Page 15 of Pity Pact

Paige tries to swallow the water in her mouth but she’s unsuccessful. She loses the battle and starts laughing, spitting water all over the table. Picking up her napkin, she blots up any moisture she can find. “You can’t take me anywhere tonight.”

“It was my fault,” I tell her chivalrously.

Paige lets her napkin drop. “Itwasyour fault.” A slow smile takes over her face. “But that was a really funny thing to say.”

“What doyouchange about yourself before you start dating someone new?” I suddenly want to know. I can’t imagine she’d have to alter a thing.

She looks up at the ceiling like she’s putting together a list of a few thousand items, but settles on, “I don’t talk about school with men I just start seeing. I have it on good authority that teachers bore the socks off normal civilians when we yammer on about math tests, school politics, and the various kids we have in class.”

“I’ve never dated a teacher,” I tell her. “As we’re not on a date, why don’t you tell me about your job?”

She looks as surprised as if I’d just asked her to marry me. “I ... I don’t know. I mean, why would you care?”

“You said you like teaching. Tell me why.”

Her eyes suddenly sparkle with pure joy. “I’m a total math nerd. I love everything about numbers, and I love sharing that knowledge.”

“I hated math,” I confess. “Maybe you could tutor me.”

She passes right over the comment about tutoring and demands, “You hated math? How is that even possible? Math is amazing! It’s the universal language. Every country speaks math.”

“Yes, but you said it’s auniversallanguage. Are you suggesting that aliens in galaxies far, far away use math?”

She throws her hands out in front of herself like she’s about to catch a basketball. “Of course, they do!Everybodyuses math.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” I tell her. “I mean, what if their math is different from our math?”

She practically starts to vibrate with excitement. “Then I wantto learn their math, and I hope they land in my backyard tonight so they can come in and teach me.”

I can’t imagine Eva, or any other woman for that matter, ever saying something so completely off the wall. “Paige, you are delightful, do you know that?”

Her gaze shifts downward as her cheeks flush prettily. “No one has ever told me that before. Thank you.”

“To think I could have had a friend like you for all these years had I stayed in Elk Lake. I hope to find someone refreshing like you when I’m ready to start dating again.”Like in another ten years.

She tips her head to the side and studies me. “Missy said you dated a lot when you two went out. Why did you stop?”

“I read a book,” I tell her. “It said that you should wait at least a year until after your divorce is final before dating again. The idea is so that you can properly mourn the dreams you had for your previous union. That’s when I realized I didn’t have any real feelings for the women I was going out with. All I ever thought about was Eva.”

Paige’s brow furrows. “And you knew you needed to mourn for her?”

“I didn’t need to mourn forher. I needed to mourn the person I thought she was. The couple I thoughtwewere.”

She reaches across the table and takes my hands in hers. An unexpected jolt of electricity shoots through me. I give her hands a squeeze hoping the sensation will stop, but it doesn’t.

“I’m sorry, Tim. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to love someone and lose them like that.”

“Have you ever been cheated on?”

She nods her head slowly. “I don’t think you get to our age without having experienced that at least once. But at least I wasn’t married to the guy. I’d only dated him for a month when I found out.”

While I believe her, the look on her face suggests she’s had some other trauma befall her, but I don’t want to make heruncomfortable, so I don’t ask. Instead, I say, “That still couldn’t have been easy.”

She narrows her gaze like she’s trying to decide if she’s going to confess something. She finally says, “Missy and I went to the dog park and collected a lot ofsamples. Then we went to Rogan’s house and toilet papered his car before strategically placing the grossest of the specimens on it.”

Maybe Paige isn’t as sweet as she seems. Even so, I have to give her props for at least attempting to get even. “I should have done that with Eva.” I smile as I imagine what her reaction would have been.

“No laws were broken, and no permanent damage was done. Also, it felt great to get the last word.”

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