The Matchmaker Meets Her Match (13 page)

I would give anything to be starting a new job
, Rilka thought.

“And he’s so courteous and thoughtful. Since I’m not his direct supervisor, I thought it would be okay.”

“What would be okay?”

“Why, to have him over for dinner,” Hilda said, this time a little tartly. “Honestly, haven’t you been listening to a word I’ve said?”

No, not really
, seemed like an injudicious choice of words so she settled on, “I’m not feeling myself today. Do go on.”

“A home-cooked meal always appeals to these young men,” Hilda said. “He’s very proper and polite.”

“That’s nice.”

“I know he doesn’t make that much money, and I don’t want him spending it on taking me out. He was grateful for my understanding. Plus, he’s just a homebody like me, so we also have a pleasant time even if we’re just staying in.”

This didn’t sound good. It sounded like the most boring relationship ever created.

“Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” she said. If it kept her clients from being jailed and/or sued by Hilda, Rilka was all for it.

• • •

“You seem preoccupied, dear,” Reston said, leaning back into the sofa cushions and sipping his port, which he had brought with him, pronouncing her tea undrinkable. That was fine. She never wanted to make another pot of tea again in her lifetime.

“I have a headache. And something weird’s in the water. My brainiac scientist has taken a junior assistant under her wing. She was telling me all about it at brunch today. She’s maternal, he’s grateful. Some great romance is supposed to develop out of that?”

“Repeat that for me,” Reston said, looking up from the swirling port. “You have a scientist — female it sounds like — among your clients? Someone you’ve had difficulty matching?”

“She’s a repressed virgin,” Rilka said and then flushed. “That was kind of rude. But true.”

“And the young man is grateful to her. I suppose she cooks dinner for him and they stay in a lot? Keeping the relationship hush-hush so as not to make the coworkers talk? Even though the coworkers couldn’t care less?”

“I suppose it adds a frisson of excitement to an otherwise deadly dull affair,” she said.

“Hmm,” said Reston. “What, exactly, does your scientist do?”

“Pharmaceutical research,” she said.

“And this assistant is a new employee?”

“Yes.”

He sipped port meditatively for a moment, then tapped his glass with his finger.

“I’ve been in business a long time,” he said finally. “You get so you notice patterns. And the pattern you just described says industrial espionage to me.”

“What?” Rilka almost spilled her own glass of port. She’d just been bitching about a client, which, okay, she shouldn’t have been doing, but Reston’s interpretation of what was happening was
insane
. How had he leaped from
dullest affair in this city
to
industrial espionage
?

“He flatters her, makes her feel like she offers him something no one else does. But he keeps the relationship quiet so no one knows about it.”

Now it was Rilka’s turn to say, “Hmm.”

“And even if it isn’t work-related, it is precisely how con men get women of a certain age to hand over their assets,” Reston went on.

Ugh. That sounded possible. It sounded like exactly the kind of thing that would happen to Hilda.

“Perhaps I should talk to this woman,” he suggested. “Get her to see the potential damage.”

“That won’t work,” Rilka said. “I can’t tell you who she is. Besides, she’ll be defensive and dislike the implications you make. I mean, who wants to hear that the man she secretly lusts after only wants to steal her research or her money?”

“Well, you can’t just sit idly by,” Reston said, although Rilka felt she very well could.

“We’ll have to try something else,” she said. She wasn’t even sure there was anything to be concerned about. Industrial espionage? How farfetched were his concerns? But Reston seemed perfectly serious and she supposed something had to be wrong. Was this going to end up reflecting badly on her? Probably.

Just shoot me now
, she thought.

• • •

“Hey, Julia, what’s up?” Rilka asked even though she didn’t want to know the answer. Never let it be said she wasn’t willing to face up to the tough challenges. “Did Duncan see you safely home?”

“Oh, he did,” Julia said with a naughty giggle.

Rilka had heard that before.

“Don’t tell me … he didn’t leave right away,” she guessed with a sigh. Honestly, some women were awful. They’d sleep with Duncan because of his looks and then toss him aside because he couldn’t hold a conversation. Why didn’t they establish the lack of conversation before going to bed with him? It seemed — what? Dishonest? Men did it, too, Rilka knew, sleeping with women when they had no interest in pursuing a relationship.

