Читать книгу Eligible - Curtis Sittenfeld - Страница 17

Liz and Jane went for their usual run the next morning, and they had just passed Edwards Road when Jane said, “So Chip texted after we went to bed to see if I want to get dinner tomorrow night.”

“He already texted? For dinner? On a Saturday night? Jane, he’s smitten with you.”

“I don’t know,” Jane said.

“What do you not know? You guys practically had to be pried apart when we left the Lucases’.”

“He’s really nice,” Jane said. “And attractive, obviously. But the situation is so contrived—his having been on TV, Mom scheming to get us introduced. Doesn’t that make it seem ridiculous?”

“There’s not the tiniest shred of doubt in my mind that you’ll find your dream man sooner or later. If it happens to be someone Mom pushed you toward, well, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”

“It’s made life simpler that since I started the IUI, I haven’t met anyone I’ve wanted to go out with,” Jane said. “Because what would I say on a date? ‘I like you, but by the way, once a month I get anonymous sperm shot into my uterus? Hope that won’t put a damper on things!’”

“You’re getting ahead of yourself,” Liz said. “Just go out to dinner with him.”

Jane was quiet, and Liz said, “I can hear you ruminating. What?”

“I know I shouldn’t make a big deal out of one date,” Jane said slowly. “But I can’t help doing the math. What if we start dating, we go out for three months or six months or eighteen months, and then we break up? By that point, I’m forty or forty-one.”

“You’re not having IUI while you’re here, right?” Liz looked at Jane, who nodded.

“Starting the process again at a new clinic is too complicated,” Jane said.

“In that case, give Chip a chance while we’re in Cincinnati. Have a summer fling. You did like him.”

They were passing Corbin Drive, and Jane said softly, almost so softly Liz couldn’t hear, “That’s true. I liked him a lot.”