Page 18 of The Awakening of Nina Fontaine

Nina started to explain but was stopped short when Amy arrived at the table, smelling of cold and concrete and looking every bit the high-powered investment banker in a structured houndstooth dress, her hair pulled back into a sleekchignon.

They exchanged a flurry of greetings while Amy apologized for being late (a client had had a last-minute panic attack about a decision he’d made earlier in the day) and sat next toKaren.

Robin arrived with a tray bearing their drinks, setting them down with a flourish, including two forAmy.

“Ah! You know me too well!” Amy said, sipping at one of thedrinks.

Robin set the tray on the shelf that separated their booth from the one next to it and took a seat next toNina.

Karen held up her glass. “I propose a toast — to Nina’s newjob!”

A chorus of cheers and exclamations went up around the table as everyone clinked glasses and looked atNina.

“You got a job!” Robin exclaimed. “That’samazing!”

“It’s just part-time,” Nina said. “But… yeah. I’m happy aboutit.”

“Tell us everything,” Amysaid.

Nina told them the story of the photograph, stumbling into the gallery, and meeting Edmonia Burns. She hadn’t fully realized how serendipitous the whole thing had been until she finished telling the story and Karensighed.

“See? This is why I love New York.Magic!”

“It was kind of magical,” Ninaadmitted.

They talked a little more about the job, then moved onto a book Karen had acquired at auction that day — a coffee table book of never-before-seen pictures from a well-known photographer who’d passed away nearly fifty yearsearlier.

They’d moved onto a discussion about a man Robin had met on her last trip to India — a man with whom she’d had an ongoing long-distance affair that involved plentiful phone sex and three last-minute trips overseas — and a detailed description of the strap-on Amy had bought Moira for her birthday when Nina realized she’d fallen down the rabbithole.

Her meet-ups with Karen had always been full of bawdy humor and way more information than Nina wanted to know about Karen’s sex life, but Nina had always assumed that was just Karen. She’d met Robin and Amy before, but their interactions had been brief and fleeting, steeped in the sense that Nina was only a guest in their world, a conclusion that had been completely true at thetime.

Now she was part of the club, and she couldn’t help being surprised that there were other women like Karen in the city: middle-aged women still intimately familiar with theirsensuality.

And judging from the sample size of their little group, they weren’t in theminority.

Had this been true in the suburbs too? Were all the moms she’d seen hauling kids to soccer and attending parent conferences secretly sex goddess at night? Or was this a product of being in the city, a place that was seeming more and more like a kind of Neverland for grown-ups?

“You’re awfully quiet, Nina.” She looked up to find Amy studying her from across the table. “Sorry about the strap-on story.TMI?”

She laughed. “Not at all. I’m just still…acclimating.”

“Suburban whiplash.” Karen pronounced. “I’ve seen itbefore.”

“Hey!” Nina laughed. “It hasn’t been that long, and I’ve already got a job and a…” She shook her head. “I think I’m doing prettygood.”

“A what?” Robin asked. Nina looked at her. “You said you’ve already got a job and something else but you didn’tfinish.”

Busted.

She shifted in the booth and turned her drink in her hand. “I was about to say I have a date, but I’m not sure itqualifies.”

“What are you talking about?” Karen leaned forward. “Tell useverything.”

She sighed and told them about falling outside the restaurant in January, Jack Morgan stopping to help, his arrival on her doorstep earlier that day, the invitation that had felt more like acommand.

“Wait a minute…” Amy said. “What did you say this guy’s nameis?”

“Jack Morgan,” Ninasaid.

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