good time in bed. Then something happens. Suddenly we’re not just dating. We’re a couple and then I hear things like, ‘Maybe you could stay overnight more often, maybe I could stay with you more often, why don’t you give me a key, why don’t we move in together, you should meet my parents, I should meet yours, have you thought about having a family?’”
“In other words, the woman wants more.”
“Yeah, that’s right. The woman wants more. I don’t. Some days I go into work at six and I don’t get home until ten, twelve, two. I’ve got a career and it’s damn demanding. My personal life has always come second, but a woman never wants to hear that.”
“Tell me something, Gil. Is your career just a ready excuse not to get involved with anybody?”
“You tell me. Don’t you do the same thing?”
“Not anymore. As I said, I’m not even looking at the dating pool. I’ve found other ways to enjoy life. But you like parties. You like going clubbing.”
The waitress brought them mugs of beer and Gil raised his to Alan. “You’re right. I do. I like having fun.”
“That’s why you shut down and make an exit when a woman wants more?”
Gil’s eyes narrowed and he lifted his mug. “Uh-oh. We’re getting way too deep here. Maybe you’re asking me all these questions because you’re looking for answers yourself.”
Was he looking for answers to the void in his life that would yawn wide open when Christina went to college? Why hadn’t he gotten involved with anyone seriously since his divorce? Why had meeting Lisa Sanders shaken him up in a way he didn’t understand at all?
“One more question, then we can move on to how the Mariners are going to do this year,” Alan promised.
Gil took a few swallows of beer, then set down his mug. “Shoot. But I reserve the right to remain silent.”
“Have you ever dated a younger woman?”
Gil smiled. “How much younger?”
“I don’t know, maybe ten, twelve, fifteen years younger.”
“I’ve dated a few women in their mid-twenties, but we seemed to run out of things to say. Our reference points were different. Do you know what I mean?”
Alan understood what Gil was saying, yet when he talked with Lisa, he didn’t feel any of that.
“Are you thinking about dating someone younger?” Gil asked.
Now wasn’t that a million dollar question. Alan lifted his mug, too. “I was just hypothesizing.”
“You don’t hypothesize. You act. You’re a doer, not a ponderer. So if there’s a younger woman who’s making you ponder, you could be in big trouble already.”
Gil was an intelligent man and thought of himself as a cynical reporter feeding the public’s right to know. He had a sixth sense about a good story and could be perceptive about everybody but himself. This time Alan hoped Gil’s insight into what was going on with him was all wrong.
But the devil on Alan’s shoulder told him his friend was on the money once again.
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