Spinster? Read Free Page B

wine and smiled. "I guess when you love someone you can't rule anything out."
    "I agree. Never say never, and all that...plus, you would have the cutest, most non-asshole kids on the planet." They clinked glasses and laughed. Tess did agree. She might be chronically single, but she wasn't cynical. She was relieved to be unattached, truth be told. She was very independent and was getting to know who she really was in recent years, embracing and cherishing the skin she was in. Tess was certain that in order to have a healthy relationship with someone else, you had to have one with yourself first. Self-help book hoopla? Maybe. But still true.
    "So, on another completely unrelated topic. I know you hate set ups, buuut..."
    "Ugh, really, Rebel? Please, just no. After the night I've had, please have mercy on me."
    "Even if he's a friend of Cam's who recently moved to town? Even if he's good looking and financially stable? Even if he..."
    "Okay, okay, he sounds great. What's the catch?"
    "Catch?"
    "Yeah, so why is Mr. Wonderful still on the market?"
    "You're wonderful and you're on the market."
    "Please. You know there's a double standard when it comes to single men and single women. Plus, there are at least four women for every single guy, so by pure statistical probability, he should be taken...or gay."
    "Widowed."
    "Oh, there's that." Tess got busy looking inside her glass. "Poor guy."
    "So, are you interested?"  
    "A widower? I don't know, Reb."
    "Oh come on, he can't help that his wife died anymore than you can help being smoking hot." She was laying it on thick, but Tess smiled.
    "You're right. I shouldn't hold it against him, that would't be fair."
    "Nope...sooooo?"
    "So, what the hell." Tess shrugged her shoulders and tossed back the last sip of tini she had in her glass.
    "Yay! I'll have Cam text him your digits."
    "Digits? Will he hit up my pager?" Tess teased. Rebel flipped her off and they laughed some more.
    Tess didn't switch to water, but she did switch to beer, which was close enough.

    Several rounds later...
    "Oh my god, what does this song remind you of?" Rebel asked, her words a little slurred. Tess laughed, recognized the song. A heavy set guy in cargo shorts giving his sweaty rendition of Sweet Emotions by Aerosmith. "Woohoo!" she hollered through her cupped hands. The guy grabbed the mic with one hand and fist pumped with the other. He was really going for it. That made them crack up even harder.
    "Oh, lord, you made me watch that movie a million effing times."
    "Classic, and still holds up." Rebel had been going through an obsessive McConaughey phase during their second semester of college. They went through his entire movie collection, but their favorite was Dazed and Confused . (This was well before his abs in Magic Mike , which had now taken the top spot in Rebel's rankings.) One reason they loved it, besides the awesome soundtrack, was the hilarious pot heads. Another was that Rebel's older brother Anthony had been an extra. You could totally see his arm in the moon tower scene. They cheered every time—"There's his elbow!"
    "I just don't understand why we had to smoke out every time we watched it. I almost flunked out that semester," Tess said, with a laugh, remembering what they came to refer to as "their ganja period."  
    "Like I held you down and taped the joint to your mouth," Rebel pointed out with a smirk, as she pulled her dark curtain of hair into a knot on top of her head.
    "I was weak and impressionable, and also you were a little intimidating." Rebel had been unlike anyone Tess had ever met—so fiery and in your face, saying whatever came to her mind. It was refreshing. Most of the girls she'd known had been stiff and often times duplicitous. Tess never really knew any of them, never getting the whole story or real insight to who they were. It made for a lonely adolescence. She craved someone real, and she got more than she ever dreamed in Rebel.
    Rebel was loyal, would give her friends the