100

ON THAT SAME FRIDAY night Jenna stopped at the Twin Oaks on her way home, determined to give that “interesting stranger” from her horoscope of a month earlier another chance to show up. She sat at the bar, trying to follow a Seinfeld rerun that was in competition with the general din around her. A man took the seat next to her, looked over and said, “Hi.”

She smiled and returned his greeting. She could see that he was about her age, fairly good-looking even with glasses, and more shy than forward.

“I believe I know you,” he said. “Don’t you write for the Herald ?”

It always flattered her to be recognized, but she didn’t want to identify herself too quickly. “Yes, I do,” she answered.

“We actually spoke to each other for a few minutes about a year or so ago. It was at the Hopedale Nursing Home in Kingston. You were visiting a relative there at the same time I was and you asked me some questions about the care my mother was getting. I remember reading the articles you wrote about some of the bad stuff going on in the industry. By the way, my name is David Prince.”

“And I’m Jenna Richardson. It wasn’t really a relative of mine, just a nice old man who lost most of his marbles and couldn’t speak up when they didn’t treat him right. I had to pretend to be family in order to sit in his room all that time and watch what went on. How’s your mother doing?”

She died about four months ago, but that was right on schedule with what the doctors had given her. She had kidney problems.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.” He noticed that there were no rings on her left hand. “I’ve also read your columns on the election. Some of it was like reading a novel, the way things kept changing and how I felt about certain people. Who do you think will win the race, I mean for governor?”

Jenna didn’t want to say she hoped it was Singer. That would let him think there was a bias in her writing, and there was still one more column to turn out. “It’s so tight now, I think whoever gets the Herald ’s endorsement will be the favorite, despite what Fiore said in the debate last night. Did you watch it?”

“Yes, the whole thing. He came on real strong against your paper, but I had the feeling it was because he didn’t expect to be endorsed anyway. Otherwise, there was no sense in going out of his way to make an enemy. I think he’s a pretty slick character, too slick for me. I don’t want to see casino gambling become legal but I’ll vote for Singer and take my chances. Anyway, I’ll go put my name on the waiting list if you can have dinner with me tonight.”

Jenna could see that the restaurant was packed. Everyone was there to forget the week that just passed and to let their hair down. She knew from experience that they’d have to wait almost two hours before getting a table.

“Thanks, David, but I’ve got too much to do tonight and I’m following the candidates around tomorrow. That means early to rise.” She was about to tell him she’d take a rain check.

“Then let’s do it next week,” he said. “I’ll be in New York on Wednesday and Thursday, but my plane gets in at six Thursday night. How about meeting me here at seven?”

She already had plans to see Terry that night, but she liked this guy. “What do you do, by the way?” she asked.

“Computers,” he said. “My partner and I have a small company and we install software exclusively for Oracle. We program the software to do whatever Oracle’s customers want it to do.”

Jenna expected him to pull out a card and give it to her, but he didn’t. For some reason, that impressed her. It was as if he was willing to risk their friendship on her believing what he said.

“Okay, Thursday night at seven.” Jenna knew she wouldn’t kid Terry about the reason for breaking their date. She was sure he’d understand and even tell her he hoped it worked out well. “But if something comes up, call me at the Herald before six and let me know.” She wasn’t about to give him her card either. They shook hands and she left.

On the drive home she couldn’t help singing the words to “Someday my prince will come.” And she loved the fact that the stars had made it so obvious.