The Complete Irreparable Boxed Set

“See, that’s how old I am,” he joked.

“You must have been there when they assembled the Statue of Liberty.”

“No, that was actually finished the week before I was born,” he replied, surprised to feel himself smiling.

He heard her chuckle again, and his smile widened, turning into a bit of a grin.

“Does your wife know?”

Just like that, the smile was gone. “No. I couldn’t…”

“I understand. I wouldn’t have said anything either. Didn’t,” she amended. “My parents want me to go see a counselor.”

“Maybe you should. It might feel good to have someone to open up to.”

“Maybe. I haven’t decided if I’ll go or not.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I think you should.”

“I should probably listen to someone as old and wise as you, huh?”

Smiling again, he said, “Yeah, probably.”

“What are you doing tonight?” she asked suddenly.

“What am I doing?” he reiterated dumbly. “Well, I’m about to go have dinner. What about you?”

“My family’s taking me into the city to go to my favorite Italian restaurant. We were supposed to leave about ten minutes ago actually, but they won’t dare rush me. If I wanted to go on a puppy-kicking spree they wouldn’t say anything.”

“Yeah, porcelain-doll syndrome.”

“Is that a thing?”

“Not a real thing, but it should be. You could probably get away with murder right now and they would just help you hide the body. Not that I should give you any ideas,” he said lightly.

“Nah, the people I would want to murder are all in jail right now anyway. Hopefully some hardened prisoner will shank ‘em for me.”

“Jesus,” he said on a laugh.

“I’m sort of joking. Not really though. Fuck those guys.”

“Indeed,” he replied.

“Well… I should probably go before I make us lose our reservation. I’m on my cell, but… I can’t exactly talk to you in the car with my whole family listening.”

“Probably not a great plan,” he acknowledged.

“Sorry if I kept you from your dinner.”

“No, not at all,” he assured her. “I was just sitting in my office anyway.”

“Thanks for talking to me.”

He wanted to thank h

er, too, but he couldn’t put into words what for.

So instead he found himself saying, “Feel free to call anytime.”