Someone Like You

“Her dream was to be an actress.” He took a moment to eat some of his steak before continuing. “After our divorce, she moved to L.A. and got a part on a soap opera.”

A light dawned in Teddy’s brain. Chelsea Sullivan? She rolled the name around in her mind. “You were married to Chelsea Sullivan?”

He nodded. “She kept the name.”

Chelsea Sullivan was the lead actress on the top daytime television program. From what Teddy read in the entertainment magazines, she was about to move her career to feature films.

He sat back in his chair. “And you? What did you dream of being?”

“I have my dream. I wanted my own design business.”

He smiled fully. “Then you’re ahead of most of the world. You have everything.”

Not everything, she thought. Her partner, Diana, married last year, and while the two of them had been friends for years, Teddy wondered at the happy changes she saw in her friend. There was a newness, a happiness that hadn’t been there before. While they both loved the work, for Diana there was something more to look forward to at the end of the day. Teddy had begun to wonder what she was missing.

But as she sat across from Adam, Teddy wondered how anyone could talk him into meeting someone whose business was weddings when he didn’t believe in them. And so far she was sure he wasn’t the one for her.

“What about marriage?” he asked.

The word hit her like a spray of ice water. “Me? Married? Never made the trip.”

“I see,” he said. “You give the story to everyone else but stand clear of it yourself?”

“You say that as if it was by design.”

“Is it?” Adam asked. He stared straight at her.

“No, I suppose I’m the cliché,” Teddy said.

“Always a bridesmaid, never a bride?”

She shook her head. “I haven’t met the right man, yet.”

“But your parents are determined to find him for you if you don’t do it yourself?”

Teddy nodded. “My mother for sure. But isn’t marriage a taboo conversation for people on a first date?” Teddy asked.

“I suppose it is, but we decided this is dinner, not a date.” He laughed again. This time Teddy laughed, too.

“What do you do?” she asked. In speaking with her mother, she’d never asked anything about him. She’d been too busy arguing that she didn’t want to go on a blind date to think about his profession.

“Investments. I own a brokerage house.”

She was impressed, but kept it off her face and out of her voice. “So, I deal in dreams and you in cold, hard cash.”

“Not cold or hard. Just ones and zeros.” There was no censure in his voice. It was also devoid of pride or arrogance.

“Computer transactions.” Teddy nodded, understanding that everything today was done on a small machine you could put in your pocket.

“Actual money is on the way out.” He turned to her, pulling his chair an inch closer. “How much money do you have in your purse right now?”

Teddy glanced in surprise at the clutch bag that lay on the table. Tossing her head, she said, “Enough for a taxi and a phone call.”

Adam smiled. It was the first time since they met that his face showed any emotion. “I remember hearing my mother telling me about taxi fare and carrying cash when she and my father were dating. Of course, their generation can remember life before cell phones.”

“I got that story from my father. He wanted to make sure I could get home or at least call if some guy got out of hand. He said I could lose the phone or forget to charge the battery.”

“Did it ever happen?” he asked.

“The phone, no. The date, nothing I couldn’t handle.”

Adam gave her a long stare. She wondered what he was thinking. She hadn’t issued a challenge, yet she felt as if he was thinking of one.

“What about you? Any sisters to give that message to?”

“No sisters, two brothers.”

“Where are you in the mix?”

“Right in the middle.”

Teddy nodded. Spoiled, she judged. It rang true for middle children. Teddy was one of four siblings. She was the second child, the one who never got her way. Adam, as a middle sibling, would have always gotten his. And probably still did.