Kate looked down at the table. She was nervous, like it was their first date.
The waiter brought their drinks-tea for her and a Kirin for him-and left. Kate picked up the teapot and poured tea in her cup. She told him about Owen dying in a freak accident and about her son Luke.
Jack said, “How old is he?”
Kate said, “Sixteen.” She sipped her tea.
“You didn’t waste any time, did you?”
“You went out to get beer and cigarettes and never came back,” Kate said. “What did you expect? I thought you were dead or in the hospital.” She could feel herself getting angry again, reliving it.
“I called,” Jack said.
He picked up the beer bottle and took a sip.
“What-two weeks later.”
“You thought you were pregnant, I-”
“Uh-huh.”
“Still pissed at me?”
The waiter came and served their lunch, put a plate of seared ahi tuna in front of her and sweet-and-sour chicken in front of him.
When the waiter left, she said, “John Lennon did the same thing to Yoko, although they got back together a year or so later.”
Jack said, “How do you know we won’t?”
He reached over and touched her hand, and she pulled it away.
Jack said, “What’s the matter?”
Kate sipped her green tea, staring at him over the edge of the cup.
“Believe it or not,” Jack said, “I always thought we’d hook up again. I read this article about couples who dated in high school and college, broke up and ended up together twenty, thirty years later. It’s called fate or kismet.”
“You’re not going to tell me your sign, are you?” He sounded like he was picking up where he left off.
Jack met her gaze.
She said, “What do you want?”
He sipped his beer, speared a piece of chicken with his fork and looked at her.
“Don’t tell me you happened to walk into Victoria’s Secret and saw me standing there after sixteen years, and call it fate or kismet.”
“I parked in front of your house and waited till you came down the driveway in your Land Rover.”
“How’d you find my house?” She looked down at the plate of seared tuna and wasn’t hungry now.
“The phone book,” Jack said.
“Come on.”
Jack grinned. “You’re right,” he said. “I saw the article about Owen in USA Today and I knew at that moment I had to come back here and see you. I wanted to do it right away, but I knew you’d need some time to sort things out.”
“You think because it’s been seven months,” Kate said, “everything’s okay now? I’m over him? That’s all the time I get?” She was angry and couldn’t stop herself.
“I didn’t mean that,” Jack said. “Take all the time you want.” He took a bite of chicken.
“You sure?” She said it with the same angry tone.
“I just wanted to see if I could help you,” Jack said.
“I don’t need help,” Kate said. “I’m okay.”
“Yeah, you’re tough, aren’t you?”
She looked at him and he looked away. Moved the food on his plate around with his fork.
“You did well for yourself,” Jack said. “Better than if we’d have stayed together.”
“Still down on your luck, huh?”
“Is that the way you see me?”
“That’s all I remember,” she said, thinking about the night they walked out of the Pretzel Bell after dinner and saw an Ann Arbor cop car, lights flashing, double-parked next to the BMW he’d picked her up in. Kate asked him what was going on and he told her he just got the car but hadn’t had time to register the license plate.
She said, “Well aren’t you going to tell the cop?”
He said, no, they could arrest him on a misdemeanor charge. He’d wait till they got the paperwork straightened out and then claim the car.
It sounded believable the way he said it at the time, but in retrospect, it was total bullshit. It was a year or so later that she found out he stole cars and sold them to a theft ring. That’s how he made his money. That, and selling weed.
She said at the time, “Were you going to tell me?”
He said, “What, that I steal cars? Are you kidding?”
Getting away from Jack was one of the big reasons she joined the Peace Corps. But he was also the person she called for help when she was in trouble in Guatemala. He didn’t hesitate-flew down and took charge. He got a black-market US passport for Marina, and he knew a pilot who made regular runs from South Florida to Bogota and arranged to have them picked up in Guatemala City and flown to Miami.
They got back together again after that, Kate feeling a sense of loyalty that lasted till he left town six months later.
She’d always been attracted to him and still was, staring at him across the table, thinking he looked like a movie star, a cross between George Clooney and Matt Dillon. But he was trouble.
Jack said, “I still have dreams about you.”
“Stop it, will you?” she said, raising her voice.
A foursome of women at the next booth looked over at them.
“Take it easy,” Jack said. He drank his beer.
“You show up after sixteen years and think you can pick it right back up, huh? It doesn’t work that way.”
“Tell me how it works,” Jack said. “What’re the rules?”
“You sound like your old self,” Kate said. “The Jack Curran I remember.”
He sat there staring at her but didn’t say anything. Kate poured more tea in her cup from a ceramic pitcher with a wicker handle. She decided to change the subject. “Are you married?”
“You think I’d be here if I was married?” He sipped his beer. “After you, I never met the right person.”
“Be patient. You will.” She looked down at her untouched piece of tuna. “Want some of this? I’m not hungry.”
He shook his head.
Kate sipped her tea and said, “What do you do?”
“You mean do I have a real job? Yeah. I sell real estate,” Jack said. “Looking for an investment opportunity?”
He was angry, giving it back to her.
“I’ve got a manufactured home development-Eldorado Estates. The pro forma offers a guaranteed six percent per year, with an opportunity to realize nine or ten percent. You buy into the LLC and split the profits with investors and the holding company. With the stock market sputtering, real estate is a viable alternative.”
He sounded like he knew what he was talking about.
“Ever heard of Sun Communities?”
Kate shook her head.
“Or Equity Lifestyle Properties? That’s what we do.”
Kate sipped her tea, eyes on him. Maybe she was wrong about him; maybe he’d cleaned up his act.
“I’d take a look at it if I were you,” Jack said. “The upside is stratospheric.”
Kate said, “I’ll put you in touch with Marty Smith when he gets back in town.” If it made sense to Marty, she might do it.
Jack said, “Who’s Marty Smith?”
Kate said, “Owen’s financial guy.”
“When’s he coming back?’ Cause this deal isn’t going to be around for long.”
“Next week,” Kate said. “He has a place in Bermuda.”
“Too bad,” Jack said. “It closes Friday.”
Kate said, “How much are we talking?”
“Minimum investment-fifty grand.”
He sounded convincing, but hadn’t he always? “Let me think about it,” Kate said.
The bill came and Jack picked it up and studied it.
Kate said, “Do you want to split it?”
“I’ve got it,” Jack said. “I think I can afford thirty-three bucks.”
He left money on the table and they walked back into the mall.
Kate said, “It was good to see you. I’m glad things are going so well.”
Jack said, “Can I take you out to dinner?”
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Kate said. “There’s too much going on.”
He kissed her on the cheek and said, “Think about it, will you?”
She left him standing there and headed down the mall concourse toward Saks.
He was thinking about what lunch cost. Thirty-three dollars for a plate of chink food, a beer, tea and a piece of raw fish she didn’t even touch. He was getting low on cash now, down to about forty dollars, and he had to fill up his sister’s car with gas that cost almost three bucks a gallon.