Love Game (29 page)
Authors: Elise Sax
“OH, IT’S
the cop,” Ruth said to Spencer. “But
your
hair looks fine.”
“Huh?” he asked.
I smoothed my hair down. “What are you doing here?” I asked. The black eye that Remington had given him was turning yellow.
“Looking for you. I couldn’t sleep.”
“Neither could I.”
Ruth put my latte on the bar. “Here, let me get that,” Spencer said, and paid my tab. “May I sit with you?” he asked.
Guilt wormed its way through my entire body. I was eaten up by it. Spencer being nice to me after I’d just marathon-boffed his underling was going to send me to confession, and I wasn’t Catholic.
“I think we were talking over each other yesterday,” he said, “and we had a misunderstanding.”
“On the contrary, the discussion wasn’t even necessary. You told me everything you needed to tell me when you were kissing that woman.”
“I get it,” Spencer said. “You were jealous.”
“Get over yourself. I was not jealous,” I lied. “I’m just tired of your behavior, especially after what happened between us.”
“The kiss.”
Bird pulled back the plastic and walked in to Tea Time. “Ruth, a box of scones, on the double. I’m detoxing from the juice fast.” She tapped her shoe on the floor, then spotted me and pointed to my hair. “What are you doing here? Don’t you two have any shame, showing up here with sex hair?”
“What?” Spencer asked.
I smoothed my hair down, but it was no use. I had sex hair.
Spencer stared at me, and I stared down at my shoes. I could practically hear the cogs moving in his brain. “I see,” he said finally.
I wanted to crawl into a hole. It wasn’t that I was ashamed or embarrassed. It wasn’t that Spencer didn’t deserve to suffer a setback in his love life. It was the way he was looking at me that made me want to hide. Like he would never pop a root beer with me again.
Spencer made a show of checking his watch. “I need to be getting to work,” he said.
“I’ll see you later.”
“What? Yeah, sure.”
He walked out in a daze and never looked back. To my horror, I burst into tears.
“Dammit,” said Bird. “Here, have a scone.”
Three scones later, I had told Bird the whole story. “He’ll come around,” she assured me. “And if he doesn’t, you have the hot nerdy fella.”
But I wasn’t sure I wanted the hot nerdy fella past our incredible night together. Somehow I had to win Spencer back—not that I’d had him before.
I was about to leave when Bridget came in with a smile from ear to ear. “I got one,” she announced, seeing me. “A convert. He called, asking for the usual. You know, if I would suck his balls, that kind of thing. And when I brought up Hillary Clinton, he was actually interested. He let me finish talking and forgot all about his balls.”
“That’s great,” I said. “Does this mean you’ll get the phone number changed, or are you going to try to get more converts?”
“I’ll think my days as a phone-sex operator are over. But I haven’t felt this good in months, not since my crisis of non-faith.”
Bridget’s good mood was infectious. I almost forgot about Spencer, and I ordered another latte to enjoy while Bridget told me all about the glass ceiling. After a couple of hours, Bridget left, and when I was about to leave, Ruth stopped me.
“I’ll be over later to get my gun,” she said. “In the meantime, tell your grandmother not to turn on the oven.”
“You hid your gun in the oven?” I asked.
“I figured a murderer would never look in there unless he wanted to bake a cake or something.”
With my euphoria and afterglow calming down, my exhaustion took over. I couldn’t wait to get in my bed and sleep the day away. I was happy for once not to have any matches to make.
What a week. I had gone through just about every human emotion. There was nothing left to surprise me. Even if aliens landed in front of Grandma’s house, I wouldn’t be surprised. If rabbits hopped up her driveway, singing the national anthem, I wouldn’t be surprised. I was beyond surprisable. I was officially jaded.
But then I was surprised.
“Look who’s here!” Grandma called from her driveway, as I walked up the street.
The tall man standing next to her turned to see who Grandma was yelling at. I was so surprised, I almost swallowed my tongue.
He ran down the driveway, scooped me up, and spun me around. “I’m back,” he said.
“Holden,” I breathed. “What a nice surprise.”
And then I was surprised again.
“And look who else is here!” Grandma called, sounding much less pleased.
