The waiter approached with their menus.
“See anything that interests you?” Harry asked after a brief pause.
I certainly do,Joan thought, wondering what Harry Gatlin would look like without his clothes.This is ridiculous,she thought immediately. It had been years since she’d seen a man without his clothes. Unless, of course, you counted Simply Pete in his leopard-print thong. “I don’t know. Everything looks wonderful.”
“Yes, it does,” Harry agreed, looking directly into her eyes.
Was he having the same thoughts she was?
“Their fish is delicious,” he said. “As is their pasta. You really can’t go wrong.”
“You eat here a lot?”
“My late wife and I used to come here pretty frequently. But it’s been a while.”
Joan lowered her menu. “Linda told me she died three years ago.”
“Yes. Cancer.”
“My husband, too. Two years last May.”
“You never quite get used to it, do you?” he asked. “I mean, it gets a little easier with time, I suppose. But the idea that someone is…”
“…just not there anymore,” Joan said, finishing his sentence.
“Exactly.”
“It’s a hard one to wrap your head around.”
He nodded. “And this whole dating business…”
The waiter approached. “Are you ready to order?”
“Think I’ll try thespigola,” Joan told him.
“I’ll go with the spaghetti Bolognese,” Harry said. “Feel like splitting a Caesar salad?”
“Sounds good. So,” she said after the waiter had taken their orders and their menus and left the table, “Linda tells me you’ve tried online dating.”
“Oh, God. Yes. The times, they have mostdefinitelychanged. It’s not for me, I’m afraid. You?”
Again Joan thought of Simply Pete and his leopard-print thong. “Not for me either,” she agreed. “You’re actually the first date I’ve had since my husband died.”
He reached across the table to take her hand. “Well, I couldn’t have asked for a nicer dinner companion.”
“Thank you. You make it easy.”
He smiled and withdrew his hand.
No,she thought, as she’d thought earlier.Put it back.
They talked all through the salad, the main course, and dessert. It was almost ten o’clock when they left the restaurant.
“My condo is just down the way,” he said as they stepped into the warm night air. “If you feel like a nightcap…”
Joan put her hand through the crook of his arm. “Lead the way,” she said.