Page 69 of Rebound With Me

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Vince and I sit across from Sadie and Russell at a table on the deck with a panoramic view of the lake and mountains, and it has taken us all about two minutes to power through a bottle of red after Vince cryptically toasted “to fate” and Sadie toasted “to karma.”

“So, what have you guys been up to?” Sadie asks. “Just hanging out?”

“Oh you know,” Vince says. “Hanging out, staying in, going out,eatingout…Attending to certain neglected areas in Nina’s life.” He looks right at Russell as he says this. I pinch his thigh. “How about you guys?”

I don’t think Russell got the reference, and I’m glad.

“Same, really,” Sadie says. “We eat out practically every night. He’s developed a taste for it.” She glances at me with her eyebrow slightly raised.

“We went to a new tapas restaurant in Queens last week. Fantastic.”

Oh, Russ. So blissfully unaware of anything outside your own limited interests.

Sadie, on the other hand. Her eyes are always wide-open and watching everything, but it’s not a doe-eyed interest in the world, it’s plain to me that she’s studying, figuring things out, deciding what to do, how to play it. It must be exhausting.

“Itwasfantastic. Russ has really opened up my palate. And I always thought I had a good tongue.”

Vince rolls his eyes. His hand has been on my thigh ever since we sat down. He gives me a little squeeze.

“Actually, Babe, the nose and the mind are more involved than the tongue in an evolved palate.”

Sadie playfully sticks her tongue out at Russell, revealing a tongue stud. So she hasthatgoing for her too. Having sex with me after having sex with her must be like riding the world’s greatest roller coaster and then hopping onto a rickety old merry-go-round.

I look around for the waiter and signal that we need more wine.

“Vince. Sadie tells me you’re a realtor.”

“I’m a commercial real estate broker.”

“That must be interesting.”

“It can be. I just closed a deal on a gorgeous location in Brooklyn Heights for a big up-and-coming chef, it should be an exciting new restaurant in a few months.”

“That so? Which chef would that be?”

“Clive Court. He owns Succulent, in the East Village.”

“Oh sure,” Russell nods and wipes his mouth with his napkin, swallowing his buttered bread. “We went there last year.” He gestures towards me. “Not my favorite.”

“I remember liking it a lot. Beautiful space.”

“Wow, you finally closed that deal, huh? He was working on that back when we were together,” she says to me.

“I think you mean back when you and Russell were together.” Vince sounds so lighthearted, it barely registers as a dig.

Sadie smiles and tilts her head. “You’re right. You were so busy at that point, you barely had time for me.”

“Actually, you were the one who was always ‘busy with the new job.’”

“I was. Brooks was a real handful in the beginning.”

Russell clears his throat. “It’s true, actually. He was getting into a lot of trouble at school, but Sadie’s been a good influence on him. She really keeps him in line.”

“I’ll bet he doesn’t even realize how much, poor kid,” Vince mutters.

The middle-aged hippie lady at the table next to ours keeps looking back at us, and I would not be at all surprised if she got up to burn sage all around us to raise our vibrations and clear the air. I would welcome that. Until then, I will have to do my part.

I pat Vince’s hand and smile at Sadie. “Brooks sounds interesting, how old is he?”