Teddy and Diana.
It took a moment since they were talking to each other before Teddy recognized him and smiled. The two approached.
“Hello, Adam,” Teddy said. She glanced at the woman and nodded.
“Veronica, this is Theresa Granville, my fiancée, and her business partner, Diana Thomas.”
As the women acknowledged each other, Teddy reached into her purse and extracted a tissue. She held it out to Adam.
Red wasn’t his color.
* * *
At seven o’clock that night Teddy stood outside Adam’s condo. She pushed the doorbell and heard it chiming through the ornate entryway.
“So that was Veronica?” Teddy stated by way of a greeting as Adam opened the door.
“That was Veronica.” Adam sighed. He stood back and allowed her to enter the foyer. Taking her coat, he hung it in the hall closet. “I assume you’re hungry and since I didn’t know what you might want to eat, I bought a variety of entrées.”
He led her into the dining room, where several bowls of Chinese food sat on a table set for two. She’d glanced in the kitchen on the way and saw the paper containers whose contents he’d transferred to china bowls. She wondered what Adam was trying to do, what he might want to tell her.
“Sit down,” he said and poured her a glass of white wine.
Teddy took a seat and because she was hungry, she filled her plate with a small sample of everything and ate heartily. Adam, on the other hand, pushed his food around but ate very little. He felt guilty, she thought.
“Adam, is something wrong?”
“Why do you ask that?”
She was sure something more was wrong than she thought. In her experience, any time a question was answered with a question meant something was wrong. Their meeting on the street this afternoon had prompted her to rethink their plan.
“What is it?” she asked.
Adam got up and took his wineglass. He offered his hand to Teddy and they moved from the dining table to the large family room. This one also looked as if a decorator had a hand in the furnishings and wall art. It had a large circular sofa facing a gigantic television and a fireplace with a fire that crackled and popped, adding ambiance to the evening meal. Teddy took a seat on the sofa.
She finally spoke. “Is this about Veronica?”
Teddy felt the tension rising in her. She didn’t know how this was going to end, but she didn’t think it would come out in her favor. Adam turned to her and Teddy knew the look. It was an ending. Everything had been packed and was ready for release. Teddy just needed to wait for the last train.
“Is she your one and only? I know the rules we set in place when we started this. But if you want to end the pretense so you can be with—”
Teddy didn’t get any further. Adam moved faster than lightning. He was in front of her, pulling her up from her seat. His face was so close to hers it scared her. “This is not about Veronica. I saw your face this afternoon. You looked as if I’d kicked you.”
Teddy pulled back, taking a step to straighten herself. “Things are getting complicated,” she said. “More so than we thought they would. Now you have a former lover in town.”
“Emphasis on ‘former.’ Our relationship ended long ago. It’s old news.”
“Is it?” she asked.
“Very old,” he confirmed.
“It didn’t look old. In fact, it looked as if there would be a new edition. And I thought in light of that, you might want to end this. Now.” He was holding her so close and so tight, she could hardly breathe. “I thought you and Veronica wanted to get together. After all, you were wearing her lipstick.”
Adam’s head moved with the same speed as he’d crossed the room. His mouth clamped on hers and held for a long moment, long enough for Teddy to cling to him. These days that took less than a second.
“Now I’m wearing yours,” he said.
Teddy couldn’t stop the smile that turned her mouth up. The smile became a giggle and then a laugh. Adam put his arms around her and together they laughed. The tension that had settled between them on the main street in Princeton that afternoon lifted.
Adam took her hands and they sat side by side on the sofa. The fire gave the room a rosy glow. Teddy slipped her feet out of her shoes and tucked them under her.