Todd was right behind her. “Rub it in.”
“You’re only a term behind,” she said. “Something smells delicious, M.B.”
“Thank you,” Maribeth said.
“Can I have some of that wine?” she asked Stephen. “I just crushed my statistics final.”
“Because of all that studying you did with Fritz,” Todd teased. “He probably didn’t even need to take statistics but just did it to be your study buddy.”
“Only you can make the term study buddy sound lewd,” Sunita said.
Todd put his hands under his chin, cocking his head like an angel. He turned to Maribeth and Stephen. “He invited her to a Hanukkah celebration, with his entire family. They’ve only just met and he wants her to meet the family. I feel it’s my duty to report back to Chandra and Nikhil.”
“It’s not like that. We were talking about Diwali, and how it’s a festival of lights, same as Hanukkah, which starts any day now.”
“It started two days ago, actually,” Maribeth said.
They all looked at her, surprised.
“What? I’m Jewish.”
Todd, Sunita, and Stephen exchanged a funny look.
“What?” Maribeth said.
“The Mystery Woman reveals a clue,” Todd said in a movie trailer voice.
“Mystery? What’s a mystery? My last name is Goldman.”
“We wouldn’t know,” Sunita said. “You don’t get any mail.”
“And what about your first name, M.B.?” Todd said.
Stephen raised an eyebrow.
“I’m just giving you shit,” Todd said, “I think it’s cool. Everyone we know overshares everything all the time. You keep it close to the vest. I appreciate that.”
“I’m really not that mysterious.”
“We thought you were a drug dealer,” Sunita said.
The cockle Maribeth was prying open flew out of her hand. “A drug dealer?”
“Always paying with hundreds. A cheap burner phone you didn’t know the number to,” Sunita said. “And no computer of your own.”
“And you said you were a consultant,” Todd said. “What kind of consultant doesn’t have a computer?”
“I have a computer, just not with me, and I’m not a drug dealer.”
“We figured that out,” Todd said. “No one ever comes here.”
“Also, drug dealers don’t e-mail so much,” Sunita said.
“That’s what young lovers do,” Todd joked. “Or older ones.”
They all looked at Stephen, who was coloring slightly. “M.B. communicates with me strictly by text,” he said, taking a sip of his wine. “I don’t even have her e-mail address.”
“Oh?” said Sunita, not getting it.
“Oh,” said Todd, getting it.
“Yes,” said Stephen, who must have gotten it all along, must have suspected at least, that there was a family out there. And a husband.
“Excuse me,” said Maribeth. And with that she ran outside.
STEPHEN FOUND HER out on the stoop. She wasn’t wearing a coat so he draped his over her shoulder.
“You should be more careful,” she said. “I am an escaped prisoner from Cambridge Hall.”
“Cambridge Springs,” he corrected.
“Whatever. I’m armed and dangerous.”
“I don’t know about the armed,” he said. “And I’m no shining star.”
“You’re the shiniest star in the whole sky.” She pointed up to show him, but it was cloudy.
“You were a patient. I blurred the lines.”
“M. B. Goldman was a patient. That’s not really me.”
“So who are you?”
“A fuckup. A runaway. A person with terrible judgment,” she said.
“Terrible judgment? I’m the doctor who kissed his patient.”
“The patient kissed you first.”
“And I’m glad she did.”
“I’m glad she did, too.”
The first time she had kissed him. The second time he had kissed her. The third time, they kissed each other. And this time, it felt wrong. She pulled away.
“I’m sorry,” Stephen said.
“No, I’m sorry,” Maribeth said. “I guess I’m not good with blurry lines, after all.”
“No,” he said. “Nor am I.”
BACK INSIDE MARIBETH’S apartment, Todd was furious, and taking it out on her dishes.
“Easy there,” she said, as he slammed a plate into the sink.
He didn’t say anything, just attacked the plate with the sponge.
“Todd,” Maribeth touched his arm, but he whipped it away.
“His dad left his mom for his secretary,” Sunita said, hunting around the cabinets for Tupperware. “He hasn’t got over it.”
Todd was now attempting to commit murder with steel wool.
“Here, stop,” Maribeth said. “Before you kill that poor pot.”
“You shouldn’t cheat,” he muttered.
She sighed. “Stephen is my doctor.”
“Your doctor?” Todd asked. He’d dropped his surly posture and seemed genuinely upset. “Are you sick?”
“No, but I was.” She told them then, about her heart attack, her surgery, leaving out the fact that this had all happened in another city, another life.
But then Sunita asked, “If you’re all better, why are you still, you know, seeing him?”
The better question was, if she was better, why was she still here?