‘Just a real quickie, OK.Non-work.’
She looks at her phone. ‘OK, that’stwenty-two minutes I’m on hold, that’s just too long.’ She pokes at the phone screen as if she’s poking someone’s eye out in person, throws it onto the desk with a clatter, sits back in her chair and puts hercowboy-booted feet up on the desk. ‘Oh wow, what a day. So, problem?’
‘The circular argument of hell.’
‘My speciality,’ she says with a grin. ‘Spill.’
‘There’s this guy, Finn – the one you met at the pub,’ I say, ‘and he’s nice, but we were supposed to be friends, platonic. And now he’s asked me on a date but...’
‘Is he hassling you?’ says Adrienne, giving me a fierce look. She’s ready with the ‘do we need to kill him?’ face. She’s tough for the boss of a charity.
‘No, he’s not hassling me, he’s –’ I search for the word – ‘lovely. But I don’t know if I’m ready. We’re in the friend zone.’
She snorts. ‘Friend zone. So he’sfriend-zoned you?’
‘No, no,’ I say, ‘Ifriend-zonedhim. I wanted him to stay there because, you know – what with Marc...’
For a second Adrienne’s eyes, shrewd enough to see through every possible lie on the planet, laser me with intensity.
‘Tell me if I’m getting any of this wrong. You put him in the friend zone because you’re not ready but now you’re in here discussing him with me? I’m calling bullshit. You want to go on this date and you’re looking for permission to do it.’
‘Look, it’s just –’ I stalled – ‘I’m not over Marc. I’m not ready to date.’
‘Sid, stop with theyou-and-Marc thing. It’s so old. Marc was nice, but you and him, really!’
‘OK, I’m sorry I came in without senior counsel,’ I say crossly. Adrienne knew me so well. I’d never told her the truth of my relationship with Marc but she’d obviously figured it out.
‘Don’t shoot the messenger,’ she says.
‘I thought you’d understand.’
‘Because I’m divorced?’
‘Yeah, you get men.’
‘If I got men I wouldn’t be divorced,’ she reminds me.
‘OK, you get men better than I get men,’ I say.
‘True. I would not ever say that youget men. But maybe you are getting men now. Progress, right?’
‘Adrienne, you’re really annoying, you know that?’
She beams back at me.
‘People tell me that all the time. My ex certainly did. So where does he want to take you?’
‘The Stella.’
‘The Stella! If you said he was booking the Presidential Suite in a swanky hotel and had the pink furry handcuffs lined up and a bucket of oysters so you two could keep going all night, I might say yeah, he’s moving a bit fast, but the Stella? It’s not exactly Ferrari speed yet, is it? It’s a definite sign of intent but he could be a metropolitan man who likes classy spots and old movies.’
Finn is not a metropolitan man, I think. He’s kind. Gentle. Sexy ... Oh hell, this is killing me. I’d made up my mind not to see him again after Christmas. I’d felt so hurt because it was obvious he wasn’t into me the way I was into him, but now he’s asking me out on what is clearly a date. My brain feels like it’s going to explode.
‘Sid?’ Adrienne is looking at me.
‘Should I go?’
‘You like him, don’t you?’
