devoted to both women, was the wealthiest of the three and unintentionally somewhat domineering. She held the most sway over their conversations, without stirring any resentment from the others. They could always see that she meant well. It also helped that she usually paid for their meals.
“I don’t understand,” Joan burst out. “I simply don’t understand. It’s incomprehensible. It’s like, it’s like, it’s like a Democrat becoming a Republican.” She gestured, shaking both hands in the air wide apart, her left hand holding a fork and her right a knife. A native Indian dancing to warn off evil spirits would make the same motion with two rattles.
“Joan, no politics,” Sandra said sternly. “Remember, we decided those conversations were always in bad taste. Political discussions are rarely civil nowadays and practically never informed, especially on one side, and we all know which one that is. There’s no need to talk about that party. No need. We can rise above their ignorance and dishonesty, and we will.” For a moment, however, Sandra slipped on her ascent. “How they can think they are doing something for this country by trying to destroy it with their fear-mongering, cowardice, and selfish lies is beyond me. Thank God, money has not made me blind. But that’s enough of that. We’re not going to be sidetracked. There’s enough people stuck in the mire of petty politics.”
“I know, Sandy, I know, but I can’t think of anything else stranger,” Joan admitted.
“Strange is certainly the right word,” Sandra agreed. The two women looked at each other, nodding their heads in mutual understanding. Then they turned to look at the source of their bewilderment, and she looked right back at them.
“It’s not so strange,” Helen said. “It’s hard to explain, though.”
“Whatever do you see in him?” Joan wanted to know. “I’ve met him. Does he have some redeeming trait that I didn’t notice? He certainly doesn’t resemble Cary Grant, so don’t try to tell me that his looks swept you off your feet. If you ask me, and I know you’re not doing that, his physical appearance is like an ice-cold shower. Not the sort of thing you want too much of.”
“Joan, he has two excellent characteristics that I’m aware of, which we should by no means overlook or depreciate. First, he has a job. Second, he pays his own rent. Those are always good qualities in a man. And they’ve been a bit more rare in the economy we’ve had for a while.” Although Sandra thought such qualities were commendable in a man, she did not consider them so laudable in a woman. She had not worked for a living nor paid rent in a long, long time.
“Funny, Sandy,” sniffed Helen. “He has many good qualities.” She was certain, however, that she would never convince them of that, since they had already formed an opinion about him on the basis of a few incidents.
“Like what?” wondered Joan.
“Well, he’s thrifty,” Helen declared. “He knows how to hang on to a dollar.”
“Miserly,” Sandra said, contradicting her. “Anyone who gives you a cheap bouquet another woman rejected is a miser. The economy may be poor, but we’re not living in the South Sudan yet.”
“A miser and a jerk, I say,” commented Joan.
Helen was undisturbed by their opinions. She smiled, as she remembered what had happened that evening. “Oh, he wasn’t trying to be romantic,” she told them. “He was dejected. He had just been dumped again. He was sad and lonely. He didn’t have to give me the flowers. But he acted like a gentleman, at least for a while. He ran off when he felt the situation was becoming too sticky, too close for him. The flowers were sort of pretty for corner deli flowers.”
“Uh-huh,” said Joan, stabbing her salad with her fork. “He sounds like a real gentleman. With a refined taste in flowers. A regular Prince Charming.”
“I think I need another glass of wine, if we’re going to continue this conversation,” Sandra said. “Maybe it’ll make more sense to me then. But you,” and she pointed at Helen, “have had enough. Probably too much. No more for you.”
“Say what you like, but I’m convinced that Bill is attracted to me and likes the attention I give him.”
“And that’s why he’s always running from you?” Joan asked.
“And ignoring you? And telling lies? And pushing you away?” Sandra continued.
“Yes, exactly,” Helen answered.
The other women let out loud sighs of disbelief.
Helen attempted to persuade them. “He knows that his feeling for me