And she guessed that was okay if both people involved knew what was going on, but in Rilka’s experience, that was rarely the case. Someone always wanted more. Someone always hoped. Someone always got hurt. This time it would be Duncan. Again.

Why had she brought him to the recital? Because it had never occurred to her that he would find Julie attractive. She repressed a sigh and glanced at the clock. Donald would be calling her soon —

“No, he didn’t leave right away,” Julia was saying. “In fact, he hasn’t left yet.”

A few years ago, that would have surprised Rilka, but nothing could do that now. Disappoint her, sure. But surprise her, no.

“Julia, I don’t want you to hurt him. Please don’t be cruel.” She wasn’t normally so direct, but this was Duncan. How many more times could he be tossed aside before someone finally crushed him?

“You think I’m using him for sex?” Julia’s voice was incredulous. “Well, I won’t lie. Sex is definitely involved. My God, he knows more about sex than the Kama Sutra.”

Great. “I don’t need details.”

“He thinks I’m beautiful, Rilka. He thinks I dance like an angel. He says I’m so happy I make him happy.”

“He says all that?” Rilka’s turn to be incredulous.

“Well, not all at one time.”

“Julia, I think Duncan is a sweetie but you’re ten times smarter than he is.”

“And also ten times more ambitious. But he’s ten times cuter and makes ten times more money. He’s kind to me, Rilka. He wants to be with me. He likes being with me. He doesn’t even notice I’m fat.”

“But — ”

“It’s restful,” Julia said. “I’m not in competition with him. He’s happy just to be with me. I feel the same way about him.”

“Okay,” Rilka said doubtfully. “Honestly, I thought I’d never get him off the books. But if you’re sure — ”

“I’m sure.”

“Then congratulations,” Rilka said. That was all that was left to say. No
call me when this falls to pieces
or
don’t say I didn’t warn you.
“I hope you’ll be very happy.” And she did. She wanted both of them to have all the joy they could handle.

Rilka forked kung pao chicken into her mouth and chewed vigorously. Jeremy fed the dog a ball of sticky fried rice. Sugar sat on his lap, the way she always did when he was around. She never sat on Rilka’s lap. Of course, Rilka didn’t want her to, but still. It was deflating to the ego.

Jeremy picked up his chopsticks and said, “I’m listening but I don’t understand why you’ve got your panties in a wad.”

“That’s a ridiculous phrase,” Rilka said. “God knows what it means. My point is, two less likely people have never set foot in my home.”

“So? They’re both clients, they found true love, voila! The matchmaker strikes again. Which reminds me, weren’t you going to do something about my getting laid?”

“But I had nothing to do with it,” she said, addressing the first part of his statement but not the last. “It was pure luck. How can I be an effective matchmaker if my successes are pure luck?”

“You could’ve told Duncan to clear out or come back later,” Jeremy argued. “Instead, you invited him along. Maybe on some subconscious level, you knew what would happen.”

“Bullshit. I was totally clueless. I suck at this. I drive one man back into his wife’s arms — ”

“What’s wrong with that?” Jeremy asked reasonably. Rilka paused, forkful of kung pao chicken halfway to her mouth. He had a point. If the experience had served to help a man renew his commitment to his wife, that wasn’t a bad thing, right? She was all for marriage, right? So long as it didn’t personally involve her.

“Not the point,” she decided. “The point is, two totally unsuitable people fall for each other and I can’t get anyone else on my list to even kiss someone.”

“I’d kiss someone,” Jeremy offered. “You got someone to kiss, I am so there.”

“You’re not helping.”

“I’m not trying to help,” he said. “I don’t know why you’re so bent out of shape.” He dug in a carton for a pot sticker. “Last one,” he said. “You want to share?”

“No,” Rilka said. He popped it in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed.

“Good,” he said. “I hate sharing.”

“Then get your chopsticks out of my kung pao chicken,” she said.

“I don’t mind you sharing,” he explained, nabbing a piece of chicken and sticking it in his mouth.

Rilka sighed and put her fork down. “I suck at this. I don’t believe in what I’m doing. The other day I realized I could suffer from agoraphobia and not even notice because I practically never leave home.”

“You’re incompetent, disillusioned, and bored,” he summarized.

“Well, ouch,” she said, staring at him.

