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| Charleston Harbor at Sunrise |
About We Interrupt This Date: Since her divorce a year ago, Susan Caraway has gone through the motions of life. Now she is finally coming out of her shell. Just when she decides on a makeover and a new career, her family members decide she's crisis central. First there’s her sister DeLorean who has come back from California with a baby, a designer dog, and no prospects for child support or a job. As soon as DeLorean settles in at Susan’s home, Susan’s son Christian returns from college trailing what Susan’s mama refers to as “an androgynous little tart.” Then there’s Mama herself, a southern lady who wrote the book on bossy. A secret from Mama’s past threatens to unravel her own peace. But not before Mama hurts her ankle and has to move into Susan’s home with her babies—two Chihuahuas with attitude. Susan would like to start her new job as a ghost tour operator. She would like to renew her relationship with Jack Maxwell, a man from her past. But Jack isn’t going to stand in line behind her needy family.
This excerpt is from Chapter Two where Susan has lunch with her friend Veronica and announces she's decided to start dating again.
“It’s a blind date, isn’t it?” Veronica said this in tones she might
use to announce that the earth was in the path of an asteroid the size of the
sun.
My casual shoulder shrug and my sudden interest in watching a couple
of restaurant patrons stroll by were admission enough. Veronica knew I hadn’t
been anywhere lately except to yoga. It wasn’t like I was going to arrange a
date with a stranger I crashed my cart into at the Publix grocery.
“Wait, don’t tell me. That New Age person you work with is the one
who’s hooking you up. That can’t be good. I imagine her taste in men runs to
long-haired, ascetic types with dark, soulful eyes. They all read tarot and
teach meditation classes, go to Nepal on vacation, and wear necklaces made of
healing crystals.” Veronica sighed from the bottom of her soul. “Susan, Susan,
Susan.”
“It’s true that Patty got me the date with her boyfriend’s cousin,” I
said reluctantly, “but he’s not a meditation teacher, he’s an insurance
salesman.”
Patty and Veronica had only crossed paths once, months ago, when
Veronica stopped by my office to leave off an invitation to her niece’s baby
shower. Patty was wearing gold hoop earrings and was dressed in her usual
style--floor-length crepe, rainbow-colored skirt and matching blouse. Her jet-black
hair hung to her waist in ropy coils, so she looked like one of those carnival
fortunetellers. She’d made the mistake of offering Veronica a half-priced tarot
reading because she looked like she was “having man problems.”
“I suppose she consulted the pagan gods first. I’ve never had a blind
date in my life and I certainly wouldn’t let someone like Patty arrange one for
me.”
She’d told me once that needing to have someone fix you up was an
admission of failure and God knew I didn’t need something else to make me feel
like a loser. I love Veronica dearly, but even she admits she tends to view the
world in black and white and she can be less than tolerant of viewpoints that
differ from her own. Not for the first time I pondered the whimsy of fate that had
brought me a best friend who had so much in common with my mother.
No, I’d chosen Veronica and
fate had nothing to do with it.
We Interrupt This Date
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