Your Dimension Or Mine? (2 page)

“Would you like anything else?” the waiter asked quietly, looking between the two of them.

“Check please,” she said quickly, not sure if she should burst out laughing or run from the room. She chose the third option females the world over had used for centuries. “I’ll be right back.” Standing up, she walked quickly to the women’s restroom and locked herself inside.

“Oh my,” she sighed at the aghast expression on her face. Pulling out her phone, she called the one person who would get the irony, her eldest sister Cory.

“Hey, little sister, aren’t you supposed to be on a date?” Cory’s snicker on the last word helped her relax.

“You will not believe what she set me up with!”

“Oh yes, I would. What’s the problem with this one?”

Cory was more likely to be on Ari’s side and always had been. Not only was she twenty years older, so she was more like an aunt than a big sister, but when it came to men she understood the issues. Well, considering she was born one, she understood them more than any woman Ari knew. In fact, if Cory ever set her up on a date, it would probably be spot on, but so far she hadn’t tried.

“You mean besides the fact he continually feeds his face, talks while he eats, and is married?”

“Married?” Cory shrieked. “What the hell is Jane doing setting you up with a married man?”

“I don’t try to understand the workings of Jane’s mind,” Ari moaned. “But, sis, she also told him I made adult films in college.”

“Uh…hold on, I’m getting her on the line.”

As Ari waited to be connected, she rolled her eyes at the knock at the door. “Occupied!” Hopefully, whoever it was didn’t have to go real bad, because she wasn’t sure how long this would take.

“Okay, we all here?” Cory piped in.

“Yep!”

“I’m here too,” Ari added with frustration.

“Arwen, why are you on the phone with Cory? Aren’t you on a date with Jay?”

Ari ground her teeth together. She hated it when Jane used her given name, especially in that condescending tone.

Cory chuckled. “That seems to be the problem, Jane. Not only have you set her up with another winner”—Jane huffed—“this one is married, and he seems to think she’s in the porn industry.”

Ari expected Jane to scoff and scold her, once again, for not appreciating her efforts. She did not expect her to start giggling.

While she waited for Jane to get hold of herself, another knock came at the door. “Still occupied! Don’t know how long I’ll be!”

“First, he’s not married,” Jane said calmly once she could speak, “though he does have an on-again, off-again girlfriend. Second,” she giggled again, “you know Tony refers to those movies you made as adult films. Jay’s eyes lit up and I was not about to burst his bubble. He was salivating to meet you.”

“Jane!” Ari felt a mixture of exasperation and anger at her sister as well as the desire to burst out laughing at the misguided idiot sitting out in the restaurant. “Those were mini-documentaries I wrote and produced on the reproductive processes of insects! They were not porn films!” She practically screeched at the end to stop herself from laughing.

Wincing at how loud her voice had become, she quieted down. “Look Jane, that’s it. I am not going on another date you set me up on. Period!”

A long beleaguered sigh poured through the phone making her gut clench. “You are over-reacting, Ari. You bury yourself in that library of yours. If it weren’t for me, you would never date and you know it.”

The all-too-familiar sinking sensation started in her stomach, and the guilt was not far behind. Jane was a master at laying on guilt. Ari was so focused on her own body, she wasn’t sure how to respond. Luckily, Cory came to her rescue.

“That’s cold, Jane. Ari isn’t like you. She can have a life without a man in it.”

Ouch! That was not making her feel better. What happened to Cory the rescuer?

“I’m not going to stop setting her up!”

Ari rubbed her temples as her two sisters bickered back and forth about who had Ari’s best interests at heart. Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Could you at least set me up with someone intelligent?”

“Devon was intelligent,” Jane countered without missing a beat.

Groaning, Ari leaned against the sink. She could not believe they were having this discussion in the bathroom of a restaurant. “Look, I’ve got to go end this date, Jane. This is not the end of this discussion. We do not have the same taste in men.”

A few more whines from Jane and some interfering from Cory, and she shoved the phone in her pocket. Looking into the mirror, she straightened her shirt and plastered on a fake smile. “Time to end this date.”

Opening the door, she strode back to the table where Jay was noticeable by his absence. When she reached her chair, she realized his suit coat and briefcase were missing as well. “Weird.”

