Seeing Charity for the first time was always an experience, Nina reminded herself. But seeing Charity from floor level would be mind-boggling. It wasn't Alex's fault that his chin was on his knees.

"I've heard a lot about you," Charity said, and Alex climbed to his feet.

"I haven't heard nearly enough about you," he said, and Nina wanted to kill them both.

"I'll go get the Oreos," she said to get away from them, and Alex turned back to her and said, "I told you, we're out."

"I moved them," Nina told him. "I was trying to make a space for the Crock-Pot because you keep bitching at me about it, and I moved them. And then there still wasn't enough space for the pot, anyway, but I forgot to move them back."

Alex shook his head at her. "Don't move things around on me. Stability is the foundation of any good relationship. One day it's moving the Oreos, and the next day it'll be the couch, and then where will we be?" He leaned closer to smile into her eyes. "We've got a good thing going here, babe. Don't screw up."

Nina's heart lurched sideways, but she did her best not to smile back. "I'll get the Oreos. You amuse Charity."

She headed for the kitchen, trying not to stomp, and then jumped when Charity spoke from behind her as she reached for the cupboard door.

"That man was flirting with you," Charity said, absolutely delighted.

"That man flirts with tree stumps," Nina said, absolutely disgusted. "You'll see. Go on back in there and sit down next to him."

"I don't want to see." Charity plopped herself down into a chair. "I'm through with men forever. Every time I see one, I want to spit." She grew thoughtful. "Except for Alex. He seems like a good one."

Nina dropped the Oreos on the table. "Then go for it."

Charity scowled at her. "You're not listening. I'm through with men. You're not. I think you should go after Alex."

"Don't be ridiculous," Nina said, feeling immensely relieved and immensely annoyed that she was feeling relieved. It didn't mean anything that Charity wasn't interested in Alex.

"I'm not being ridiculous." Charity picked up an Oreo. "I think you should seduce him."

"Seduce who?" Alex said behind her.

Charity dropped her cookie. "Don't sneak up on me like that."

"Sorry." Alex crossed to the fridge, shoved the Crock-Pot back, opened the door and took out the milk. "Who is Nina seducing? I may be against this."

"I have a new date," Nina said, mentally kicking herself because now she'd have to dig up somebody to date. Digging up made her think of Charity's idea about digging up James Dean, and she grinned in spite of herself.

Alex leaned on the counter next to her and scowled at her. "Stop smiling. You do not have my permission to seduce this guy.''

Nina raised her eyebrows at him. "I don't need your permission."

"Yeah, you do." Alex reached behind her and got a mug out of the cupboard. "You're a mother. You have standards to uphold."

Charity frowned at him. "She's not a mother."

"Yes, she is." Alex nodded at Fred, who was sitting at their feet, giving them his best I-Need-An-Oreo-Desperately look. "Fred's at that difficult age."

Charity looked down at him. "Would that be the Age of Snot?"

Alex snorted. "Come on, Fred. They're being irrational, and Frasier reruns are on. Let's go watch Eddie." He picked up the Oreos, and Fred surged to his feet and trotted after him into the living room.

Charity looked at Nina. "That man is nuts about you."

Nina sagged against the counter. "Don't be ridiculous, you can't be ridiculous because I'm being ridiculous enough for both of us. I'm the one who made up a phantom date."

"Why don't you go out with him?" Charity said, jerkinng her head toward the living room, exasperated.

Nina folded her arms. "Well, for one thing he hasn't asked me."

Charity rolled her eyes. "It's the nineties. You're allowed to do the asking now."

Nina snorted. "Ask out a guy who's ten years younger than I am? Right. No."

Charity looked back over her shoulder toward the living oom. "You're nuts. He's perfect for you, and you're going to let ten years-"

"That's a lot of years, Char," Nina said. "And Alex isn't perfect for me. You know, he's not exactly mature for his age. His idea of intellectual entertainment is 'Mystery Science Theatre.' He has no serious thoughts."

Charity bit into an Oreo. "Sounds wonderful to me."

