slip

I smiled. “Absolutely. And then we can pretend to get in a fight at the end of dinner, and never talk to each other again.”

“Ooh, I like that idea. What should the fight be about?”

To which I asked, “What is your hottest book take?” Because I knew that a man who was that well-read, who had lived his entire life in the upper crust of society, working on Wall Street, absolutely had a good one.

And oh, he did.

Fiona threw her handsinto the air as we descended into the bowels of the subway. After our fake fight, he’d caught a cab back to his apartment, and Drew, Fiona, and I walked to the subway station. “I can’tbelieveyou picked a fight overDune!”

“Look, it’s not my fault his opinion was wrong,” I replied, trying to bite in a grin.

“He was perfect—perfect! And then you had to go and pick a fight,” she went on, ranting, waving her hands in the air. “I am disrespected! Humiliated! I have to see him in theelevatorsin my building. I’m going to have to look him in the eyes and know that he thinksDuneis the best sci-fi book of all time.”

Drew shook her head. “Thedisrespectto Anne McCaffrey.”

“Look, I will not have some dead man hogging up my shelf space. Real estate in New York isalreadyoutrageous,” I said matter-of-factly.

Fiona narrowed her eyes. “You say that and yet you own four different editions ofLord of the Rings.”

“Icouldhave five,” I threatened, and she threw up her hands again.

“Fine! Fine, I’ll vet them first, and then we’ll try again—”

I grabbed her hand gently, and we stopped in front of the turnstile. There weren’t a lot of people in the station at this time of night, and those who were just went around us. “How about let’s not?”

Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not really looking right now—I don’twantto look right now,” I amended. “I appreciate all of this, but... I’m over Iwan, I promise. I’m really okay alone.”

And I meant it. Even though my parents were paragons of a successful romance—they fit each other’s quirks and hang-ups like puzzle pieces—my aunt had lived alone almost her entire life, and it wasn’t all that bad. Rhonda had a successful life, and she didn’t have a significant other, either. They were shining examples that I could do it, too. I just needed to concentrate on work right now, like Rhonda did. Besides, I was tired of this whole dance. It wasn’t that I didn’t want a partner—I did; thinking about going through the world alone made my stomach drop into my toes—but I didn’t really want to look right now.

I didn’t want to sit across from another decent man and not feel anything and plot how best to end the date so we never had to see each other again.

Drew pulled her arm through her wife’s and added quietly, “She’ll find someone when she’s ready.”

Fiona let out a sigh. “Fine—but until then, you’re our third wheel. And you’re going tolikeit.”

I raised my hands in surrender. “I would love to be your sidecar.”

“Good,” she replied, though she sounded a little defeated. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but then she thought better of it and dug her MetroCard out of her purse. We rode the 1 downtown to the Q together, and then they got off at Canal to transfer to the R, and I waved them goodbye.

Fiona’s heart was in the right place, so I couldn’t quite blame her. And besides, the food tonight was pretty good. Not as good as the place Drew had taken us last month—the Olive Branch—but it was nice.

The subway alert announced the doors closing, and I sank down into my seat, finally letting my walls down. My feet hurt in my shoes, and I couldn’twaitto escape my Spanx.

Keep moving forward, keep my eyes straight ahead, that was the plan. Nothing stayed—that was something I should have expected, something I should have remembered back when I met Iwan.

I wasfine.

Beside me, two girls bent their heads in to whisper, looking at their phones. “Oh my god, MoxieGossip says he was just spotted in SoHo. Coming out of his restaurant.”

“The new one?”

“Yes!”

“Was hewithanyone?”

“No! I think he’ssingleagain.”

---