minivan. “Yeah, surprise! I turned out normal. How about you?”
“No surprise. I didn’t.”
Diana tilted her head. “So what if you never go about things the way other people do. You’re exceptional. Not abnormal.”
“I decided to get everything out of the way at once, be a single mother, go to school, work like a cur. That way, I’ll have earned the right to a long commitment to some quiet loony-bin spa by the time I’m thirty.”
“I gotta scoot.” Diana started the battle to get her daughter strapped in. “Let’s gossip soon.”
“You back at work?”
“Part-time until the little gal’s ready to launch. Two more years. I couldn’t find full-time child care I can trust that would have her.”Diana latched the seat belt across her daughter’s car seat with a sigh.
“It’s like getting them into a good college, applications, interviews.”
“And then they reject you or your child, or your private financial status.” Diana shrugged, slamming the door against her cranky child. “I discovered passable child care involved dark rooms with peed-upon plastic mattresses, watery peanut butter, and drunken college students. I realized, hey, I can do that and pay nothing.”
How nice for her, Nina thought. Diana had a partner to help and an option to stay home with her daughter. How might that feel? No doubt good, no doubt fortunate.
“Take care,” Nina said, strapping Bob into his own car seat. He had a new book to study, so he let the process happen peacefully for a change. Suddenly starving, she climbed inside her car, rustling around in the MG’s glove compartment for a snack. She found nothing to eat there, only an old brochure for a restaurant she could never afford. Disgruntled, she raised her head to another unwelcome vision.
Richard Filsen leaned against the brick wall of the church that bordered the parking lot, smoking a cigarette.
CHAPTER 2
S TANDING NEXT TO R ICHARD WAS HIS PERENNIAL ASSOCIATE and right-hand boy. At first she couldn’t remember his name. Oh, right, Perry something. Perry Tompkins. He had been a couple of years ahead of her in high school.
She considered ignoring them, pulling away, going home.
No point. Richard, now having dragged himself out of whatever pit he lived in, was back.
She got out of the car.
“Must be something real pressing to get you to church,” Richard said. “What, no kiss?”
Richard Filsen. What a day for meeting up with old friends. Although he lived in the area, somehow she had managed to avoid any run-ins for the past several years. He obviously hadn’t given up his fanatical bicycling. He looked as lean as ever, and she had heard he was as mean as ever, too. His eyes looked more deep set than she recalled, and his cheekbones stood out like rocky crags. His hair was shorter than she remembered; it could pass for stubble. Maybe it gave him some aerodynamic advantage on the road? Otherwise, he looked like an important man who had spent the morning in front of a jury, in a well-cut wool suit with a perfectly matched red Hermès tie.
“I hear you won that class-action suit against the oil companyup in Hayward. You must be really pleased about that. Lots of buzz. Congratulations.”
“How good it is that you remember how to be civil.”
“Let’s start there, okay? Meantime, I’m in a rush. What—”
“Working hard, eh? And you were always gonna be a lawyer someday, I hear. Meantime, you look like you could use some sleep. You’ll need cosmetic surgery in a few years if you keep digging at that frown line on your forehead.”
Nina ignored the insult. “Hello, Perry. You still slaving away on behalf of Richard’s greater glory?”
“Hi, Nina. How goes it?” Perry held his attaché and didn’t look happy, but then again Nina had never known him to look happy. Working for Richard for years must have something to do with that. One of those short, smooth-faced men who never age, Perry was a good detail lawyer who kept the
“No surprise. I didn’t.”
Diana tilted her head. “So what if you never go about things the way other people do. You’re exceptional. Not abnormal.”
“I decided to get everything out of the way at once, be a single mother, go to school, work like a cur. That way, I’ll have earned the right to a long commitment to some quiet loony-bin spa by the time I’m thirty.”
“I gotta scoot.” Diana started the battle to get her daughter strapped in. “Let’s gossip soon.”
“You back at work?”
“Part-time until the little gal’s ready to launch. Two more years. I couldn’t find full-time child care I can trust that would have her.”Diana latched the seat belt across her daughter’s car seat with a sigh.
“It’s like getting them into a good college, applications, interviews.”
“And then they reject you or your child, or your private financial status.” Diana shrugged, slamming the door against her cranky child. “I discovered passable child care involved dark rooms with peed-upon plastic mattresses, watery peanut butter, and drunken college students. I realized, hey, I can do that and pay nothing.”
How nice for her, Nina thought. Diana had a partner to help and an option to stay home with her daughter. How might that feel? No doubt good, no doubt fortunate.
“Take care,” Nina said, strapping Bob into his own car seat. He had a new book to study, so he let the process happen peacefully for a change. Suddenly starving, she climbed inside her car, rustling around in the MG’s glove compartment for a snack. She found nothing to eat there, only an old brochure for a restaurant she could never afford. Disgruntled, she raised her head to another unwelcome vision.
Richard Filsen leaned against the brick wall of the church that bordered the parking lot, smoking a cigarette.
CHAPTER 2
S TANDING NEXT TO R ICHARD WAS HIS PERENNIAL ASSOCIATE and right-hand boy. At first she couldn’t remember his name. Oh, right, Perry something. Perry Tompkins. He had been a couple of years ahead of her in high school.
She considered ignoring them, pulling away, going home.
No point. Richard, now having dragged himself out of whatever pit he lived in, was back.
She got out of the car.
“Must be something real pressing to get you to church,” Richard said. “What, no kiss?”
Richard Filsen. What a day for meeting up with old friends. Although he lived in the area, somehow she had managed to avoid any run-ins for the past several years. He obviously hadn’t given up his fanatical bicycling. He looked as lean as ever, and she had heard he was as mean as ever, too. His eyes looked more deep set than she recalled, and his cheekbones stood out like rocky crags. His hair was shorter than she remembered; it could pass for stubble. Maybe it gave him some aerodynamic advantage on the road? Otherwise, he looked like an important man who had spent the morning in front of a jury, in a well-cut wool suit with a perfectly matched red Hermès tie.
“I hear you won that class-action suit against the oil companyup in Hayward. You must be really pleased about that. Lots of buzz. Congratulations.”
“How good it is that you remember how to be civil.”
“Let’s start there, okay? Meantime, I’m in a rush. What—”
“Working hard, eh? And you were always gonna be a lawyer someday, I hear. Meantime, you look like you could use some sleep. You’ll need cosmetic surgery in a few years if you keep digging at that frown line on your forehead.”
Nina ignored the insult. “Hello, Perry. You still slaving away on behalf of Richard’s greater glory?”
“Hi, Nina. How goes it?” Perry held his attaché and didn’t look happy, but then again Nina had never known him to look happy. Working for Richard for years must have something to do with that. One of those short, smooth-faced men who never age, Perry was a good detail lawyer who kept the
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