Nina sighed. "Well, actually, it's wonderful for me, too, for right now, but what happens if we do end up together and the lust part wears off and I'm stuck with an infant significant other?" Nina bit her lip. "Not that we'd ever end up together. We're too mismatched. I'm visibly older than he is, and it's only going to get worse. And there's my body." She stopped and swallowed. "Everything's lower and chunkier than it used to be. You should see the women he dates. They're young and beautiful and-" she made a face "-taut and perky, the whole Playboy bit. And you want me to flash him a body that has twenty more years on it than the ones he's used to? There's a limit to how long I can hold in my stomach."

Charity opened her mouth, but Nina overrode her. "And he's at the age where he's probably thinking about settling down. I'm at the age where I'm tired of settling down. I don't want to do the big-house bit again. I love this apartment. I love my life." She thought for a moment of her life, which included her big empty bed, a bed that grew bigger and emptier with every moment she spent with Alex. No. "We're fine as friends," she told Charity. "In fact, we're phenomenal as friends. But for the rest of our lives? When he's my age, I'll be fifty. Men still look great at forty, but I'll be fifty. I'll look old."

Charity frowned at her in disgust. "No, you won't. You're making assumptions based on the way things used to be. Things have changed. People don't get old at fifty anymore. Hell, the best-looking woman I've seen lately is Norma, and she has to be in her sixties."

"Seventy-five," Nina corrected her.

Charity spread her hands out. "Well, see. It's attitude that counts, not age. And I have to tell you, your attitude sucks. You might as well be eighty now, the way you're giving up on life."

"I'm not giving up on life," Nina said, stung. "I'm just not going to make a fool of myself over a younger man."

Charity pushed herself away from the table and stood up. "Nina, take it from me because I know this from experience. No matter what guy you end up with, you're going to make a fool of yourself. You might as well make a fool of yourself over somebody who's worth it. And Alex is worth it."

Nina closed her eyes and thought of Alex out there in her living room, his T-shirt torn and probably on backward, feeding illegal Oreos to her dog, definitely the most desirable man she'd ever known in her life.

"Get me a date fast," she told Charity. "Fix me up with somebody my own age before I do something stupid."

"Doing something stupid would be the smartest thing you could do," Charity said. "But I'll get you somebody, you dummy."


* * *

A week later, a little past eleven, Nina sat in her window and waited for Fred to return from watering the Dumpster. Fifteen minutes before, she'd given a good-night kiss on Charity's fix-up date, a terrific man named Phillip, and now she sat kicking herself for being so unenthusiastic about Phillip's kiss, when he was so nice and so right for her. If she was going to trash perfectly nice men simply because they weren't Alex, she was never going to find anybody to date. She pondered her dilemma until it dawned on her that Fred hadn't come back in his usual ten minutes.

Before she could go out the window after him, the phone rang.

"Your dog's down here," Alex said when she answered. "Come on down and get him."

"Just put him out on the fire escape," Nina said, confused. "He'll come up on his own. You know-"

"What's wrong?" Alex said, his voice tense with concern. "Stop crying, Nina."

"I'm not crying-"

"I'll be right up," Alex said. "Don't do anything foolish. I'll be right there."

Then all she heard was the dial tone.

Alex wanted out of his apartment for some reason. It could only mean one thing: another date from hell. Nina tried hard not to be glad Alex was crashing and burning again. Where did he find these women? Suppressing a smile, she went to splash water in her eyes just in case tonight's Antichrist came with him.

She did.

"Poor baby." Alex came through the door, looking overdressed and adult in his navy suit, followed by Fred, looking bored and morose, as usual, and Alex's date.

Nina held a tissue to her eyes and checked out the date.

She was a tall brunette, dressed in formfitting black, absolutely lovely and absolutely furious.

"Oh, Alex," Nina said, and then he put his arms around her and pressed her head to his chest. There she was, too close to that chest again, and now that her cheek was pressed against it, she knew it was as warm and solid as it looked. She lost her place in the program for a moment until Alex said pointedly, "Stop crying, honey." Then she tried a sob, and he held her tighter.

"You're terrible at this," he whispered in her ear.

"It wasn't my idea to cry, you big ingrate," she hissed back at him, not really angry as long as his arms were around her.


"Is this going to take long?" his date asked from the doorway. Fred's nose was dangerously close to her leg, and she was glaring at him and Alex with equal disgust.