“What’d you expect me to say?” he asked. “You said it yourself. If you knew what you were doing, you’d do it. You need to shake things up a little. Or maybe you just need to get laid.”

“You get a hard on, suddenly everyone looks like she needs to get laid,” Rilka snapped.

“How do you know I have a hard on? Have you been peeking?”

She ignored him — only thing to do with him, really — and chewed more kung pao chicken, jaws working vigorously. “I never used to suck so badly.”

“You’re just going through a dry spell,” he said. “Have you ever believed in what you’re doing?”

“God, no,” Rilka said.

“But you’ve managed to be successful for a couple of years.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So the problem isn’t that you’ve lost faith in the power of love. You never actually believed in the power of love to start with.”

“Exactly.”

“So what’s changed?”

That was a good question. She had to think about it for a minute. Then she said slowly, “When I started, it was a lifesaver. A job I could do, a place to live. It was what I needed at the time.”

“Nothing wrong with that. So now you’re not grateful to have the work.”

That was for damned sure. “Exactly. Now it’s just work that I don’t believe in. And yet I don’t see how I can do the work without believing in it.” She considered. “Does that make sense?”

Jeremy nodded. “It’s like Santa Claus. It’s a story you tell children and for a while they can believe in the magic. And maybe you do, too, as the parent. A little bit. But after a while it stops seeming so benign to continue to pretend there’s a Santa. It starts to seem delusional.”

“Yeah. How’d you guess?”

“I faced the truth about Santa a long time ago,” he said. “Slightly creepy fat man, lives with elves, gives presents to good little boys and girls? That’s plain wrong.”

That made her smile. “What are you trying to tell me?”

“I’m not trying to tell you anything. Except this: quit hogging all the kung pao chicken.”

She yielded the chicken and picked up the carton of fried rice. “So maybe I just need to stop pretending I believe in the magic.”

“Maybe that would be a start,” Jeremy said. “Look, you have good ideas. You told Julia to find a pursuit that made her happy. And look what happened. She started to feel happier, started to like her life. That’s what Duncan noticed. You told me to get out more, got to places where people could get to know me and become friendly. And I just won fifty bucks at pool. Also, Marcus has given me some pointers — ”

“I don’t want to know,” Rilka interrupted. “If I don’t know, I can disclaim all knowledge when the police question me.”

“I was going to say Marcus has given me some pointers about veterans’ resources, but whatever. Did you know he was in the Rangers? Anyway. You’re not wrong about that stuff. Get out, do things, have a life, don’t just sit around waiting for The One.”

“Hmm.”

“So maybe it’s not ‘there’s someone for everyone.’ Maybe it’s, ‘here’s how you can be happier, and less lonely, and maybe you’ll find a person to be with, for a while or a lifetime.’”

“I can’t fit all that on my business card.”

“It doesn’t need to be on your business card,” Jeremy said, very patiently for Jeremy. “It just needs to be in your head. And maybe your heart.”

She leaned back in her chair and contemplated him. Maybe he had something there.

“Okay. Maybe you’re right. But I’ve got all these people who want me to deliver results, Jeremy, and I’m not delivering results.”

That didn’t seem to daunt him. “You need to throw a party,” he said.

“I have no friends. Okay, I have Marilyn.”

“You have us,” he reminded her. “Invite us, your one friend, and your neighbors. It might be fun.”

Her brows drew together. “I don’t know. You think?”

“I think. Hey, you could even write it off as a business expense.”

She brightened at that. “Not bad,” she said. “And maybe it’ll get you guys off the books faster. And then sabbatical here I come.”

• • •

Jeremy paused, chopsticks halfway to his mouth. Sabbatical? Wasn’t that where a person took time off work and did something else for a year? Traveled to Tibet, studied at libraries in Rome? She was planning to
leave
?

He set the chopsticks down, food uneaten. Sugar gave him a disbelieving bark but he ignored her.

“Sabbatical?” he said. His throat felt dry so he took a sip of water but it was hard to make it go down.

“Yes,” Rilka said brightly. “I have a handful of clients left. I’m not taking on new ones. I decided to give it three months — more like two, now — and then I’m going to take some time off. I figure that’ll help clear my head and I’ll be ready to do something else. I might even sell the house and move to a new town.”