“I’ve invited someone I would like you—”
“No, you didn’t,” Anna interrupted, knowing that this someone was a single man who Camilla was dying to fix her up with. “You did not do that, Camilla.”
“Well, yes, I did. He’s very nice. A doctor.”
“I don’t care. I don’t care who he is. You have meddled enough with my life.”
“It’s not like I’ve set you up on a blind date. I just invited a nice single doctor—” Camilla put a little emphasis on the doctor part “—to my granddaughter’s birthday party. There is nothing more to it than that.”
But Anna knew better. With Camilla there was always something more. She was a Pandora’s Box of more.
AFTER PUTTING all her food back in the right spots Anna was at a loss. What did unemployed people do all day? She collapsed onto her couch. She was wide-awake so taking a nap would be fruitless. She checked her watch and thought longingly of the meeting she would be attending if she were at Arsenal.
But she wasn’t at Arsenal and thinking about it would just depress her. She dug the remote control out from under her butt and decided she would discover the joys of daytime television.
A half hour later she threw the remote back on the couch and decided there was no joy to daytime television.
People, she thought, shouldn’t sleep with amnesia victims who might be relatives. It’s gross.
Anna stood up and decided to clean her apartment. She had cleaned plenty of apartments. She had picked up after her messy sister and mother, so she was no stranger to the mop and broom.
But this. This was very much beyond her. She quickly realized that what had become of her home was something best left to a professional. The basics, sweeping and mopping she could handle. It was the advanced cleaning, the things involving mildew and harsh chemicals, that were destroying her apartment. She’d already accidentally bleached part of her carpet and the paint was bubbling up from the wall in her kitchen where she had sprayed the wrong kind of cleaner.
She quickly called a cleaning service and scheduled someone to come deal with the disaster. But in the mean time, the bathroom with its sturdy tile proved to be less destructible so she tried to tidy that up.
She was on her hands and knees in the tub working at the brown stuff around the drain when the solution to her problem—no, not the brown stuff problem. The other, bigger problem. The getting a life problem—hit her. Like a lightning bolt.
What better way to thwart Camilla and this doctor than to show up with a date of her own?
She sat straight up, the toothbrush in her hand dripped onto her jeans.
She needed a date, but not just any date. She needed a man who would expect no romantic entanglements. A man she wouldn’t have to exchange small talk with or any other uncomfortable platitudes.
“Gary,” she said with a smile.
She climbed out of the tub, threw the gloves and the toothbrush in the sink and headed out the door for Gary’s apartment.
Gary was perfect as a date-on-call for several reasons.
1. He lived just around the corner in her condo complex.
2. He was a mostly out of work actor and he had viewed the wedding she took him to as a chance to be on stage, which was why halfway through the night people were expressing their condolences for the brain tumor Gary was telling people he had.
3. He was gay. There were absolutely no uncomfortable entanglements.
In a word: perfect.
Anna crossed the small stretch of grass between her unit and his with a glad heart. She was going to beat Camilla at her own game. Anna laughed a little bit thinking about how perfect this was. How truly satisfying it would be to get back at Camilla in just this exact way.
Gary had been leaving messages on her machine for the past two weeks that she had not had the time to return and she felt a little bad. But he would understand. Gary was good like that.
The light was on behind his blinds, which Anna took as an omen that her plan was going to work out okay. She stepped up on his small cement landing and knocked. She felt bad that she hadn’t seen him in so long, a few weeks anyway. He had gotten some part in a play and she, of course, was always busy, so time flew by. She smiled and knocked again, happy that she had more time to spend with Gary who was always fun.
She heard footsteps and for the first time in a while, felt a smile that wasn’t forced spread across her face. She pushed back a lock of hair just as the door opened and she felt all the blood drain from her face.
“Well, well.” Prince Charming leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms over his bare chest.
4
“YOU?” ANNA WAS far more than surprised. She felt oddly as though the bottom of her stomach was missing. The man who had been so handsome fully clothed was now shirtless…
“In the flesh.”
“What are you doing here?” Anna asked. Where is Gary? Is this guy a friend of Gary’s? A…lover?
“I live here.”
Anna ignored his sarcasm. “Where’s Gary?”
“Well, if you’re talking about the guy who lived here before me, he moved out two weeks ago.” Prince Charming idly scratched his chest, which of course, was hairless and perfect and distracting to Anna in a dozen different ways.
“Two weeks?” she repeated partly because she didn’t believe it and partly because his abdomen had that six-pack effect that made women want to lick men’s stomachs.
“Yeah, he got some part in a soap opera or a play or something. Listen, not that this isn’t real fun standing here watching you watch me, talking about a guy you apparently didn’t know very well, but I’ve got paint I’d like to watch dry.”
“Wait a second, Gary moved?” The message on her machine. Of course, he was calling to tell her that he got the part and was moving. Anna, as per usual, was an awful friend. Anna’s ruined dreams of petty revenge were not nearly as disappointing as the fact that she had missed saying goodbye to Gary. She ducked her head for a second feeling truly awful.
“Do you have his address or number?” she asked.
He looked at her carefully for a second, then nodded. “Just a second,” he said. He pushed away from the doorframe and turned around. As the door shut behind him, she saw a long puckered scar that ran up the center of his back toward his hairline.
The scar was shocking. Brutal and ugly against the smooth, tan skin of his back.
“Oh, no…” she breathed as he walked away. She blinked and swallowed, not sure of what she had seen. Could this be any worse?
Nice one, Anna. Why don’t you go door to door offending and alienating people? You’re off to a great start. She felt horrible. Maybe she had spent too much time away from regular people. Dealing with the sharks in the advertising world had made her intolerant. Maybe, just maybe, she was a bitch. She’d threatened to kill Andrew with chopsticks. She’d lost touch with Gary and she was rude to a complete stranger just because he caught her making a fool of herself.
She felt like she was ten years old again sitting on a playground at a new school all by herself. She remembered all the quiet, kind kids who had tried to reach out to the new girl and she had bitten off their hands because she didn’t know what to do.
He came back within moments carrying a slip of paper. Anna took it and smiled up at him ruefully. “I was really rude to you. I am sorry.” He remained silent and Anna tried again. “You caught me making an ass out of myself and it embarrassed me. I really