Darwin's Natural Selection Read Online Free Page A

anymore.”
    “No, dummy,” she corrected. “Yancy’s gay.”
    Pounding his head against the wall was looking more and more appealing. “Don’t set me up, Anne.”
    “But he’s so ni—”
    “No.”
    There were a few seconds of silence. He could imagine her mentally regrouping, preparing for the next line of attack. “I’m not really setting you up,” she finally said in much too reasonable a tone.
    “Sounds like a setup to me,” he said.
    “Like a setup to a miserable, awkward evening sitting next to an accountant named Yancy.”
    “Just because you’re both at the dinner doesn’t make it a setup.” Now she was using her soothing therapist tone. “If you happen to hit it off, that’s great. If not, you don’t even have to talk to him.”
    Squeezing his eyes closed, Tom pressed the phone so hard against his ear he could hear the echo of his heartbeat. “Anne, I’m fine. You don’t have to find dates for me.”
    “Uh-huh,” she said skeptically. “Because you’re doing so great finding dates on your own.”
    “I’m doing okay,” he lied, stung.
    “Right. So you’re not about to plop down on the couch alone on a Friday night again?”
    At his silence, she continued. “You can’t let one bad thing that happened to you rule your life. It’s been almost six months, Tom.
    It’s time to get back out there. I mean, aren’t you sick of just doing your own hand?”
    “Jesus, Anne!” he protested. “You’re my sister . Don’t talk about shit like that. It sounds so…wrong coming from you.”
    “What?” she asked, laughing. “You think I don’t—”
    “Stop!” he ordered. “Any more TMI and I’m hanging up.”
    “Fine, I’ll stop.” She paused. “So about Yancy…”
    My sister’s a fucking bulldog. “I’m already bringing a date tomorrow.”
    As soon as the lie left his mouth, Tom wanted to take it back. Why the fuck had he said that?
    “Sure, whatever,” Anne said, obviously not believing him. “Just give Yancy a chance, Tom. He’s nice and stable and has a good job —why won’t you just talk to him?”
    The way she completely blew off his excuse, even though it was a total lie, irritated him. “I told you. I have a date already.”
    “You do not.”
    “Do too.” He winced. Here he was, almost thirty, and a conversation with his sister made him regress back to his five-year-old self. “Is that so hard to believe?”
    “Yes,” she said baldly.
    “Fine,” he said, still not knowing what t h e hell he was doing with this made-up story. “You’ll see tomorrow. If you invite Yancy, then you’ll need to find him a different date, because I’ll be occupied.”
    “Nuh-uh.”
    “Yeah-huh.”
    “What’s his name then?” she challenged.
    He hesitated. “Darwin.” It was the first name to pop into his head, but just saying it out loud brought back a surge of residual panic left over from their meeting three days before.
    “Liar,” Anne accused, bringing his attention back to the current conversation.
    “What kind of a name is Darwin ?”
    “The kind belonging to my date for tomorrow night.” The knowledge that the yawning pit of lies he was digging for himself was getting deeper and deeper poked at him, but Tom shoved it away. He couldn’t back down now, or he’d end up spending the following endless evening sitting next to an accountant named Yancy who couldn’t dress himself.
    “Why haven’t you ever mentioned him then?” she demanded.
    “We just met recently,” he shot back, a little proud he’d been able to keep up the pretense this long. Usually Anne could roll right over him in an argument. Ever since they were kids, she’d almost always gotten her way.
    “Where’d you meet this Darwin?”
    Although she still sounded skeptical, her tone wasn’t as sure as it had been a few minutes before.
    Tom grinned. Winning was fun. “During a site visit. He works construction.”
    “What does he look like?” He could tell she was actually starting