This Matter Of Marriage

“How hefty is the fee?” Hallie had recently forked over fifteen hundred bucks on exercise equipment. So much for paying off her credit cards.

Donnalee hesitated a moment. “Two grand.”

“Two thousand dollars!”

“Yup.”

“I damn well better get a date with Brad Pitt for that.”

Donnalee laughed. “Brad wouldn’t date someone as old as either of us.”

Her friend’s words were of little comfort. “You aren’t serious, are you?” For that kind of money Hallie figured she could have liposuction and forget the treadmill and the dieting.

“Yup,” Donnalee said with a hint of defiance. “I’m thirty-three. I don’t have as much time as you. If this agency can help me find a decent man, then I’d consider the money well spent.”

“You are serious.”

“Just think of it as a shortcut.”

Hallie still wasn’t sold. “I haven’t actually started looking yet.” Using a dating service felt like waving a white flag before she’d even stepped onto the battlefield. Surrendering without so much as a token effort.

“What are you going to do, wear a sandwich board that says AVAILABLE in big black letters?” Donnalee asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You’ve had your entire life to find a husband, and you haven’t. What makes you think it’s going to be different now?”

“Because I’m ready.” This probably wasn’t the time to remind her friend that she’d had relationships over the years, the most promising one with Gregg. While it was true that those relationships had grown fewer and fewer, and her social life had become rather dull, she’d barely noticed, working the hours she did. However, since the first of the year, she’d taken measures to correct that, delegating more responsibility to Bonnie Ellis, her assistant.

“And your being ready for marriage changes everything?” Donnalee sounded skeptical. She sounded skeptical a little too often, in Hallie’s opinion.

“There’s a man I’m interested in right now,” Hallie confessed, thinking of John Franklin.

“Really? Who?”

She should’ve guessed Donnalee would demand details.

“A banker,” she answered with some reluctance. “He’s the new loans officer at the Kent branch of Keystone Bank. He transferred this week from the downtown Seattle branch. We met Friday, if you must know. I liked him immediately and he liked me. He’s really good-looking. Sensitive, too.”

“Good-looking and sensitive,” Donnalee repeated.

“Single good-looking men are hard to find,” Hallie insisted, wondering at her friend’s slightly sarcastic tone.

“That’s because the majority of them have boyfriends.”

Hallie paused. John? Was it possible? “Do you know John Franklin?” Since Donnalee managed a mortgage company, she was familiar with many bankers in the area.

“I know of him.”

Hallie’s suspicions mounted. “What do you mean?”

“John Franklin’s the perfect reason you need the services of Dateline.”

“Oh?” Her confidence was shaken.

“You’re right,” Donnalee continued. “John’s sensitive, friendly, personable and handsome as sin. He also happens to be gay.”

Hallie’s spirits sank to the level of bedrock. John Franklin. Hmm. With some men it was obvious and with others…well, with others, it wasn’t.

“So, are you going to join Dateline?” Donnalee asked.

“Two thousand dollars?”

“Consider it cheap since the men are screened.”

“If Brad Pitt’s out, then for that kind of money they’d better come up with royalty.”

“If they do, kid, I’ve got first dibs,” Donnalee said with a laugh.

“I’ll look into Dateline, but I’m not making any promises.”

“Just call and they’ll mail you a brochure. Phone me once you’ve read it over. Promise?”

“Okay, okay,” Hallie mumbled, and wrote down the number. She replaced the telephone receiver and shook her head. Who’d ever have thought this matter of marriage could be so complicated?

Two

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

S teve Marris’s day wasn’t going well. A parts shipment was lost somewhere in the Midwest, his secretary had quit without notice, and he suspected his ex-wife was dating again. The parts shipment would eventually be found and he could hire another secretary, but the news about Mary Lynn was harder to take.

He poured himself a cup of coffee and noted that it’d been at least a month since anyone had bothered to clean the glass pot. He’d make damn sure his next secretary didn’t come with an attitude. This last one had refused to make coffee, claiming she’d been hired for her secretarial skills—not that they’d been so impressive. And she’d never understood that in his shop, everybody pitched in. No, he was well rid of her.

He sipped the hot liquid and grimaced. Todd Stafford must have put on this pot. His production manager made the world’s worst coffee. Steve dumped it and rinsed his mug, then sat down at his desk, sorting through the papers amassed there until he found the invoice he needed.

Todd opened the door. “You going to sit in here all day and fume about Danielle quitting?”

Todd was talking about their recently departed secretary. “Naw, we’re better off without her.”

Todd came into the office, reached for a coffee mug and filled it. He pulled out Danielle’s chair and plopped himself down, propping his feet on the desk. “If it isn’t Danielle walking out, then my guess is you’re sulking about Mary Lynn.”

His friend knew him too well. “I heard she’s dating again.”

“Heard? Who from?”

“Kenny,” Steve admitted reluctantly.

“You’re grilling your kids for information about your ex-wife?”