All the Single Ladies: A Novel by Dorothea Benton Frank

Author:Dorothea Benton Frank [Frank, Dorothea Benton]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-06-08T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The Fix

In the end I decided that I liked the fixtures I had seen at Lowe’s better than what I saw anywhere else. I bought what Miss Trudie needed, including a little teakwood bench for her shower so she could sit down to wash her feet. The handyman from Palmetto House gladly installed the grab bars and faucets for a modest fee and Miss Trudie was tickled pink, especially with the bench.

“I never thought about putting a bench in my shower. What a wonderful idea,” she said.

“They even have walk-in bathtubs now. With Jacuzzis! Maybe you’ve seen them on television?” I said.

“Yes, I have, but let me ask you this. You go in there in your birthday suit, correct?”

“I imagine so,” I said.

“And then you have to wait around for the fool thing to fill and you have to wait for it to drain. You could get pneumonia with all that waiting around,” she said. “I’ll stick with my bench, thank you. That’s plenty of excitement for me.”

“Me too!” I said.

We both laughed and I realized again that it was still possible to make new friends. Even at my age and even at hers.

My date with Paul last Saturday night had gone really well. He had not oversold his spaghetti. It had simply been the best Bolognese sauce I’d ever eaten. Ever.

“What’s in this?” I’d said. “There’s something different.”

“I can’t tell you,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Because it’s a secret.”

“Then I’ll have to squeeze it out of you.”

“That’s what I was hoping for,” he said.

“You bad boy,” I’d said, and thought, Wow, it’s okay to be silly!

I’d forgotten how much fun it was to tease and just give in to having fun. What a dreary woman I’d been. And for far too long. Of course I didn’t have a crystal ball to see far into the future and find out if Paul would still be there. It didn’t matter. We just liked each other and he brought out the girl in me. I was glad to know the girl was still there. We never got to go through the thirty-six questions because we were too busy talking about other things. But I told him about the experiment and he thought it was sort of incredible.

“I might be up for that,” he said. “Why don’t we have dinner on Tuesday and give it a whirl? There’s a new restaurant on Shem Creek I want to try. It’s where The Trawler used to be. Remember The Trawler?”

“No Thai food?”

“Ah! You’re right. I promised you Thai food. We’ll go there another time? Is that okay?”

“Of course. That sounds great,” I said. “I haven’t had a decent piece of fish in a while.”

So Tuesday evening he picked me up at seven and very soon we were being seated in The Tavern & Table on Shem Creek. The dining room was beautiful in a rustic and inviting way.

“Gosh! Somebody spent some money on this place, didn’t they?” I exclaimed.

“They sure did,” Paul said.

“I remember it from another incarnation, after The Trawler.

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