She had just taken her seat and was drumming her fingers on the table when the waiter walked up. This time there was no doubt as to the pity on his face. “The guy you were with had to leave and asked that I give this to you.” He handed her a folded piece of paper.

Relieved she didn’t have to do the leaving, she nodded, and opened up the paper to see what kind of excuse he would have left for his departure. Instead of a note, she found herself staring at the bill for their dinner. “So, he decided we were going dutch,” she chuckled, grabbing her bag. Boy, her sister sure knew how to pick them.

“No, actually he said you would be paying for the whole bill.”

Chapter Two -
The Discriminating Single

Slamming her front door behind her, Arwen Maria Reynolds stomped across her linoleum floor, leaving a trail of water behind her. “There isn’t supposed to be rain in February,” she grumbled, pulling off her soaked tank top, dress pants, bra, and underwear the moment she reached her bathroom. Usually she was in a good mood on a Friday afternoon, especially the Friday afternoon before a three-day weekend. But not this Friday.

From the very beginning, it had been rife with stress. Some idiot had taken to putting religious leaflets between the pages of the books in the mystical section, and all available librarians, which of course she technically was since she did not work with the public, were called upon to find them all. Seven hours later, the books were finally sitting as they should be, instead of bursting at the seams. A pile of over a thousand pamphlets were strewn at her feet.

By the time she got back to her desk to finish inputting the newest serials for the week, the network was down, and three irate calls got her nowhere. Two nice lectures by her boss about being a team player later, she left the library only to find it raining a deluge outside. Of all days she chose to walk to work, it would be the one when it rained.

After taking a long hot shower that did not improve her mood, she dried off, changed into her comfy terrycloth robe, and went in to the kitchen to heat up soup and some milk for hot chocolate. To end the Friday from hell, her sisters were coming over to talk with her about her “dating situation.” When they discussed it on the phone about a week previous, Jane had said it so oddly that Ari could practically see her using hand quotes to punctuate her meaning.

Her soup was barely warm when the first knock came at her door. “Nooo,” she whined like a little child, rolling her eyes at herself as she walked to the door. Before opening it however, she took a deep breath to calm herself. If she acted like a child, Jane would have the upper hand right away. Once she felt calm enough, she turned the handle. To her relief, Cory was there first. “Hey, sis.”

Cory walked in, imposing at over six feet tall, and yet her reddish blonde hair that fell just over her shoulders and her soft blue eyes confirmed her kind heart. Ari was sure her sister could not hurt a fly. Well, not true. She had seen her kill many a fly, spider, scorpion, and any number of horrid insects. But that wasn’t the point.

Since Jane hadn’t gotten there yet, Ari relaxed and drank her soup and chocolate while Cory talked about her day. “Ready for tonight?” she asked once Ari was done.

“It’s been an awful day. So I don’t know how it could get worse. I am not going out with any more of her guys though.” Ari grimaced at her own tone. Even she didn’t believe her. True, she didn’t want to go on any Jane-approved dates anymore, but she never had been one to fight for her rights. Especially against a sister who was a decade older and wielded guilt like a weapon. Their mother would have been so proud.

“Well, I think she is coming armed with ideas. So be prepared for a Jane attack.”

Groaning, Ari went over to the cookie jar and carried it into the living room. “If I’m going to put up with that, I’m gonna do it with cookies.”

She had just put the jar down on the coffee table when a series of loud raps came at the door, Jane’s signature
soft, hard, soft, boom
knock. Ari opened the door, grimacing at her sister who was wrapped up in the kind of winter coat you only needed if you lived some place like Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Jane walked in, removed her coat, sweater, and galoshes, before walking into the living room, barely acknowledging her baby sister.

“Cory, how was your trip?” she asked, taking a cookie and sitting down in Ari’s favorite chair. Her short white blonde hair was styled into a bob that she somehow kept tamed even with the humidity in the air. At only five-feet-two, she was the shortest of the sisters, yet somehow she was also the bossiest.

“Good. Got two more contracts signed so I’ll be busy through the end of next year.”

“And Brent?”

“Brent’s doing fine. He is in Florida doing something for a theme park.”

“Good, good.” Jane turned her eyes to Ari. “And how is the library?”

Sighing, Ari flumped onto the sofa next to Cory and grabbed a couple cookies. “Good for the most part. The whole place was crazy today.” She didn’t feel like telling them about the pamphlets. Jane wasn’t really in the mood to hear about it anyway.

