Page 83 of The Husband Diet
‘You’re so romantic,’ I smiled. ‘I love romantic.’ And I loveyou, I almost said.
‘Come out to dinner with me. Tonight. I’ll take you anywhere you like.’
‘On one condition.’
He raised an eyebrow at me. He learned fast.
‘Oh-K…?’
‘I’ll come out to dinner with you if you tell me about your new book.’
‘Erica, I don’t have a new book.’
‘Yes, you do. The young baseball players all over America who are just starting outneedyou.’
At that he laughed – a hardy, heartfelt laugh. ‘You never give up, do you?’
‘Please? I guarantee you it’ll go through the roof.’
‘I don’t have a book in me, sweetheart.’
‘Of course you do! Where there’s one there are many more!’
He laughed, his eyes twinkling. Good. I was getting somewhere.
‘So you’ll think about him?’ I prodded.
‘Him?’
‘The young athlete who needs your help.’
‘I’ll think about it.’
‘You’re not saying it just to shut me up?’
‘That too,’ he said with a grin, and I reached over and kissed him hard.
So that evening I went out on a real date with him rather than just have wild sex. We were waiting to be seated at my favorite Indian restaurant, when who do you think we bumped into? Exactly.
‘Oh, crap.’
‘What’s wrong?’ Julian asked, squeezing my hand.
‘Ten o’clock, my ex-husband, enter the scene: new lover.’ It was impossible even to fathom the two words together in the same sentence, let alone see it live, but there they were, hand in hand like two love puppies. Pretty much like Julian and me.
‘Oh, crikey,’ Julian whispered.
As we watched, Ira took Maxine’s hands to his lips with a coy smile. And now he was smiling at her, withmysmile – the one he’d used on me years ago. Somewhere between the stomach bypass I’d passed up and tango lessons, I’d lost him. Thank God.
Maxine was young, single and a bit naïve, seeing as she believed Ira could actually love someone besides himself. Boy, was she in for a reality check. I almost felt sorry for her.
‘Too late – they’ve already seen us. Chin up, kiddo.’
He was right. Maxine gawked at us as Julian (still holding my hand, by the way) followed the waiter to the nicest table. Ira stared, too, then sullenly buried himself into his menu, refusing to acknowledge my presence any longer.
I had to hand it to Julian – our first date and the ex-husband was already in the way, but he was cool and quiet, just happy to be sitting across from me, staring into my eyes. Actually, we looked like it wouldn’t be long before we hit the carpet in the throes of passion.
‘I want you now, among the samosas and chicken vindaloo,’ I said out of the blue.
