The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares Read Free Book Online Page A

be.
    “Yum,” Carmen said dully.
    “He was
so
sweet. Such a gentleman. He opened the car door for me. When was the last time that happened?” Christina looked at her like she really wanted an answer.
    Carmen shrugged. “Never?”
    “He graduated from
Stanford
University. Did I say that already?”
    Carmen nodded. Christina looked so pathetically proud, Carmen couldn’t help thinking shamefully about her own pride the night before when she’d said her dad went to Williams.
    Carefully Carmen tipped the syrup bottle, attempting to fill each individual square of her waffle with its own small puddle. “What’s his name again?”
    “David.” Christina seemed to enjoy the taste of it even more than
tarte tatin
.
    “How old did you say he was?”
    Christina depuffed a little. “He’s thirty-four. That’s only four years’ difference, though.”
    “More like five,” Carmen said. It was a mean thing to say masquerading as a true thing to say. Her mother was turning thirty-nine in less than a month. “But he does sound really nice,” Carmen added to make up for it.
    That was all her mother needed. “He is. He really is.” And she proceeded to rattle on about just how nice he was straight through two additional waffles. About how he had brought her coffee a few times at the office and helped her when her computer froze.
    “He’s a third-year associate,” Christina blabbed informatively, as if Carmen would care at all. “He didn’t go to law school right after college. He worked for a newspaper in Memphis. I think that’s what makes him so
interesting
.” Christina said the word like it had only ever deserved to be used this one time.
    Carmen poured herself a glass of milk. She hadn’t had a glass of milk since she was about thirteen. She wondered, with a scientific sort of curiosity, how long her mother would keep talking if she herself didn’t say
anything at all
?
    “He’s always been so friendly and helpful, but I never imagined he would want to take me out on a date. Never!” Christina took the opportunity to circle the small room a few times. Her church shoes
clack clacked
on the peach linoleum.
    “I know it’s probably not a good idea to date somebody from the office, but on the other hand, we don’t work in the same department or even on the same floor.” She waved her arm, grandly allowing the concept of an office romance before she’d even finished disallowing it.
    “I mean, last night, watching you go, I felt so old and lonely thinking about how it would be with you gone next year. And then this! The timing is straight from God, I think.”
    Carmen made herself not mention that God had a lot of better things to think about.
    “I shouldn’t leap ahead. What if it goes nowhere? What if he isn’t looking for a real relationship? What if he’s in a different place than me?”
    First off, Carmen hated when her mother used the word
place
like some great metaphysician. And second, since when was her mother looking for a relationship? She hadn’t gone out with a guy since Carmen was in fourth grade.
    Not answering didn’t do the job. Even going to the bathroom didn’t stem her mother’s flow of words. Carmen wondered whether actually leaving the apartment would make her mother stop talking.
    At last Carmen consulted the clock. It was never on her side. For the first time in Carmen-Christina history it said they were not late for church. “We oughta get going,” Carmen suggested anyway.
    Her mother nodded and followed her companionably from the kitchen, talking all the while. She didn’t take a break until they pulled into the church parking lot.
    “Tell me,
nena,
” Christina asked as she dropped her keys into her purse and steered Carmen into church. “How was
your
evening?”
     
    Lenny,
    I know you’re just a few blocks away and I’ll be shoving the Pants into your arms in about five (okay, ten) minutes when I pick you up (okay, late) for work. But it made me a little sad not