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  “I just don’t want to be like Margie and her interchangeable blonds.”

  “They weren’t interchangeable,” Suze said. “Stewart was a jackass, and Budge is a doormat.” She seemed depressed by that and finished off her wine with a sigh.

  “Well, that’s what I mean,” Nell said. “She responds to a certain look in men and that’s what she falls for no matter what they’re really like, and then she’s stuck.”

  “What’s Gabe really like?”

  “Smart.” Nell pictured him standing in the office doorway again. “Tenacious. Charming when he wants to be. Exasperated. Dry. Sweet. Obnoxious. Kind. Controlling. Brave. Sloppy. Patient.” Hard. Strong. Lean. “And lately, really, really hot.” She shook her head and reached for the wine bottle. “Go figure.”

  “This does not sound like lust.”

  “Thank God.”

  “This sounds like luv.”

  “Oh, no, it doesn’t.” Nell straightened. “Don’t even start that. Absolutely not.” She grabbed her glass and drank.

  “The thing about love is, you don’t get to choose,” Suze said. “You just wake up one day and there it is, sitting at the foot of the bed, going ‘nyah, nyah, gotcha,’ and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.” She shook her head at the thought and drank, too.

  “Absolutely not. No. I’m not going back to that again.”

  “And the fact that you think he’s hot doesn’t hurt,” Suze said. “He is very appealing. Nice body.”

  “Excuse me?” Nell said.

  “He wears those suits damn well.” Suze picked up a carrot stick, nonchalantly not looking at Nell. “And that master of the universe thing he’s got going for him is sexy, too. I do love a man who’s in control.”

  “You’re married to one of those,” Nell pointed out.

  “Right. Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it in others.”

  Nell picked up her fork and stabbed the lasagna. “So go for it.”

  “You wouldn’t mind?”

  “Not at all,” Nell said airily. “Although you are married.”

  “Well, then, if I ever decide to cheat, it’ll be with Gabe,” Suze decided. “He really is darling.”

  “You’re trying to make me mad, right?” Nell said, reaching for her wineglass.

  “Is it working?”

  “Yes. Damn it.”

  “I don’t see a problem,” Suze said, putting the carrot down. “You’re both single. Go for it.”

  “I am not sleeping with my boss,” Nell said. “And he’s not sleeping with me. It’s against policy.”

  “What policy?”

  “Don’t fuck the help. The McKennas have a history with their secretaries.”

  “He slept with Lynnie?”

  “No, that was Riley.”

  “Riley.” Suze shook her head over her wine. “What a complete waste of manhood that boy is.”

  “No, he’s not.” Nell straightened a little. “Riley is a good man.”

  “I thought you said he slept with everything that moved.”

  “With a few flaws,” Nell admitted. “But he’s a great guy, really. I’d trust him with my life. You just need to know him better.” She regarded Suze carefully. “Or maybe not.”

  “Definitely not.”

  “So you’re getting bored with Jack?”

  “Ice cream?” Suze said brightly and went to the refrigerator.

  “Okay. Hit a nerve, did I?”

  “I am not bored with my husband.” Suze said, thunking the half gallon of rocky road down next to the lasagna.

  “Of course not,” Nell said. “Got a spoon?”

  Suze got two spoons out of the drawer and handed Nell one. “So you gonna make your move on Gabe any time soon?”

  “Never.”

  Nell scooped a chunk of rocky road out of the carton and bit into it, leaving some behind on the spoon. The chocolate smeared her lower lip, and Suze bent over and licked the chocolate off, her tongue touching Nell’s as Nell jerked back a little in surprise.

  “C’mon.” Suze grinned evilly at her, and Nell thought about it through a haze of eggnog and red wine and laughed. What the hell.

  “Okay. Marlene, close your eyes.” She leaned forward and kissed Suze, her mouth soft on soft, sweet on sweet. It was different, smooth and cool, like vanilla ice cream.

  Suze pulled back after a minute. “What do you think?”

  “Nice.” Nell ate the rest of the ice cream on her spoon. “No zing, though. I don’t think we’ll be buying Marlene the ‘My Two Mommies Love Me’ T-shirt.”

  “Yeah.” Suze slumped into her chair. “I want to have an affair.”

  Nell stopped, wide-eyed for a moment. “I have Riley’s number in my purse.”

  “I can’t cheat on Jack,” Suze said miserably, picking up her wineglass.

  “So why are you necking with me?”

  “I don’t think he’d count you. I think he’d probably get turned on if I slept with you.”

  “I think he’d probably want to play, too,” Nell said, scooping more ice cream. “That’s where I bow out.”

  “I just…” Suze sat back. “I haven’t kissed anybody but Jack in fourteen years.”

  Nell’s mouth was full of ice cream, so she held up her hand.

  “And you. But that wasn’t for real. It’s like you said, I miss the zing. I want some zing.”

  “Well, zing is good,” Nell said, swallowing. “But it doesn’t last.”

  “It should.” Suze folded her arms. “I don’t expect it to be fireworks forever, I know that stuff goes, but shouldn’t I still feel a little zing when he kisses me? A little hello?”

  “I don’t know,” Nell said. “I think the zing went with the fireworks with Tim and me. Ask Margie. She’s had more zings than I have.”

  “You had Riley. There was zing, right?”

  Nell considered. “Not really. He’s an excellent, excellent kisser, and there was buzz to the novelty of it all, but zing? Nope. I think you have to have pre-zing to get zings.”

  “Huh?”

  “You know,” Nell said, thinking of Gabe. “You look at his hands when he’s writing and you get hot just watching the pen move. You hear his voice and have to take a deep breath because you stopped breathing the minute you heard him. He leans over your shoulder and you close your eyes so you can enjoy it more. Pre-zing.”

  “That’s not pre-zing,” Suze said. “That’s full zing.”

  “Well, I didn’t have that with Riley.”

  “Oh.” Suze looked thoughtful. “I figured Riley was universal zing. Margie sure responded that night in the car.”

  “But you didn’t,” Nell said and grinned at her.

  “Of course I did,” Suze said. “Obnoxiousness doesn’t negate animal magnetism.”

  “I do not get the animal magnetism,” Nell said.

  “Natural zing,” Suze said. “Some guys have it. Like Riley and Jack.”

  “Nope,” Nell said. “Don’t get either one. That must be your zing. You didn’t start thinking about cheating until you met Riley, right?”

  “I am not thinking about cheating now,” Suze said, holding her glass so tightly that her knuckles went white. “I wouldn’t. I really wouldn’t.”

  “Right. But you didn’t start thinking about it until you met Riley, right?”

  “I don’t even like him.”

  Nell sighed in exasperation. “But you didn’t start thinking about it until you met him, right?”

  “A while after that. But I’m not going to do it. It’s a fantasy.” Suze put down her wine and dug into the ice cream instead. “It’s not even that. I mean, I don’t have fantasies about him. That would be wrong.” She swallowed some ice cream and choked a little. “So what’s he like?”

  “Who?”

  “Riley. In bed.”

  Nell thought about it. “Very gentle. And thorough. He pays attention, crosses all the i’s, dots all the t’s. Slow but steady.” She tilted her head, thinking