"You just have to think of something, Jeanette," pleaded Angie. She lifted the glass of chardonnay to her lips, which signaled that it was my turn to reply.
I studied the deep crimson cabernet as I swirled it, inhaled its scent, took a sip, and watched the light rainbow film cascaded down from the rim of my glass. The action always seemed to hone my thoughts as if looking into a gazing ball. Such reflection often reveals the sum total of a situation in an instant. Best friends since first grade, our lives have managed to remain entwined, crisscrossing over the decades even though we ended up on very different life paths.
I have been married since the age of twenty. Angie is single with two short marriages. While we both completed graduate school, I chose to postpone my career and stay home to raise our two children. I returned to the university for post-graduate school to begin my dream job when the kids entered junior high school. Angie is a successful divorce attorney who began creating her own practice soon after passing the bar. We are now in our early sixties. She never plans to retire. I went into semi-retirement early, because grandchildren came sooner then expected.
"Why look to me?" I complained. "You're the high-powered lawyer. I am just a grandmother."
"Stop stalling," commanded Angie. "Besides, I know you too well to fall for that line," Angie argued. I looked into her blue eyes set off perfectly by the rainbow of expensive blonde hues, wondering how she got herself into this predicament. "I thought you swore off men for at least a month after you broke up with Taylor. How do you pick these guys anyway?" But I already knew.
Angie had grown up in an affluent household. Yet, it was not as picture-perfect as it all seemed. Her mother had been a tall attractive blonde with multiple personalities. She was an alcoholic who became very mean or highly seductive when she drank. I never saw her mother drink, so I only saw her angelic side. Yet, I would still commend Angie on her survival skills if her stories were only half-true.
Her father was a social drinker; a user but not addicted. He was a very handsome and kind cuckold male who had to do his wife's bidding, because the money came from her side. Angie had adored her father when she was young. I did more than simply adore; well, at least in my mind.
His hair greyed early and was silver when I first met him. He had a dimpled smile, a twinkle in his eyes, and a generous nature that reminded me of Santa. I wondered if that was where my secret fantasy of Santa's love affair with Mrs. Santa came from. Santa adores his vixen of a wife who acts angelic. But, instead of being an alcoholic, Mrs. Santa has always been a strong liberated woman.
Anyway, it seems that any handsome silver-haired man who engages Angie in intelligent conversation followed by a good round of coitus seems to sweep her off her feet. Yet, intelligent conversation and combined with astute sexual knowledge does not necessarily lead to long-term relationships, because Angie's men never lasted in that way.
"Are you listening to me?" Angie asked.
"Yes, I heard you," I replied setting my glass back on the table. "This fellow is not like the others, so it does not matter how you picked them. He is different. I get it," I replied empathetically.
But will I help her? That is the question on my mind. Angie tells me everything about her life, but, fortunately, not everything about her men. A tad of jealousy is good for friendships, but that is all. She has been with at least fifty men. That is likely an understatement considering her Mae West figure, Marilyn Monroe magnetism, and fierce independence. She demonstrates the mindset of women portrayed in those early black and white films before censorship and media marketing stripped females of their power by making them sex objects instead of equal sex partners.
I am well aware that she tells me everything with the skills of a successful attorney; she has an amazing capacity to change the truth and then believe her own story afterwards. I, on the other hand, have been well trained; a victim of blushing. Truthfulness is the only way that works for me, because my face burns and turns red when I attempt a simple fib. That has kept me very pure and honest for over forty years with my husband, Todd. Well, at least pure in bodyβmostly.
Pure in mind? Well, that is a very different story. Thankfully, nobody can get a glimpse of my erotic thoughts and visions when I pleasure myself. Oh, and especially not Todd. What would he ever think of me?
"So, when will I have it?" asked Angie.
Fortunately, I have the amazing ability to remain fully engaged in conversation while falling into my own thoughts. "When did you say this 'date' is suppose to happen?"
I guess a date is any agreed-upon appointment between two or more people. And, it would have to be an appointment, because her new man lives about half a state away. Angie met him while attending a weekend course in Southern California for the bar's continuing education requirements. And, true to form, she met him in a bar. Angie and I live a couple of miles apart from each other in Northern California, and we have a standing once-a-month dinner date.
"Saturday night!" exclaimed Angie.
"That is only two days away," I complained.
"That is plenty of time for you, because you became a natural writer after helping your kids with so much homework," encouraged Angie. "Besides, you are very accomplished at this. You wrote a dissertation, and you write children's books. And don't you have stories from people you work with?"
I gave Angie my golden-eyes dagger stare that always works with the kids, but it only seemed to encourage her. "You know from your work as an attorney that client's stories are kept confidential."
"Oh, riiiight," she replied, purposely prolonging the vowel.
No, there are no real secrets between girlfriends who have spent half of a century together.