Page 36 (1/2)

Stanford says, “Have you ever noticed how the Bone has no scent whatsoever?”

15

He Loves His Little Mouse, but He Won’t Take Her Home to Mom

This is a story about a dirty little secret in the dating world Almost everybody’s been there—on one side or the other

Twodrinks It was late afternoon Both men were in their early thirties and had once been pretty-boy preppies They were now losing their looks, and both had an extra twelve pounds around their ether and had ood friends; they had the kind of friendship that tends to be unusual for s Like diets that didn’t work And women

Walden had just been otten engaged to a derist Stephen had been in a relationship for three years He was a producer on a network azine show

Walden’s fiancée was out of town at a collagen convention On his own, Walden always got lonely It reminded him of a time when he had really been lonely, forinto years And it always brought him around to the same memory, of the woman who had made him feel better, and of what he’d done to her

WaldenManhattan, she was nicely dressed in a short black dress that showed off breasts that were on the large side But she had a lets “They always have one great feature,” Walden said, and took a sip of his martini

There was so on a couch by herself, and she didn’t seeirl, and she leaned down and whispered soet up Walden was standing by the side of the couch, drinking beer out of the bottle He was thinking about which pretty girl to approach, looking for openings Libby caught his eye and s it was a momentary oasis

He kept thinking that he was going to get up and approach one of the pretty girls, but he didn’t Libby had gone to Colurad school She talked to hi up with four sisters in North Carolina She enty-four and had a grant to make a documentary She leaned forward and rehed They talked for a long time He finished a second beer

“Do you want to come over to my place?” she asked

He did He figured he kneas going to happen They’d have sex for one night, he’d go hoet about it Like ht away Put her in a category—one-night stand, potential girlfriend, hot teek fling Back then, he was sleeping with plenty of women, and eventually there would be tearful scenes in his lobby and sometimes worse

Libby was definitely a one-night stand She wasn’t pretty enough to date, to be seen in public with

“But what does that mean, really?” Stephen interrupted

“I just thought she was uglier than me,” Walden said