The front door opened, and a tall blond woman came out. She had aged badly, her face riddled with cigarette-induced wrinkles. She held a glass of something
alcoholic in her hand, even though it was early in the morning.
“Mom? What are you doing here?” I asked, shocked to my bones.
“I’m moving in. You got any smokes?”
For Max and Sam
The author would like to thank all the usual suspects: Junessa Viloria, fantabulous editor and confidante; Alex Glass, ever-patient agent to the stars and Elise Sax; Gina Wachtel, favorite publisher; Beth Pearson and the Ballantine copyediting team, keepers of the comma knowledge; all the fellow writers of the planet; Loren Birkett, who introduced me to a sink puker; and my kids.
Y
E
LISE
S
AX
An Affair to Dismember
Matchpoint
Love Game
See how it all began …
read on for an excerpt from
An Affair to Dismember
the first book in Elise Sax’s Matchmaker series.
W
hen you first start out, you’re going to ask people what they’re looking for. This is a big mistake. Huge. They want the impossible. Every woman wants a Cary Grant with a thick wallet who doesn’t mind if she’s a few pounds overweight. Every man wants a floozy he can take home to Mom. See? Asking their opinions only leads to headaches you could die from. Take it from me, I’ve been doing this a lot of years. Nobody knows what they want. You have to size a person up and tell them what they want. It might take convincing, but you’ll widen their horizons, and they’ll thank you for it. Eventually. Remember, love can come from anywhere, usually where you least expect it. Tell them not to be afraid, even if it hits them on the head and hurts a lot at first. With enough time, any schlimazel can turn into a Cary Grant or a presentable floozy
.
Lesson 22
,
Matchmaking Advice from Your Grandma Zelda
THE MORNING
I found out about Randy Terns’ murder, I was happily oblivious. I was too busy to
care, trying to make heads or tails of my grandma’s matchmaking business. Nobody actually mentioned the word “murder” that morning. I sort of stumbled onto the idea later on.
That Thursday I sat in my grandma’s makeshift office in the attic of her sprawling Victorian house, buried under mounds of yellowed index cards and black-and-white Polaroid pictures. It was all part of Zelda’s Match-making Services, a business I now co-owned at my grandma’s insistence as her only living relative and what she called “a natural matchmaker if ever I saw one.”
“Gladie Burger,” she had told me over the phone three months before, urging me to move in with her, “you come from a long line of Burger women. Burger women are matchmaker women.”
I was a Burger woman, but I had strong doubts about the matchmaker part. Besides, I couldn’t decipher the business. It was stuck in the dark ages with no computer, let alone Internet connection. Grandma fluctuated between staging workshops, running group meetings, hosting walk-ins, and just knowing when someone needed to be fixed up. “It’s an intuitive thing,” she explained.
I pushed aside a stack of cards, stirring up a black cloud of dust. I had been a matchmaker in training for three months, and I was no closer to matching any couples. To be truthful, I hadn’t even tried. I wiped my dusty hands on my sweatpants and stared at the giant mound on her desk. “Grandma, I’m not a matchmaker,” I said to her stapler. “I’ve never even had a successful relationship. I wouldn’t know one if I saw one.”
I had a sudden desire for fudge. I gave my stomach a squish and tugged at my elastic waistband. My grandmother was a notorious junk food addict, and I had slipped into her bad habits since I moved in with her. Hard to believe I was the same person who not even four months ago was a cashier in a trendy health food store in Los Angeles, the second-to-last job I had had in a more than ten-year string of jobs—which was probably why Grandma had twisted my arm to move to Cannes, California.
I decided against fudge and picked up an index card. It read:
George Jackson, thirty-five years old
. Next to the note, in Grandma’s handwriting, was scribbled
Not a day less than forty-three; breath like someone died in his mouth
. Halitosis George was looking for a stewardess, someone who looked like Jackie Kennedy and had a fondness for Studebakers. Whoa, Grandma kept some pretty old records. I needed to throw out 95 percent of the cards, but I didn’t know which 5 percent to keep.
Putting down the card, I stared out the window, my favorite activity these days. What had I gotten myself into? I had no skills as a matchmaker. I was more of a temp agency kind of gal. Something where I wasn’t in charge of other people’s lives. My three-week stint as a wine cork inspector was more my speed.
