is round enough.”
Bill reluctantly let Stan take a donut from his plate, while he handed him a napkin. To prevent him from asking for a second or cracking another comment about his waist, he said, “They’re not all mine. Some are Helen’s.”
“Who’s that?” Stan asked.
“She lives in my building. I’ve known her a long time. Her husband was a buddy of mine. He died.”
“You never mentioned her before,” Stan said. “Are you...” There was only one reason he could imagine why Bill might be seeing a woman or why a woman might be seeing Bill. He had known Bill too long to think he was interested in platonic relationships with any female.
“There’s nothing between us,” Bill interjected, understanding quickly what Stan thought. “She’s friendly, but old. Let me tell you my news. You’ll never guess who I met.”
“Tanya’s sister? Tanya’s seven cousins?”
“No,” Bill answered, annoyed that Stan could ridicule his new-found happiness. “Donna. She owns a hair salon. She’s incredible. Amazing. Out of this world.”
Stan looked at Bill’s head carefully for the first time, since seeing him. “Your hair looks so good I didn’t notice anything unusual. But looking good for you is not normal. Gosh, what a big difference.”
“Funny.”
“She’s definitely talented if she took the dead cat off your head,” Stan continued. “And she covered up the grey. Nice job.”
“Talented is not the word. She’s a ten, one in ten million. And guess what.”
“She wants to see you in a month,” Stan guessed, trying to pretend that Bill had found only a new hairdresser and not a new infatuation.
“Ha, ha. I’m going on a date with her next Saturday. We’re going to a barbecue. I’m meeting her friends.”
“That’s really something,” marveled Stan. “You ought to have a great time. There’s sure to be mounds of free food. A lot more than donuts. You’ll be able to pig out with gusto, which is more enjoyable for you than making out.” In his ribbing of Bill, Stan kept a straight face, although he was having a very good time.
“True love is nothing to make fun of,” Bill said with vexation. He wished he had not given a donut to Stan, because he seemed determined to belittle his attachment to Donna.
“Nor is free food,” replied Stan. “But I don’t need to tell you that.”
At that moment, Helen walked up with two coffees and handed one to Bill. He shoved the rest of the donut he was eating into his mouth to free a hand.
“Here’s your coffee,” she said to him. “I hope you like milk and sugar. I already put it in.”
Mumbling with a full mouth, he replied unintelligibly, “Tha. Mil an sug i fi,” and took the cup of coffee.
Stan was about to take the first bite of his donut when Helen appeared. But when he saw her, he froze in astonishment with the donut inches from his open mouth. Although Stan was himself good-looking, wore nice clothing, and moved confidently in an upper-middle-class level of society, he was not prepared to see such a chic, attractive woman as Helen, talking to Bill in a familiar way. The overt, sensual appeal of her makeover affected him, too. Stan was not as stunned as Bill had been when he first saw Helen, but he was still transfixed by her and rendered rather senseless. His hand holding the donut up to his mouth slowly dropped down to his side, and he stared uncontrollably at her with an open mouth. Amused at the affect she had, she smiled at him in the detached manner movie stars use, when a flock of fans finds them.
Bill didn’t notice Stan’s reaction to Helen, because he was concentrating on chewing the mass of donut he had shoved in his mouth. After he swallowed it all, he asked Helen, “Do you want a donut?”
“No. I’m fine,” she answered. “You can have them.”
He was very pleased to hear this. “Could you hold this plate then?” he asked her.
“Sure,” she replied, taking the plate with the three donuts from him. When it was in her hand, he took another donut and began to eat it eagerly. It wasn’t until that moment that he noticed Stan staring at Helen with his mouth open and realized he hadn’t introduced them. Quickly clearing his mouth, he said nonchalantly, “Helen, this is Stan. I used to work with him. Stan, she’s my neighbor.”
At the sound of his name, Stan was pulled out of his stare. Automatically raising his right hand to shake hands with Helen,