or Sunday to arrange another meeting. That seemed to suggest a certain lightness in her regard for him, which he found hard to accept. It caused him a great deal of agony. But he excused her when he came to the realization that since she was visiting relatives for the weekend, her time might be fully occupied. As much as she might want to call him—and he was nearly positively sure that she did—she had previous obligations to attend to, which prevented her from reaching out to him.
To his further chagrin, he stumbled upon another idea in his obsessive mental concentration that was thoroughly unpleasant. Not only was she unable to call him on the weekend, he thought her female sensitivity might prevent her from calling him until late next week, for example, on Tuesday. He thought she might do this, so that in her eyes she would not appear to be an easy woman. Bill had encountered this female trait before and detested it. He thought it was part of their craziness. Why couldn’t the women he liked show the same, spontaneous interest in him that he expressed in them? Why did they always make a relationship so difficult? He became peeved at Tanya because she seemed to be acting like a typical woman, but he forgave her every fault when he thought of her youth and beauty. Those overpowered any other consideration. He was certain he was in love, because he couldn’t think of anything else, except her.
He decided that he needed to impress her with the size of his affection by spending a large amount of money on her. Battling hard with his cheapskate character, he began to compile a list of the top-rated restaurants in Manhattan for her to choose from. He would not put any limit upon her choice. He might have to loosen his tie and start taking deep breaths when the check came, but she deserved the very best meal in the city. She would remember and return his generosity as best she could, he was sure. He even went so far as to investigate luxurious hotels in San Francisco. He had once heard that that was the city couples in love went to. He didn’t know why. He had never been there. But he and Tanya were in love, he knew it, even if it was still an early stage. That was where they should go, even if it cost him more than he could bear to think about.
Chapter 15
On Wednesday of the next week, Bill met Stan for lunch. Usually, a month or two would pass before they would get together again, but Bill had something so important to communicate that he couldn’t wait that long. In fact, he was so eager to talk to Stan, he offered to pay for lunch. That wasn’t much of an enticement for Stan, because Bill wanted to go back to the Chinese lunch buffet, where they had eaten the last time. But Stan was glad to see his friend, and there was time in his schedule to meet. Returning to the same cafeteria-style restaurant appealed to Bill, because he was determined to receive the five-dollar lunch special this time. He wouldn’t make the mistake—costly in his mind—that he had made before.
With Stan, Bill thought he would have the most sympathetic audience for what he wanted to say. Bill felt his life was at a turning point, and he wanted to share the good news and hear someone else, anyone else, affirm that what he had persuaded himself to be true was indeed true. He had been at similar turning points before, but this time he was convinced that there would be a romantic revolution in his single state and a union of two in his future. Ever since his Friday commute home, he had been telling people of his surprise encounter on the train and how much impact it was going to have on his life.
The first person he had told was Jonathan at the apartment building. From the train station, Bill had sped home in his car, hurried across the parking lot, and streaked through the lobby. Panting from all of his haste, he broke the news, leaning over the front desk in close proximity to Jonathan’s face. Jonathan hardly looked up from his cell phone game. “That’s nice,” he said, when Bill finished. “She sounds cute.” Jonathan had heard too many of Bill’s amorous hopes before to think that this one had