A man and his German shepherd ran down the street. I checked my watch: 12:10
P.M
. Right on time. I could always count on the habits of the neighbors. There was a regular stream of devoted dog walkers, joggers, and cyclists that passed the house on a daily basis. Not much changed here. The small mountain town was low on surprises. I tried to convince myself
that was a good thing. Stability was good. Commitment was good.
With sudden resolve, I took George Jackson’s card and threw it in the wastebasket. “Bye, George. I hope you found love and an Altoid.”
I tried another card.
Sarah Johns. Nineteen years old
. She had gotten first prize at the county fair for her blueberry pie, and she was looking for an honest man who didn’t drink too much. My grandma had seen something more in her.
Poor thing. Art school better than man
, she had written in the margins.
I tossed the card, letting it float onto George. Matchmaking was no easy task. It wasn’t all speed dating and online chat rooms. Lives were on the line. One false move and futures could be ruined.
The house across the street caught my attention. It had seen better days. A bunch of shingles were missing, leaving a big hole in the roof. I watched as the mailman stopped at the mailbox. He would arrive at Grandma’s in twelve minutes. I could set my watch by him.
Across the street, the front door opened. An elderly woman stepped out and picked up her mail. She glanced at the letters and then stood staring at her front yard. Something was not quite right about the picture. I didn’t have time to dwell on it, though. I had promised Grandma I would pick up lunch for us in town.
I grabbed my keys and hopped down the stairs. Outside, it was a typical Cannes, California, August day: blue sky, sunshine, and warm. Normally it didn’t turn cool until October, or so I was told. My experience
with the town was limited to summers visiting my grandmother when I was growing up.
“Yoo-hoo! Gladie!” Grandma’s high-pitched cry cut through the country quiet. She stood in the front yard, hovering over the gardener as he cut roses. The front yard was about half an acre of lawn and meticulously groomed plants, flowers, and trees. It was her pride and joy, and Grandma supervised the gardening with an obsession usually reserved for Johnny Depp or chocolate. I doubted she had ever picked up a spade in her life. “Yoo-hoo! Gladie!” she repeated, flapping her arm in the air, her crisp red Chanel knockoff suit bulging at the seams and the glittering array of diamonds on her fingers, wrists, and neck blinding me in the afternoon sun.
“I’m right here, Grandma.” I jiggled the car keys to remind her of my lunch run.
“Jose, leave a few white ones for good luck and be careful with the shears,” she told the gardener. “You don’t want to lop off a finger.” Jose shot her a panicked look and crossed himself.
Grandma walked as quickly as she could across the large lawn to the driveway. She had a grin plastered across her face and, no doubt, some juicy bit of news bursting to pop out of her mouth. Her smile dimmed only slightly when she got a good look at my state. I pulled up my baggy sweatpants. As usual, she was immaculately coiffed and made up, whereas my brown hair was standing up in all directions in a frantic frizz, and my eyelashes hadn’t seen mascara in months. I didn’t see much reason to dress up because I rarely left the attic, but standing next to Grandma, I was a little self-conscious about my attire. As a rule, her clothes
were nicely tailored. I listened to the soft
swish-swish
of her pantyhose-covered thighs rubbing together as she approached. I wondered vaguely if the friction of her nylon stockings could cause them to burst into flames. I took a cowardly step backward, just in case.
“I’m so glad I caught you before you left,” she said, a little out of breath from either her run or the excitement over the piece of gossip she was about to blurt out. While Grandma never left her property, she somehow knew everything going on in town.
“I didn’t get much done,” I said. “I can’t figure out what to keep and what to toss. Should I throw out everything older than ten years?”
“Fine. Fine. Listen. Randy Terns is dead. They found him yesterday morning, deader than a doornail.”
I racked my brain. Who was Randy Terns? Was he the new secretary of state? Really, I had to read a newspaper once in a while. What kind of responsible citizen was I?
“That’s terrible,” I muttered, a noncommittal edge to my voice in case Randy Terns was a war criminal or something.
