How many Korean BBQ joints were there on Northern Boulevard? They outnumbered the Dunkin’ Donuts ten to one. “Wait! What’s the name of the place? Where on Northern?”

“I don’t know—I don’t speak Korean. A hundred and fiftysomething block. Near Murray. You’ll see it.”

And she was gone.

-14-

-14-

Ted checked the screen. The number looked familiar. He hit the flash button. “Lester? Talk to me.”

“What’s a Lester?” an angry female voice asked.

“Jackie?” It slipped out of his mouth before he had time to think. “Sorry. Jacqueline.” No wonder the number looked familiar. Jill had given it to him the night before.

When Jacqueline Clavette was pissed off, her voice developed the volume and tones of a coffee grinder. “What do you want, Molloy?”

“I didn’t expect to hear from you.” She had been next on Ted’s to-call list.

“Cut it out. Jill told me you forced her to give you my private number, so I thought I’d save you the trouble of dialing.” The ability to recognize sarcasm is said to be an early indicator of intelligence. Ted had no trouble identifying it. Every word was soaked in scorn.

Of course Jill had told Jackie that she had given Ted the private number. He should have expected that. Jill was fun and bright and beautiful, but she was not brave. Avoiding confrontation was her greatest strength—and weakness. But he’d known that about her long before they’d married. He didn’t resent it; it was simply her way.

“I’m sorry, Jacqueline. I sometimes forget that, though Jill is surrounded by lawyers, she is not one herself. I pushed her too hard. Don’t take it out on her, all right?”

“I don’t know why she keeps up with you, but if you don’t leave her alone, I will take action.”

Ted had heard this before from Jackie on more than one occasion. He gave the threat the acknowledgment it deserved. He ignored it.

Ms. Clavette wasn’t ready to let it go, though. “This is harassment. She is my wife now.”

And has been for some years now, Ted thought, but he kept silent.

Jill had been neither a virgin nor exclusively heterosexual before she met Ted, and she had never pretended otherwise. The surprise, for both of them, was belatedly discovering that her sexual attraction to women was neither a fad nor a phase but a defining characteristic. She made no choice. But both she and Ted had accepted who she was and moved on.