“Well, we all know why we are here,” Jane began.

Cory nodded. “So you can harp on Ari about the fact she doesn’t date.”

A snicker bubbled up Ari’s throat, but she pushed it back.

“I don’t harp,” Jane snapped, her normal calm demeanor ruffled for a moment. “But Cory, you have to admit, Arwen is not any good at finding a date. And—”

“And,” Cory cut in and Arwen began to wonder if she even needed to be here for the conversation. “You have taken Mom’s last request a bit intensely and, in my opinion, the wrong way.”

Pursing her lips, Jane took a bite of a cookie. “Mom asked that we make sure Ari was happily married.”

“Exactly. And by happily, I take it to mean that she’s with someone of her same intellect. You take it to mean someone you would be attracted to.”

A faint blush lit Jane’s cheeks. “What do you have against Tony?”

Chuckling, Cory grabbed a cookie. “Nothing. He’s perfect for you. But Ari is nothing like you, Jane. The kind of person who would be perfect for her is not your type.”

They continued to quibble back and forth, never once asking for Ari’s input. Part of her felt annoyed about that, but the other part, the part that did not want to argue, was quite happy with the way things were working out. Until…

Jane turned to look at her. “So, what are you going to do about it?”

Gulping the last of her cookie, Ari shrugged. “I don’t see what’s so wrong with focusing on my career. I’m only twenty-eight.”

Her sister sighed. “I was married with four children by the time I was twenty-eight. Cory had three long-term relationships by that time. There is more to life than work, Arwen.”

Chuckling, Cory stood up and walked into the kitchen. “You know, this kind of thing never would have happened to the real Arwen.”

Ari laughed. “No, she had Aragorn to defend her.”

Jane cracked a smile. “How did you get stuck with such a fanciful name? Cory was born Corren, which she changed to Corrine, and I was given the name Jane. But you…”

“Mom was reading
Fellowship of the Rings
when I was born. The last scene she read before they whisked her into the delivery room mentioned Arwen. I bet if I had been twins, the other would have been named Frodo.”

“Or Frodette,” Cory offered, coming back with three mugs of milk.

The conversation veered away from her dateless life for a while, and the three chatted like they normally would at their weekly get-togethers. Then Jane looked at her watch. “Oh! I need to get home. Tony has to be at work in an hour.” She turned her eyes on Ari, a speculative gleam in her eye. “So, let’s solve this little issue. I will grant that I never meet the kind of men you might fall for, but I will keep trying unless…”

Ari started groaning, but sat up straight at the last word. “Unless?”

“Watch it,” Cory stage-whispered. “Jane has something up her sleeve.”

“Unless you promise to go on one date a month.” Jane stood up, satisfied, and drank the last of her milk before going into the kitchen and placing it in the sink.

“No way!”

Cory placed a hand on Ari’s knee, stopping any further exclamations. “A date a month when she never dates? That’s asking a lot, Jane. Even you don’t set her up that often.”

“So? If she wants me to stop setting her up, she will set herself up.”

Ari sent Cory a “help” through lips that would not make a sound. She could not imagine trying to line up monthly dates. Didn’t Jane get the memo? Arwen was clueless when it came to men. The few times she was actually around a guy she was attracted to, she lost all ability to think and came across as a ninny. This scenario had neurotic film written all over it. If they did it without clothes, Jay would be thrilled.

Standing up, Cory walked over and stood next to Jane. At an inch over six feet, she was almost a foot taller, thus giving her the semblance of control. “What if she does it a different way?”

“Meaning?” Jane asked, glancing at their little sister where she sat wrapped up in her terrycloth robe watching them with wide eyes.

“Online dates. There are tons of online dating sites. She could meet guys there, weed out the idiots, get to know the others…”

“Oh. Now that has promise,” Jane nodded, her eyes starting to twinkle. “Five of my friends met their husbands online.” Turning she grabbed a pen from Ari’s pen jar. Their mother had a pen jar in every room when they were growing up, and all three women did the same. It was one of their few homages to their mother. Walking back to her chair, she grabbed her purse, pulled out her notebook, and tore out a piece of paper. Scribbling something on it, she handed it to Ari.