“Something wrong?” Heath asked at her whispered protest.
Julia’s shoulders slumped as she turned her gaze away from Amanda, whose intentions were good, though misguided. “My sister is heading to my place and she’s bringing this man she insists is my soul mate, despite the fact I have repeatedly told her I’m not interested.”
Heath looked toward The Heritage. “Hide out here with me,” he suggested. “If she happens to see you sitting alone, she’ll bring him over. But if you’re with me, most likely she’ll leave.”
She wasn’t about to refuse this small gift. “Thanks. I’d appreciate that.”
“Get us a table, and I’ll order the drinks.”
“Perfect.” She opened her purse to get out cash when Heath stopped her. “My treat.”
This was an even better offer. She told him what she wanted and quickly secured one of the few tables available. Within a matter of minutes, Heath handed her the latte and then sat down across from her.
“Does this sort of thing happen often?” he asked.
“You mean my sister and/or friends pushing me to meet a man who will be perfect for me?” she asked in an exaggerated voice, and then answered her own question. “All the time. You?”
“Some. Not so much lately, as my friends have gotten the message I’m not interested. Shortly after the divorce I thought it would be a good idea to move on, give dating a try. That was a mistake.”
Julia understood all too well. “It was a while before I was ready to meet anyone. I was lonely, and thought Why not? All I wanted was someone to share experiences with, someone to laugh with and enjoy life. I’d been married over thirty years, and I wasn’t accustomed to life alone.”
“I hear you. That was my thought, but after a few pretty hairy experiences I was done.”
“I met my share of duds as well,” Julia said, and she had. It didn’t take her long to discover the men who were single were that way for a reason.
Heath relaxed against the back of his chair and tossed out a challenge. “Bet my dating experiences will be worse than yours.”
“Oh yeah?” Julia said with a smile. “First time out was with a guy who was the friend of a friend. Sheryl thought we would be perfect together. Have you noticed how that is what they all say? ‘I know someone perfect for you’?”
“Heard it enough to realize my friends don’t know me near well enough.”
“At any rate, Sheryl said this about Harry, that was his name, claiming we had a lot in common. Like me, he had been recently divorced. We met for dinner and everything was going along fine until after half a bottle of wine, when Harry started talking about his ex-wife and his children. Then, out of the blue, he started to cry. And when I say ‘cry,’ I mean howling sobs and tears. There I sat in the middle of a crowded restaurant, with a man weeping into his napkin so loudly that the waiter asked if there was something he could do to help. I assured him there was and asked if he could call for a cab. I thanked Harry for dinner and left.”
Heath grinned. “My first time out was equally bad. An old college roommate set me up with a woman he knew, convinced we would hit it off. Callie worked in social media and was seriously into her job. Like you, we met for dinner, and she—I am not exaggerating—snapped at least forty selfies, which she posted on Facebook. I don’t think she swallowed more than two bites of her lobster, and yes, she ordered the most expensive item on the menu. Then she asked me to take her photo for Instagram. Not one photo, mind you, several, none of which pleased her. Later she let me know I didn’t make her look as good as I could have. With that, she informed me it would be better if we didn’t see each other again.”
Julia shook her head in sympathy. “Apparently taking a good photo for Instagram is a prerequisite for a relationship these days.”
“It seems so,” Heath agreed.
Julia was enjoying this and wasn’t about to let him win this challenge. “Okay, okay. See if you can top this. Another friend-of-a-friend situation. I trusted Susan. She’s smart and assured me I was simply meeting the wrong kind of men, and I should put all my past failures behind me. Typically, she claimed she had the perfect man for me. In fairness, she did mention he was a bit older. She described him as mature, established, and financially secure. He sounded too good to be true.”
“Don’t they always?” he asked.
“Right. Anyway, once again we met at a restaurant and Lloyd had to have been in his late seventies, if he was a day. This guy was on his last legs. If that wasn’t enough, when we went to order dinner, it took him ten minutes as he listed off all his physical ailments that prevented him from eating almost every item on the menu. He asked the server so many questions, needing to know every detail of the preparation, that I nearly dozed off. That server had the patience of a saint. The worst was when he went into detail, as to the reason he couldn’t eat red meat, which he claimed gave him diarrhea.”
“Good one,” Heath said with a chuckle. “I had a stalker.”
“A stalker?” she repeated, not sure she could beat that.
“We had a total of two dates. I should have followed my instincts after the first one. Nothing terrible happened. She was pleasant enough, and by this time, I was getting discouraged. Of all the women I’d met, she showed the most potential. I liked that she was enthusiastic and could carry a conversation, so I decided to ask her out again to see how it went.
“We attended a concert, and afterward she was all over me. It felt like an octopus who had all eight of its arms wrapped around me. I had to pull over on the side of the road and explain I couldn’t drive with her trying to undress me.
“That was enough to tell me it wasn’t going to work. When I dropped her off, she asked when I wanted to see her again. I said I’d call her, to which she responded July worked best for us to schedule the wedding date. Foolishly, I thought this was a joke. If so, it was on me.”
“She was talking marriage after two dates?”
“Oh yes, and that was only the start of my troubles with Candace. It took me nearly three months, a lawyer, and a restraining order to get her out of my life.”
“Okay, you win,” Julia said, lifting her hand in defeat. “I have nothing to compare to that disaster.”
“I’m sure you heard what happened with the concierge,” he said, slowly shaking his head, as if the memory continued to traumatize him.
“Not really. There was some talk around the building, only I didn’t pay much attention.”
“I had to report Melanie to the condo board. She had this business opportunity she wanted me to finance. I explained I wasn’t interested, and left it at that, hoping that would be the end of it. But she refused to give up. It came to the point that I couldn’t even walk into the lobby to collect my mail without her pestering me. If that wasn’t bad enough, she suggested she would be willing to do ‘anything’ if I would back her in a venture even an amateur entrepreneur knew would fail.”