“All right.”
“You think that’s stupid, don’t you?”
Evan shook his head. “I mean, you do you. I want you to be happy, too. But I couldn’t go that long without sex.”
“Are men lining up outside your apartment while you’re playing the long game with Pablo, or…”
“Shut up.” Evan scowled at her for a moment. Then he said, “Oh, speaking of, I ran into that girl Jen who used to work at Star Café. The really tall ginger? She works at the wings place in the Atlantic Center now.”
“Sure, I remember her.”
“She told me the reason it closed is there’s some up-and-coming developer buying up buildings in the neighborhood and jacking up the rents. He thinks the proximity to the Barclays Center will bring in some big-money tenants.”
Lauren grimaced. “Right. Because what this part of Brooklyn needs is more banks and cell phone stores.”
“I know.”
“One of the best parts of Whitman Street is that it’s so cute and full of mom-and-pop stores. Did Jen know what the Star Café is going to become?”
“No, just that the new owner raised the rent well beyond what the café could afford. Should we place bets?”
“Chain coffee shop.”
“Fast-food restaurant.”
Lauren winced. “Ugh. What did that video store near your place become?”
“A chain fried chicken place. And the bodega at the end of my block became a Duane Reade.”
“That tracks.”
Evan sighed. “Your block is so gosh-darn cute that I’d hate to see it go big corporate.”
“I think you’d have to pry the building from Diane’s cold, dead hands.”
“I can’t see her selling, either, but stranger things have happened. Remember that guy, Charlie, I dated? He used to live off Flatbush Avenue, before we dated. When they built the Barclays Center, he had to move because of eminent domain. There was a little old lady in his building who refused to move and delayed construction.”
“Oh, yeah, I remember that.”
“If this real estate developer plans to buy up most of the block, he could want to put in a big-box store or a mall or something.”
“Bad enough that the meat market gym is across the street.”
“Don’t knock the meat market. If I had a few hundred dollars to blow on a gym membership every month, I’d be trying to pick up rich jocks there.”
Lauren laughed. “Well, let’s hope the Star Café is the only casualty.”
Evan raised his glass. “I’ll drink to that.”
***
It felt like such a high school thing to do, but Caleb gave the Cat Café a wide berth as he walked by it on his way to work in the morning. He’d grabbed coffee from a little place he’d passed on the walk from his apartment. He could probably just buy a basic drip coffee maker for twenty bucks and put it in the shared office; it would make perfectly serviceable coffee. No need to frequent the Cat Café or see Lauren. Problem solved.
It wasn’t even that he didn’t like her. He was torn about whether he found her stubbornness irritating or charming; a little of both, probably. Really, though, she made him think of an old scene fromThe Mary Tyler Moore Show, with Ed Asner telling Mary she had spunk and Mary taking it as a compliment.
I hate spunk!
He said hello to Rachel on his way into the office, reflecting on the fact that, well, he did hate spunk. Maybe that was post-divorce Caleb talking, but after everything that had happened with Kara and their old practice, he had very little patience for nonsense. Kara’s nonsense had been covering up lies and betrayal, after all; for months, she’d pretended everything was fine when it hadn’t been. And now Lauren, while beautiful and sexy, was all nonsense.
