Standing him up would only make him more interested.

She knew that.

Was that why she was doing it?

She thought of his hands touching hers, the way it felt when he stood next to her.

“No. I have no plans,” Anita told Jen. “Want to grab some lunch?”

“I’ll get my purse.”

Anita walked outside and waited next to the door, staring numbly out at the three cars in the small parking lot. What was wrong with her? She had a good life, a nice family. Was she so self-destructive that she just had to sabotage things when they were going well? It’s what her parents had said when she’d dropped out of ASU her sophomore year, and she was beginning to think that maybe they were right.

Wasn’t Nick doing exactly the same thing with his Taking a Shit play?

Maybe it ran in the family.

Kyle was the stable one, the rock, and he didn’t deserve any of this. He was a good father, a good husband, and deep down she loved him. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him.

So why was she allowing this to happen?

Jen opened the back door and emerged outside. “Ready to go?”

Taking Jen’s car, they drove over to Juan Wang’s, the new Asian fusion fast food joint that had opened up in what had previously been the Lottaburger. The tables were all outside, but it was a nice day and they had the place to themselves. After ordering, they waited until their names were called, and then carried their trays from the pickup window to their table.

Anita unwrapped a straw and stuck it through the hole in the top of her cup of iced green tea. “So what’s going on with your loan?” she asked. “Find out if you qualify yet?”

Jen sighed. “We actually don’t. But with my parents co-signing…maybe.” She took a bite of eggroll burrito. “Do you realize how humiliating it is to be thirty-five years old and still have to have your parents vouch for you? My twenty-year high school reunion’s coming up in three years. You’d think I’d be enough of an adult by now to be able to buy a house with my husband. But no…”

“What’s your credit score?”

“Pretty good. Both of us are responsible, always pay on time. It’s the income. We don’t make enough, even together, for the bank to think we can handle the payments on a house. Trailer, yes. House, no.”

“What are you going to do if they turn you down?”

Jen shook her head. “Lane thinks we should try one of those online lenders. But I don’t know. I’ve heard a lot of sketchy things about those places. I read the other day about one company that went under and sold all its debts to another lender who demanded immediate full payment from everyone who’d taken out loans.”

Anita nodded. “It’s the wild west out there on the internet. And I’m not sure how well-regulated some of those companies are. I think you’re much safer with a real bank.”