The Girl in the '67 Beetle: A novel by Linda Lenhoff by Linda Lenhoff

Author:Linda Lenhoff [Lenhoff, Linda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Laurel Canyon Press
Published: 2021-09-25T22:00:00+00:00

13

Let the Games Begin

It occurs to me that I may need help sorting through my newfound quandaries. Help looking for a new place to live in my super expensive neighborhood for one single girl and one single cat (no pets is not an option). Help figuring out what’s going on with my job. Why am I having so much trouble plotting Goldilocks’ future? Will I remain the co-artistic director if we merge with the bug people? And then there’s my after-work life: What’s up with my sudden rise in demand among males? Is one of them too old? Too young? Just right? Is there such a thing as just right, or is it time to transform this fairy tale all together?

Since I think it would take way too long to explain this situation to a therapist, I gather my best friend Susan and our pal Miralise Silva-Abramowitz before work at the café. It’s time for me to kiss (though I’ve already done this part) and tell.

“Three guys,” Susan says. “This gets better and better.”

“What about my impending homelessness and joblessness problems?” I ask them.

“Geez, not before coffee,” Miralise says.

“Not before dinner and drinks,” Susan says.

“Speaking of dinner and drinks, and three guys to kiss …” starts Miralise.

“I didn’t mean to kiss Ben, exact—” I say. I can barely keep the “exactly” in.

“Ben?” Miralise questions.

“The young mechanic,” Susan reminds her. “Keep up.”

“Please,” Miralise says. “I have three students named Benjamin. I keep seeing six-year-olds.”

“No, he’s in his twenties,” I say.

“I like that about him,” Susan says, running her spoon through her latte suggestively, if you can do that.

“Okay, let’s start with last night’s guy,” Miralise suggests. “You’re becoming so Cosmo. Different guy every night.”

“It was a date with a guy recommended by my aunt, and it was not the whole night, thank you very much,” I say. “Is Cosmo even still around?”

They both shrug. “I think we aged out of Cosmo once we hit sixteen,” Susan says.

“I never aged into Cosmo,” I say.

“No one really does,” Miralise adds. “Probably why we don’t even know if it’s around anymore.”

“So, the den-tist,” Susan says, enunciating precisely.

“You guys are such snobs,” Miralise says. “Dentist is good. Dentist means vacation time and, well, dental coverage, like for life.”

“Dentists poke people with sharp painful instruments,” I say.

“Not intentionally,” Miralise says. “So, dinner.”

“With Jeremy and my aunt,” I say. “This following coffee with Jeremy and my aunt not so long ago.”

“That’s sweet. When’s the last time I met a guy who would bring my aunt along on a date?” Miralise says.

We stare at her, wondering when, too.

“Oh. Never,” she says. “So, he’s thoughtful,” Miralise says. “What do you want, obnoxious and uncaring.”

“She married that one,” Susan reminds us all unnecessarily.

“Just because it’s what you’re used to …” Miralise says.

“True,” I say, finishing her elliptical thought in my mind.

“Maybe you don’t recognize nice as the good thing it is,” she says. “Maybe you’re hung up on looking for the wrong thing.”

Looking for the right thing/person/chair/planet. I’m reminded of Goldilocks.

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