Reinventing Romeo by Connie Lane

Author:Connie Lane [Lane, Conne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-49010-0
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2014-06-10T00:00:00+00:00

11

Alex seldom read what he considered the unnecessary sections of the newspaper. The comics were out. Most of them weren’t funny anyway. The Homes section seemed like just another way to make people want what they couldn’t afford. Normally he wouldn’t be caught dead reading the personal ads. For one thing, he didn’t need them. He had all the social life any one man could handle. For another, they seemed a bit pathetic; people advertising for lives when they should have been out living them.

But according to the plan Norbert had devised, there would be a message for Alex somewhere in the personals. Alex spread out the morning edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer on the kitchen table and ran his finger down column after column, just as he did every morning while Kate was up in the shower. Just as he’d done every morning since he’d bought the condoms at Kmart. It was probably too soon to hear from Norbert. At least that’s what he told himself each day when he didn’t find the message he was looking for. It was probably too soon, and the message would appear the next day, or the day after that.

But for the last week, ever since Kate had told him Joe Bartone had abandoned his hunt of the Calypso, he couldn’t help but wonder if the debit card statement had already been processed. If it had already made its way back to New York. If it had already gone across Norbert s desk.

His finger on the bold heading for “Alternative Lifestyles,” Alex paused and thought through the possibilities. He started with the debit card statement cycle, because if he started anywhere else—like questioning Norbert s friendship—he knew he’d drive himself nuts. If all went well, the statement should be to Norbert by…

Alex closed his eyes, thinking. Back in New York, his calendar was full, but Charlotte kept his life running like clockwork: tennis on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, a board meeting every Wednesday evening, a staff meeting first thing Monday, lunch on Fridays with his senior executives. No matter how late his Friday nights, his Saturday mornings invariably included an early run through Central Park, then a visit to the office that he always promised himself would be quick. More times than not, it lasted most of the day.

Once a month, there was the executive board meeting for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, then another at the Natural History Museum. There were the charity fund-raisers he attended (and always contributed to), the meetings of the hospital boards on which he sat, and, of course, an endless stream of parties and premieres, concerts and galas. Here in Cleveland, without Charlotte poking him and prodding him and reminding him that he had things to do and a schedule to keep, there were times he wasn’t even sure what day it was.

Alex glanced at the date on the top of the newspaper page, just to reassure himself, and scanned the rest of the personal ads, looking for the words Norbert had insisted he memorize:

Not tall.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.