Little Known Facts A Novel - By Christine Sneed Page 0,83

there are more than friends.”

She gave me a look that I had never seen before, at least not on her pretty face. Amused scorn—this is what I’m almost certain it was. “We’re friends,” she said. “But if we were more, I don’t think you’d be the one to judge.”

I bristled. “So you are more than friends?”

“Dad, please, they can probably hear us.”

Elise was laughing in the other room. I really doubted that they could hear any part of our conversation. “Don’t be silly. I can barely hear us,” I said. “Why is he wearing a wedding ring?”

“The usual reason,” she said. She handed me two bowls, each with a ladyfinger slanting up from a scoop of chocolate. “Would you take these in to Elise and Tom?”

“If you’re working with him and having an affair, you could both be fired.”

She gave me a disappointed look. “He wanted to meet you. He thinks you’re great. He thinks you and De Niro are the two best actors in the world. Please don’t get upset. There’s no need to. Everything’s fine. Really, it is.”

“Where’s his wife? Why isn’t she here?”

“She’s playing bridge.”

“Bridge?” I said. “How old is she, seventy-five?”

She ignored this. “Her father used to teach it at the community center in Newark where she grew up. I guess she’s very good.”

“Does she know you two are friends? That he’s over here meeting Elise and me tonight?”

“Dad, please. Can’t we just have dessert and enjoy ourselves?”

So she was already a doctor, already in charge, like her mother had always been.

I took the ice cream into the other room and set a bowl in front of Elise and another in front of the doctor. I tried to smile, but despite my purported skills as an actor, I wasn’t able to move my mouth convincingly and the doctor gave me a wary look. He was no fool. He had probably worked with his share of terrified liars, patients who don’t want to admit to the symptoms they are pretty sure will spell their doom. Or other doctors who pretend they haven’t made the mistakes they’re being accused of. Malpractice, malignant, malign, malingerer. Mal as in evil, bad, dangerous. I didn’t think that Tom Glass was evil, but I really did not want him calling my daughter, having sex with her, or worse (from her point of view, anyway), canceling the occasional tryst when she was so looking forward to seeing him—because his wife had changed her plans for the day, or one of his kids had broken his wrist, or his mother-in-law had dropped by unexpectedly. He had someone to sleep next to at night. My daughter did not. She had only his word, the next promised assignation, and she must have known by now that a rendezvous wasn’t a given until he stood directly in front of her, clothes on their way to the floor. It all made me feel ill. I knew this man. I was this man. And of course my daughter realized this too. What could I really say to her? Even so, I didn’t care if my displeasure seemed a double standard to her. I wanted to protect her from disappointment, from unfortunate or foolhardy choices. I did not want this walking midlife crisis with his MD and smooth talk to break her heart.

But part of me, I have to admit, liked him. He was funny, intelligent, respectful, at least in front of Elise and me. He was probably a very good doctor and a good teacher. He spoke with confidence but not arrogance. He laughed easily. He looked at Anna with admiring eyes, and I could see why she had been drawn to him. He might even have been thinking about leaving his wife for her, but did I want Anna to be the other woman who managed to steal the husband away from his wife and kids? I was pretty sure that I did not. He was also so much older than she was. If she wanted kids of her own, I had to wonder if he would oblige. If he should oblige.

Elise had a good sense of what was going on too, and when we were in the car heading back to her place, she looked at me and said, “That must have been a little strange for you.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, Renn, let me see,” she said, laughing a little. “Because you left Anna’s mother for another woman, and now it looks like Anna is playing the