Page 17 of Partner Pursuit
Back home, she knocked on Eve’s door to tell her the date was over. “Fastest date yet, pun intended. He must have foundmeugly.”
“You’re not, so I doubt it.” Eve huggedher.
“He did invite me to go to afly-fishinglecture on Wednesday,” Audrey said in a voice that made it sound like it was an invite to something special.
“And you didn’t take him uponthat?”
“Clearly, I wasn’t thinkingstraight.”
“You could’ve thought of it as advice on dating men—any time they reference fish, just think ofmen.”
Audrey laughed. “Maybe I should email him back and sayI’ll go.”
“No, no, that one needs to be put back in the water and left to swimfree.”
“My profile says outgoing and looking for same.” Audrey sighed. “I need to give up on this dating thing until after the partnershipdecision.”
“No, you shouldn’t,” Eve said. “You have to be able to have a life and doyourjob.”
She had argued about this with Eve before, but Eve just didn’t understand. Theoretically, she agreed with Eve. Just practically, it seemed impossible.
Eve gave her a knowing look. “Pete and I are both workaholics, and we manage it.”
Audrey nodded and said goodbye, retreating to her own apartment. She’d like a relationship like Eve’s. Pete and Eve both worked really hard, but still made time for each other—still supported each other. And the way Pete looked at Eve—like he couldn’t believe he’d gotten so lucky as to be with her. She sighed romantically.
She should call back her mother, who’d left two messages during the week, but Audrey knew she would ask about work. And her mother would worry if she told her about Malaburn and about Winnie’s news. She didn’t want to distress her mom. She could still see her mom biting her nails as she balanced the checkbook while Audrey did her homework at the dining room table.
She looked out the window at her backyard. The surfboard bar had disappeared and in its place was a wooden picnic table. That was quick. She had felt so alive Thursday night. She’d really had to keep on her toes with all the bantering. Her exchange with Jake had been so sparky—the opposite of this date. It wasn’t that she had time for a serious relationship, but she didn’t want to lose the connection. What had Jake said: he expected a neighborly welcome? She’d bake him chocolate chip cookies. She had time and it was only a small overture to keep a dialogue going. Either that or she needed to wheel her bicycle around, hoping he’d ask her to go biking again.
She mixed together a batch of cookies. While the cookies were baking, she found a round red tin leftover from Christmas, and taped herhand-writtennote to thelid:
Saturday,NYC
DearJake:
Welcome to the neighborhood and thank you for the party onThursday.
Etiquette suggests I give you a welcoming gift. Here are some homemade cookies andtake-outmenus for seafood restaurants.
Best,
Audrey
She chuckled. Now…how to deliver it?
She could leave it by the front door of his building, but lately, packages were being stolen. And it would be devastating to think he’d declined to reply, if he had in fact never even received it. She’d leave it in his backyard. She could throw it over the fence, but crushed cookies would not look appetizing. She could slip through the hole in the fence, but what if he saw her in his backyard?Meet your new deranged stalker neighbor.Maybe leaving the cookies in the foyer was the best bet. No, she didn’t want that uncertainty. With some sort of hook, she could lower them down from her balcony into his garden.
She found a large paperclip and fashioned it into a hook shape. Then she tied a string around it. She put the tin into a Trader Joe’s paper bag and taped on it a handwritten sign saying “Welcome to the neighborhood.”
Her balcony was close to the property line. She attached the hook to the paper bag handles and gently lowered the bag over the side. The bag swung out, but landed on the pavement outside his door. But she couldn’t maneuver the hook out. She pulled this way and that way; the hook did not want to leave the bag. She dropped the string. Not quite as smooth as she’d hoped—he’d know how the bag arrived—but at least the bag waswell-positionedright in front of his sliding glass door, with its welcoming sign. Mission accomplished. Now off towork.
Chapter Six
Audrey packed up her briefcase Sunday morning. Biscuit was barking in the backyard. She glanced out the upstairs glass sliding door. The blue summer sky beckoned. A thin woman with straight silky brown hair, luminescent pale skin, and large brown eyes was sitting at the rustic wooden picnic table in Jake’s garden, drinking from a coffee mug and flipping through a magazine that looked likeVogue. The table was set for two, with placemats and even flowers. Jake walked out with muffins and a pitcher of liquid resembling strawberrysmoothies.
He was dating someone! What if she’d slept over and they’d opened the curtains this morning and both saw the bag with its huge “Welcome to the neighborhood”sign?
She texted Eve:Are you up? SO SO embarrassed! Need totalk!
