I bided my time. I sat politely through dinner—soup again—and made idle chitchat about the new snowboard, and got to hear about how she and David had known each other for ages, and how much everyone thought it was so great that I was returning to the slopes.
I had to bite my tongue toward the end, but I managed to get by. I figured once I rocked the old lady’s world tonight, she might not feel the need to be quite so chatty. It’s not like I needed to be wined and dined first. I understood the arrangement, even if she was too ashamed to say it out loud.
So, at nine o’clock that night, when I padded out into the hallway and saw the light spilling from the crack of her partially open door, I took a deep breath and pressed my way inside. It was so cute, she didn’t even look up from her table
