Chapter 15
For a moment, Edie met her gaze with a frank expression, as if debating how exactly to respond. Brush off the comment with a laugh? Pull her hand away? Pretend not to know what Joanne was talking about?
But one corner of her mouth lifted in a half-smile, and that was all the encouragement Joanne needed. Turning back to the menu, she asked, “So, at the risk of this sounding like a really bad pickup line, do you come here often?”
* * * *
6
Though Edie was guarded over lunch, she found Joanne’s frank and open attitude refreshing, and soon the two were chatting like long lost friends. There was nothing duplicitous about Joanne, nothing hidden—she said exactly what was on her mind, and to Edie, that was a welcome relief after Charlene. Joanne didn’t strike Edie as the cheating type; true, they were still getting to know each other, but somehow Edie didn’t see her as sneaking around behind anyone’s back. If she wanted to screw around with someone else, Joanne would probably come right out and say so to Edie’s face. Few people were so transparent anymore, but Joanne didn’t seem to care whether or not who she was bothered anyone else.
And Edie had to admit that, as they got to know each other, she only wanted to learn more.
Lunch ended with the promise of another date, and soon. “How about tomorrow night?” Joanne offered. “I haven’t done anything on a Friday in forever. It’ll be nice to have plans with someone other than myself for a change.”
“What about your brother and his wife?” Edie asked. “I don’t want to take you away from anything you might already have planned…”
But Joanne laughed off her concern. “Please. I’m not about to let his having more kids ruin my social life. I told him I’d watch Ava and Mikey when Shelly went into labor. After that, he’s on his own. Lord knows there are enough teenage girls looking for babysitting gigs. It isn’t my fault he doesn’t want to pay anyone to watch his little hellions.” She smiled at Edie as she sipped the last of her soda. “Unless you already have plans with someone else?”
“Oh no,” Edie assured her. “I’ll be on a job site until five-thirty but after that, I’m free. What did you have in mind?”
Joanne shrugged. “Well, we could do the usual. Dinner and a movie, that sort of thing. Or we could hit the clubs, but I get the impression that isn’t really your scene.”
“No, not really,” Edie agreed. “At my age—”
“Oh, please,” Joanne interrupted. “Like you’re a hundred or something.”
Edie laughed. “I was going to say I don’t really like to spend all night yelling over loud music and getting drunk.”
With a nod, Joanne agreed. “There are only two reasons to go clubbing—to get laid and get drunk. And you know, really, we can accomplish the same thing with a bottle of Chardonnay back at my place without music thumping the walls and someone puking in the toilet stall next to ours.”
Edie’s stomach did a nervous flop. How had they moved from another date to talk of sex without so much as a first kiss? Maybe Joanne’s frank demeanor was a bit toomuch for Edie at the moment. Did the woman always move so fast?
Finishing off her soda, Joanne said, “Or we can do something…I don’t know. Different.”
“So not the wine at your place?” Edie asked.
Joanne smirked. “Well, I’m not saying we can’t getto that, but actually one of the other agents in my office was giving away tickets to a jazz quartet at a brewery downtown tomorrow night. His brother plays sax or something, I don’t know. I took two thinking I’d give them to Michael so he could take Shelly out for one last date night before the babies came, but I was too late. I’m not really into jazz, but the tickets pay for the cover charge and give us like ten percent off our bill. So dinner, drinks, live music. I mean, you know. What do you think?”
What Edie thought was it sounded better than anything else she could have come up with on her own. The place might be loud, true, but the thought of snuggling up to Joanne in a booth, drinking local beers and eating bar food while listening to live jazz was more romantic than any scene she could think of playing out in a club or bar.