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I pocketed the ring and sat back with my drink. This wasn’t going to go
the way I wanted. “Go right the fuck ahead.”
“Maybe this is a good thing. You don’t sleep. You don’t go out unless
it’s for business. Why not just do what Ted wants? Maybe… I don’t know?
Date?”
“Marry me, and I swear I’ll date.”
She laughed, and I had to smile at the paradox of the suggestion.
“You really want to go through with this? Marry someone for
convenience?”
“It’s fucking inconvenient, but yes. And I want to take the wind right
out of Byron’s damn sails. Send him back to the real estate business where
he belongs. Let him”—I waved to indicate the repurposed space
—“renovate more warehouses.”
She pursed her lips as if she was considering it, and I sat straighter to
receive a little good news for a change. She took her time, pausing to drink
wine, shake her head a little, take a breath.
“You know,” she said, “I think I can help you.”
“So you will?”
“There’s someone I’m thinking of.”
“No way. I don’t want just anyone off the street. It has to be plausible.”
“You know her from Wildwood School.”
“It can’t be some hippie, Mandy. She has to have social credentials and
she has to need something. So if it’s some desperate woman who wants
children or just wants a ring on her finger, forget it. The divorce has to be
clean. You’re the only one.”
“No.” Mandy cut the air with her hands. “The more you talk, the more I
know it’s true. She has everything you want. Single. A solid name. A
definite need. And she’ll never fall for you, trust me. You’re too boring for
her. She’s perfect.”
Mandy was selling me when I was supposed to be selling her.
“Who is she?” I asked, hoping to regain control of the situation. I could
dismiss this person if I knew who she was.
“I’m going to ask her first. Feel her out.”
“When?”
“I’m seeing her tomorrow morning. If it looks good, I’ll tell you who
she is so you can do some background, then you can meet, negotiate, kiss