I had cabin fever. Simone and I had been housebound, due to the inclement weather, and though we’d played games and watched movies, I was in need of some outside stimulation. I told Simone we’d go get the mail, then could walk for tea, or hot chocolate, or whatever, as long as we could be out of the apartment for a little while.
So we bundled up, hoofed it to the mailroom, and then found ourselves outside. The air was cold, but not biting, and the wind was blowing wisps of pink clouds around the late afternoon sky, stretching them thin like attenuated swirls of cotton candy. Simone suggested we visit the little pet supply boutique a few doors down, and I couldn’t think of a reason to say no.
We walked into what might have been a toy store, if you were into a variety of brightly colored items you could chew, throw, or squeeze sound out of. Simone gravitated toward the cat baubles, and I followed her over. No one was behind the register, but we could hear conversation drifting down from the top of a narrow spiral staircase.
Eventually, a stunner of a woman walked downstairs and greeted us. I blushed and vomited gibberish, but Simone immediately struck up a conversation with her. Next thing I knew, Simone and I were out of our coats and sitting on comfy chairs by the window, while she and the store’s owner regaled each other with stories about pets—their pets, their friends’ pets, the gross things pets do, and how they loved to spoil their animals. While they talked, I couldn’t help noticing just how gorgeous, and funny, and charming the owner was, and just how articulate, and sweet, and engaged my daughter was. The whole experience felt magical.
I’m getting the impression that Simone would like to add a third member to our little family.
It was late on a Saturday morning, and we decided to take a walk to the local bookstore and peruse books together. As we walked into the children’s section, I noticed a cute woman working on her laptop. Really cute. No ring. And then we saw her young daughter tooling around the area, looking at books and playing with the stuffed toys that seemed to be perched on every shelf. Her mom would talk to her for a few minutes, then go back to whatever she was doing on the computer. Simone and I sat on a comfy couch and read books to each other, and it wasn’t long before the little girl squeezed herself between Simone and me. When her mother looked over at us and smiled, I gave her an “it’s okay” look, and she went back to her laptop.
Several books and plush toy adventures later, while the mom, the girls and I were cleaning up after ourselves, Simone suggested we all go have lunch together. I mumbled something like, “Oh, Simone, I’m sure they have better things to do,” but the young mom thought that was a great idea. The four of us had lunch, and then we took refuge from winter’s chill at a small indoor mall downtown, where the girls ran around together (Simone is much older, but she was really good with the youngster). It was early evening when the mother suggested we all stop for dinner before going our separate ways. By the time we’d finished eating, her daughter was asleep in her stroller, and the mother had suggested we “do this again soon, but without the kids.”
I get it—Simone has become a chick magnet. She’s meeting gorgeous women and charming them. And she’s much better at it than I am. She does a good job of balancing warmth and standoffishness, so that she reels them in but doesn’t scare them away. Where I get ga-ga, with soft eyes and too many compliments when I finally meet someone with whom I feel a connection, Simone keeps her cool. And, damn, she’s a conversational prodigy.
She and I have wonderful weeknights and weekends together. We play, we cuddle, I help her with her homework, and we never run out of stuff to talk about. But it’s starting to feel like she’s ready for, and maybe even craves, a woman in our lives. Maybe having the last girl over for dinners, and having her stick around through bedtime gave Simone a taste for the feeling of having a complete family, like when she’s with her mom and her mom’s husband. Or maybe it’s nice to not be the sole focus of my attention 100 percent of the time when we’re together. Or maybe Simone is just social and loves having company.
Whatever it is, Simone has been making friends with attractive women wherever we go, and I’ve had to make very sure that none of them think I’m trying to leverage her charms to my advantage.
When we go to get the mail, or pick up one of my suits at the dry cleaners, Simone always wants to stop by and visit the pet shop owner. One night, a couple weeks ago, Simone put her hands up to the window to look inside, and the owner came out to invite us in for some hot chocolate. She brought down a tray with three mugs, three kinds of marshmallows, and whipped cream. The three of us laughed and drank cocoa, and we both gave her hugs before we left.
Yesterday, when we stopped by on our way to buy some supplies at the little grocery store on our street, the pet store owner asked us what we were up to over the weekend. Simone invited her to come watch a DVD we thought she’d enjoy sometime soon, and the woman asked, “Was that your idea, or did someone put you up to that?” Simone gestured toward me, and I thought my face was going to burst into flames.
In any case, as fun as it is watching Simone break the ice these days, it’s also kind of maddening. It’s too hard to tell if the women she’s befriending are being nice to me because they adore Simone, or if they find me a welcome part of the package. I would never want someone to think I’m using Simone to make advances for me. And there’s no easy way to figure it out without muddying the situation, which could mess up the friendships Simone establishes.
So I’m just going to let Simone do her thing and roll with it. And if she finds us a nice girl we can both adore, well, that’ll be okay with me.
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