“Yes, yes. Terrible. Terrible.” Grandma waved her hands as if everything was terrible. The sky, the trees, my car—all terrible. She grabbed my arm in a viselike grip and pulled herself close to make sure that I heard every word. “I’m on Betty like white on rice to sell that old run-down excuse for a house. I’d love to get in some people who will fix it up. Look at me! I’m drooling over the thought of waking up, going out to get the paper, and not having to see that dreadful lawn across from my prize-winning roses.” She made air quotes with her fingers when she said “lawn.”
She turned to face the house across the street. “I bet you will be thrilled not to have to stare at that falling-down roof every day!”
Falling-down roof
. My brain kicked into gear, and I recalled the woman standing by her mailbox. Randy and Betty Terns were the neighbors across the street. I’d never had much interaction with them. And now Randy was dead. Found yesterday morning, deader than a doornail.
I hate death. I’m scared it’s contagious. At funerals, I feel my arteries start to harden. Medical shows on TV send me into neurotic fits. McDreamy or McSteamy, it doesn’t matter—I only see my slow, agonizing death from a terrible disease. Like Ebola or flesh-eating bacteria. Or a drug-resistant superbug yeast infection. If I found out that poor Randy Terns died of a heart attack, it would only take five minutes or so for my chest pains to start.
“Betty said she would think about it,” Grandma said with disgust. “Said she has a funeral to organize and a houseful of kids. Kids. Huh. The youngest is thirty-seven. Three of them still live at home. It’s time to push those birdies out of the nest, I say.”
She harrumphed loudly and kicked the cobblestoned driveway with her left Jimmy Choo. Gold-tipped. Very fancy.
“Five children. Why do people take things to extremes?” she continued. “Anyway, they come and go like they own the place, moving in and out whenever they want. They’re holding on for dear life. A bunch of losers, the lot of them. I didn’t make an index card for any of them.” She looked at me expectantly, and I nodded vigorously in agreement, even though the
most I saw of the “bunch of losers” these days were some faceless figures going to and from various cars.
Grandma patted a stray hair in place on her head and continued. “ ‘Betty,’ I told her, ‘you could buy yourself a condo on the beach for cash and have enough left over to last your whole life if you sell now.’ But she didn’t have time for me. You know, Gladie, that house is one of the biggest on this street. And it’s got a pool.”
Grandma let out a big why-are-people-so-stupid sigh. Then she slapped her forehead. “I almost forgot! I have news about the house next to ours, too.”
Geez. I really didn’t want to hear that another neighbor had died. I would need therapy.
“Don’t look at me like that, Gladie. It’s good news. Jean the real estate lady told me there’s been a bite on the house next door.” She nodded to the house on my left. “A big bite. A whale bite. A … a … what’s bigger than a whale? Whatever it is, it’s one of those bites. Anyway, I can’t talk about it yet. Might jinx it. Won’t you be happy to have that house filled?”
I was only dimly aware that the house next door was empty and for sale, but my real estate ignorance would be sacrilegious to Grandma. The town was her business, and it was supposed to be mine now, too. A couple of speed-walkers made their way past us, distracting us from talk of houses and death.
“Daisy Scroggins,” Grandma called out, flapping her arm at one of the speed-walkers. “You are the sweetest thing. How could I resist homemade chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven?”
The speed-walker, who I assumed was Daisy, stumbled in surprise. “How did you know I baked—” she
started, but stopped herself midsentence. “I’ll be back in fifteen minutes with a plateful, Zelda. It’s the least I could do.”
Grandma leaned into me. “Her daughter’s wedding is next month,” she whispered. “That was a tricky one, but in the end I convinced her to go for the plumber with one leg. She’s never been happier, of course.”
I had a familiar feeling of dread. Grandma’s shoes were hard ones to fill. When the moment came, would I know to fix up someone with a one-legged plumber?
Jose let out a bloodcurdling scream. He jumped up from the rosebushes, clutching his hand. It grew redder by the second and started to drip.
“What did I tell you?” Grandma shook her head and clucked her tongue at him.
“I cut off my finger,” he yelled, his eyes wide with terror.
“No, you didn’t,” Grandma insisted. “It’s just a scratch. Good thing I told you to be careful. Let’s go in, and I’ll wash it.” Jose followed Grandma into the house, holding out his hand in front of him as if it was a snake. I took that as my cue to hop in my car.
