The October List

When women ask it, they want to know if he’s going to cuddle in bed on Sunday mornings or get up at dawn for a date with his Adidas.’
    ‘I’d have to think about it. Was that a come-on line?’
    Daniel asked, ‘You want some jam?’
    Breakfast was coffee, pumpernickel bagels and smoked salmon. No onions. ‘Onions are a fourth- or fifth-date thing,’ Gabriela announced.
    ‘Is this a date?’
    She was thinking about last night. Her response was, ‘I don’t know that we need to overthink it.’
    ‘Fair enough. But you manage an investment house and I run a venture capital firm. We’re professional overthinkers. No?’
    ‘True,’ she said.
    ‘But it’s not overthinking it to say we survived a completely excruciating last night.’
    ‘No, that’s accurate.’
    He frowned. ‘You’re picking at your food. Can I have that piece of salmon? The lonesome one on the side?’
    ‘Yours.’
    He speared and ate it. ‘What’re your plans for today?’
    ‘I pick Sarah up at one from dance class. And we spend the rest of the weekend together.’
    ‘You two have a great time. I can tell.’
    ‘Oh, we do.’ Her eyes grew wide. ‘We go to American Girl and FAO, naturally. But MOMA and the Met too. Sarah asks to go to the art museums. She’s so smart. I have to keep reminding myself she’s only six.’
    ‘Smart. So she’s got your genes.’
    ‘She got my temperament genes. Ah, I think I just sniped at my ex again. I told myself I wasn’t going to do that.’
    They nodded to the young man server for coffee refills. And thanked him. Daniel looked her over with a coy smile. ‘Is this where you tell me about the complication?’
    Gabriela laughed hard. ‘You make your clients a ton of money, I’ll bet. With that kind of insight.’
    ‘No engagement ring,’ Daniel said, glancing toward her finger. ‘You’re beautiful – which by the way is less of a come-on line than “Wow, you totally work out.” I just have a feeling there has to be a complication.’
    ‘Okay. There’s this tiny complication.’
    ‘How tiny?’
    ‘Stop it!’ She laughed again. ‘His name’s Frank. Frank Walsh.’
    ‘What an awful name,’ Daniel said, wrinkling his perfect nose.
    ‘Are you listening?’
    ‘Tell me about Frank,’ he said, thumping the last word with his lips. ‘I’m dying to know about complicating Frank.’
    ‘You’re mean! We date some.’
    ‘Are you going to marry him?’
    After a pause: ‘Fact is, he’s a little more interested in me than I am in him.’
    ‘Never heard of that happening before,’ Daniel said sardonically. ‘I actually got proposed to by a woman on a first date. She popped the question as soon as she heard I had a job. I’m not making that up. But I should add that there was some tequila involved.’
    ‘Did you say yes?’
    ‘To what?’ Daniel asked with feigned innocence.
    She continued, ‘Frank’s quirky – he’s a computer nerd. And reclusive. But he knows movies – which I love – and he’s funny and considerate. You don’t find that a lot nowadays.’
    ‘Here’s my guideline,’ Daniel said. ‘The sweet factor.’
    ‘Sweet?’
    ‘If you describe your present love interest as infuriating and exasperating, then you’re in love. If you say he’s sweet, it’s doomed and you need to ditch him pronto – for somebody who infuriates you.’
    ‘I’m withholding all future adjectives about Frank for the time being.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘I don’t have to be at the dance school for a while. Want to walk me back to my apartment?’
    ‘Good idea,’ he said, ‘it’ll help work some of that excess weight off your hips.’
    ‘Nice try. But you’re not infuriating me. Yet.’ She took his fork, which contained his last piece of salmon, dunked the pink cube in sour cream and ate it fast.

II
     

CHAPTER
7
     

10:00 p.m., Friday
11 hours earlier
     

 
     

 
     
    ‘You know, I have to be honest,’ Gabriela told Daniel Reardon. ‘This’s been about as bizarre an evening as I can remember. Are you offended? I didn’t mean to offend you.’
    He made no comment about her assessment. Instead he asked, ‘But was it a date ?’
    She thought for a moment. ‘It was date-like.’
    ‘Date- lite ?’
    ‘ Like ,’ she corrected.
    ‘Ah.’
    They were walking north on Broadway from Battery Park through the cool September evening. A checkerboard of windows in the nearby office buildings. Many illuminated, some dark. The worlds of law and finance