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“Go on,” she said. “Guess.”
“She wanted to let you know Jeff was hers. That he wasn’t coming back to you. Is she younger than you? Older? You didn’t say.”
“Funny how you put that together,” she said. “She’s younger. I’m not sure how much younger, but if I had to put my finger on it, I’d say she might be twenty-five if that. Could be younger. She acted it for sure. This is horrible. I shouldn’t even say anything.”
“Now I want to know,” he said. “What is it?”
“She looks like me. Sort of.”
He started to laugh but deep down he didn’t think it was that funny. Maybe Jeff was the one carrying the torch. “How so?”
“Same color hair and eyes. She’s about my height and build. It’s not like we could be sisters, but anyone could look at the two of us and say ‘Hey, that guy has a type.’”
“Have you noticed this before?” he asked.
“I haven’t thought much of it. I’ve only met one other woman, and yes, same features,” she said. “That’s odd. You’re nothing like Jeff.”
“Good to know,” he said. “So did she try to warn you off?”
“She did. She said that Jeff told her I cause all these problems because I want him back and he doesn’t want to get back with me.”
“What?!” he asked.
“I know. Months ago I would have been taken back. I would have probably paled and then tried to explain my way out of it. I would have denied it enough to the point she would have thought it was true and I’d be saying so much and trying to get her to believe me.”
“Sounds like you didn’t do that,” he said. “What did you do?”
“I laughed at her. I said, ‘nope,’ and then walked off the porch and told her to have a good night.”
He burst out laughing. “Priceless,” he said. “Good for you.”
“Yeah. I’m sure she went right back in and told Jeff and he would have said all sorts of things about me, but it’s not worth it. I know what I know and don’t care what she thinks.”
“And what is it you know?” he asked.
“That what I’ve got with you is good. Better than good. It’s great. And now I want to know how it went with your parents.”
He was glad she was in a place in her life when she felt that way. “As I said, it went well.” He told her what he’d said and his mother’s reaction to it all. “They promised not to say a word and let us deal with this the way we want next weekend. But my mother does want to meet you. I said I’d find out when it worked that you didn’t have Eli.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“For what?” he asked.
“For understanding.”
“Not a problem,” he said.
As much as he wanted to say he understood her because he was falling in love with her, he kept those words to himself. She wasn’t ready to hear them. They still had to take baby steps, but they were taking a big one next week.
33
Put On Our Show
“Why am I nervous?” Roni asked.
“No clue,” he said. “If anything, I should be. Most of these people are strangers to me. You know a lot of them.”
She laughed at him. They were getting dressed for the New Year’s Eve party at Fierce Engineering. They’d be leaving for it and getting there by seven. Since it was a Sunday, it was not like there were people there just waiting after work.
