Gabriel spoke in a deep voice. “Hello there, Barney. It’s very nice to meet you.” He shook Barney’s hand or paw or whatever it was, which made Rose giggle.
Gabriel stood up and smiled at me. “Charming and gorgeous. Just like her mother.”
“Oh, stop,” I replied, slapping him on the arm.
“You never could take a compliment,” he warmly replied, and there was an awkward pause. “So what are you doing here?” he asked. “These aren’t your usual stomping grounds.”
“No, they’re not. I’m still getting my bearings, actually. I just moved into an apartment a few blocks away. A two-bedroom for me and Rose.”
We both turned our attention to the movies on the shelves and pretended to browse as we talked.
“Let me guess,” Gabriel said. “You couldn’t take any more of your mother’s weekend soirees?”
I chuckled. “You know me too well. And did you also know that she’s dating a senator? She started seeing him last month.”
“Go, Liz,” Gabriel said. “How do you feel about that?”
I shrugged. “He seems like a nice man, and she deserves to be happy. But he’s quite a bit older. I suppose that’s nothing new for my mom.”
“Whatever floats her boat,” Gabriel said.
“Or pops her cork.”
We both laughed and continued to browse the classics section.
“What do you have there?” I asked, indicating the video he’d already selected.
He handed it to me. “I thought it looked interesting.”
“Jacob’s Ladder.” I flipped it over and read the description. “It does sound interesting. Is this the only copy?”
“No, there’s still quite a few over there.”
“I might get it,” I said. “A thriller would be a nice change after The Little Mermaid.”
“For sure.” He glanced down at Rose. “What time does this little one go to bed?” He rubbed the top of her head and made her giggle and squirm and offer Barney up to him again.
“Seven o’clock sharp,” I replied. “Right, Rose?”
“Right!” she replied.
Gabriel accepted the Barney doll and made him toddle across the top of the video shelves. Then he leaned close, as if Barney were telling him a secret.
“Barney says he wants to watch The Little Mermaid tonight,” Gabriel said. “Is that what you’re going to watch?” he asked Rose.
“Yes!” She held out her arms. Gabriel walked Barney across the safety bar of her stroller and plopped him onto her lap. She hugged him and stretched out her little legs.
“Home?” she asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “We should get going. I left Ziggy outside, and he’s probably getting impatient.”
Gabriel handed me the Jacob’s Ladder video. “Here, you take this one. I’ll go grab another. But it was really nice to see you.”
“You too,” I replied.
He disappeared around another aisle.
As I stood in line for the cash register, I found myself glancing about and wondering if he was still around, but I didn’t see him again after that.
When Rose and I finally left the store and joined up with Ziggy, the sun was setting, and there was a hazy, almost magical glow in the air. I began to jog behind her stroller, and we sang songs the rest of the way home.
“So you just went your separate ways?” Rachel asked when we met in the playground the following morning with our coffees. We stood side by side, pushing Rose and Amelia in the baby swings. “On a Friday night?”
“Of course,” I replied. “I was on my way home to put Rose in the bathtub, and I assume he was going home to watch Jacob’s Ladder with his lady friend.”
Rachel laughed. “His lady friend? That’s funny. You do know they broke up, right?”
I felt a little jolt of surprise and an unexpected rush of satisfaction, even though I had no designs on Gabriel or anyone else. But he had been my territory once, so my ego couldn’t help but feel some sense of gratification that he hadn’t committed wholeheartedly to another woman.
“I didn’t know that,” I said. “What happened?”
“She was an OR nurse, and she started seeing an anesthesiology resident behind Gabriel’s back. Then she announced out of the blue that she was moving to Japan with him.”
“Wow, that’s rough.”
“Not really,” Rachel said. “I don’t think Gabriel was all that surprised or disappointed. At least that’s what Kevin told me. Kevin never really liked her. He said she had no sense of humor, and I think Gabriel was looking for a way out.”
I listened to this with interest. “Did you ever meet her?”
“No. I haven’t kept in touch with Gabriel at all. I swear I didn’t know he was living in your neighborhood. I would have told you when you were apartment hunting.”
I let out a sigh. “Well, it’s a big city. We probably won’t run into each other much.”
Rachel was quiet for a moment while we pushed our daughters in their swings. “Maybe we should do something about that,” she finally said.
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe we should all get together.”
“How can we get together?” I asked. “We’re scattered all over the country.”
“I don’t mean all of us. I mean you, me, Thomas, and Gabriel. Thomas plays the bass guitar. He and Gabriel would probably hit it off and plan a jam session.”
I considered this. “That sounds like a lot of fun, but I don’t know. I’m not looking to get involved with anyone, and I treated Gabriel terribly before. I still feel guilty about that, and I don’t want to lead him on and have to break his heart again.”
“Why do you assume that’s what would happen?”
“It’s the most likely scenario, don’t you think? I’m still not over Dean, and I’m not sure I ever will be.”
We pushed our girls harder in their swings, and they raised their hands in the air.
“Maybe don’t look at it that way,” Rachel suggested. “I could be the one to invite him over to our place, and I would tell him that you’re still going through stuff, and you’re not over Dean, but we want to hang out as friends. He’s a grown-up. He’ll get it, and he can say no if he wants to.”
“I’m sure that’s what he’ll do,” I replied. “Self-preservation will take over, and he’ll run for the hills rather than subject himself to the drama and emotional turmoil that would surely ensue if he became involved with his selfish ex-girlfriend again.”
“You’re not selfish,” Rachel insisted. “It’s not like you cheated on him. You were broken up for months before you started dating Dean.”
“But then I brought him to Gabriel’s jazz gig and sat there snuggling at the table, right in front of his face. I would hate me if I were in his shoes.”
Little Amelia started to screech, so we grabbed hold of the chains and stopped the swings.
“Want to go play in the sandbox?” Rachel asked, and the girls shouted with approval.