Read The Great Man for Free Online Page B

said Teddy. “Well, at least we knew it. At least we enjoyed ourselves.”
    “That gets me through many a night.”
    Teddy leaned back in her chair and looked out at her friend’s yard. “The male cardinal is back,” she said. “That’s good luck. Where’s his mate?”
    “She’s around here somewhere. She likes to keep a low profile, unlike him.”
    “Like me and Oscar. Anyway, I made a soup for Ralph Washington. Something to disappoint him initially and woo him eventually. Like the saffron chicken stew I made for Henry. What a funny question about the spider veins. Haven’t you had them for decades now?”
    “I only got them recently.”
    “Your skin is so much younger than mine.”
    “That’s because I’m fat,” said Lila. “All that adipose is holding my face up.”
    “My wrinkles used to bother me in my early fifties,” said Teddy, “but I don’t mind them anymore now that I’ve had time to get used to them. Now I feel like a well-worn old leather handbag with all sorts of intriguing bobby pins and sticks of gum in my crevices. No telling what you’ll find if you go digging around.”
    Lila laughed. “What kind of soup?”
    “Lentil, a very good gourmet one. I pulled out all the stops from my spice rack and added some beautiful-smelling merguez and chopped grilled artichoke hearts I couldn’t really afford. I’ll serve it with cheese biscuits made with some of that cheddar—you know, the very inexpensive cheddar that tastes so good baked in things…Cracker Barrel. And of course a devil’s-ear salad. And Sancerre.”
    “What will you serve for nibblies?”
    “For appetizers,” said Teddy, cringing silently at “nibblies,” “I got some simple antipasti from that hippie-dippy place on Manhattan Avenue, stuffed grape leaves, grilled peppers, goat cheese, olives, babaganoush…. Where are you and Rex going for dinner?”
    “I hope he doesn’t take me to one of those places all the kids go. I’d hate to walk into one of those dark, noisy hot spots looking like someone’s grandma, which I am, but you know, it’s like being a humpback with two heads around here. I hope he takes me to that mafioso seafood place near the river. Even though the food is mediocre, I wouldn’t feel out of place there. But I have a sinking feeling…. He has that confirmed-bachelor air about him—the kind of ex-hippie who still lives like he’s thirty and has a budget to match….”
    “I know exactly what you mean.”
    “I guess I could offer to pay for dinner, of course. What pride does anyone have about such things at our age, really?”
    “He might surprise you. Maybe he’s more mature than he looked.”
    “He was wearing a T-shirt and jeans.”
    “What kind of shoes?”
    “Black loafers.”
    “Could go either way. Old-man shoes are very in right now. Was there anything written on the T-shirt?”
    “No, it was plain. Blue.”
    “Besides, so what if he still lives like he’s thirty? Maybe that means he can still get it up.”
    “Maybe. It’s been so long, you know. I don’t know what they’re using nowadays, how they get around that. Well, Viagra, but isn’t there a new thing that makes them hard for four days? I hope he doesn’t have that.”
    “So where’s he been all this time?”
    “He was living in Amsterdam last winter, designing a catalog for a Dutch furniture company.”
    Teddy rubbed her eyes and swallowed a sleepy yawn. While Lila was being fed bits of lobster by this youthful, successful graphic designer who could probably still muster an erection, she would be drumming up old stories about Oscar and serving forth a meal for some wet-lipped Oscar worshiper who would of course take no romantic interest in her whatsoever, all her earlier braggadocio aside. She had been yearning lately for male attention and companionship, although sex would have been nice, too.
    “An employed graphic designer; that means he’ll probably be able to afford a nice dinner,” she