He might not be an actor, but damn, he was good. If she hadn't known how he really felt about the old westerns, she'd think he was distraught.
“I'll work on buying it so I have it the next time you come over. Promise.”
“Well, since that's out for tonight, what are my options?” he asked.
She couldn't have her favorite spot on the sofa, so she sat in the next best, the one next to Duncan. “Stop me if you see something you want to watch,” she said, scrolling through the television series she owned. She'd switch over to her movie collection if they saw nothing there.
“You have the originalLost In Space?” he asked when she reached the 1960s sci-fi series. “I was something like eleven or twelve when I watched that. My aunt and uncle took Gianna, CJ, and me skiing for school vacation. The place they rented had a closet full of old VHS tapes. So Gianna, CJ, and I would watch a few episodes every night when we got back from skiing. But we didn't get through all of them.”
She’d stumbled upon reruns of the old sci-fi show sometime in her teens. And when she found it again for sale last year, she'd purchased it. “I've got all three seasons. Although the second half of season three is not very good.”
Actually, she forced herself to watch them because she wanted to see how the series ended. But, unfortunately, there was no proper ending to show.
“Why don't we watch that,” Duncan said.
“Do you want to start with the original pilot or the actual first episode?” Tory opened the folder containing the three seasons.
“I didn't know there was a difference, so you pick.”
Tory scrolled down to the official first episodes and pressed play. “We'll skip the original pilot. It's not a bad episode, but they use segments of it in later ones.”
“Have you seen the new version? It's not bad,” Duncan said as the show's theme song started.
She'd binge-watched each season as they came out. “Yeah, I watched it. Overall, I liked it, but there were a few changes they made I didn't love. Like how they wrote the parents' relationship for the first half of season one.” The parents had been happily married in the original series, but it had been the opposite for about the first half of season one in the newer version.
“That didn't bother me. I didn't care for the way they changed Dr. Smith's character.”
“You didn't like they made the character a woman?”
“It wasn't that.” Duncan pulled his beeping cell phone from his pocket as he spoke. “Not again,” he muttered.
“Is something wrong?” She paused the television just as the opening credits finished.
Duncan scowled and set his phone down. “Lori Ann is at my door.”
She'd seen the woman twice this week at the pool. Both times, Lori Ann had been friendly.
“And that's a bad thing? I got the impression the two of you were friends,” she said. “She brought you home-baked cookies last weekend when I was there.” Not that she baked cookies often, but she'd only give them to friends if she did.
After taking in a deep breath, Duncan exhaled. “I don't know what you'd call us, but it's not friends.”
“Is she an ex-girlfriend?” On Sunday, he'd told her Lori Ann used to live next door to him. That didn't mean she couldn't also be an ex-girlfriend. And if Lori Ann were, she wouldn't be the first person to want to rekindle a relationship that ended.
“No, we never went out. When we were neighbors, I made the mistake of giving her my number. After that, she acted like my best friend. She'd call or just show up at my door with baked goods or to talk. When I found out she'd moved back, I hoped she wouldn't start doing it again.”
“You do have a friendly face. Maybe she doesn't have many friends in the city.” A better description would be ruggedly handsome, but for this conversation, friendly would suffice.
“That's what I told myself when she first started doing it. But she lived next door to me for eight months before her company transferred her to their office in New Orleans. So she must know other people besides me.”
“If she thought you were involved with someone, she'd probably stop bugging you. And lucky for you, your fake girlfriend is sitting right next to you.”
When she was interested in a guy, Tory would make the first move unless she knew he was involved with someone else. Most of the women she knew were the same way.
“I'm sure I'll see her again this week. When I do, I'll find a way to casually slip your name into the conversation. And if you see her, you should mention me,” Tory said.
Maybe their charade would help them both.
SEVEN