The Balance Thing Read Online Free Page A

you are.”
    â€œHow am I?”
    Vida handed me a Marc Jacobs ankle strap stiletto and a straight answer. “You’re a steamroller. You crush every man in your path.”
    â€œI do not!” I turned to Connie with the expectation she’d defend me.
    Instead she nodded briskly. “You do, Becks. You walk all over them.”
    â€œI do not!” I said again.
    Vida removed the shoe from my hand and replaced it with a refill on the champagne. “Think about it,” she said. “When was the last time someone broke up with you? You’re totally the one who dumps them.”
    â€œAnd over the silliest things,” Connie continued, herattention on a kitten-heel mule with a little fur pom-pom. “I mean, we always know when it’s coming because you start making fun of them behind their backs.”
    â€œOh, that’s so true,” Vida sat beside me eagerly. “You totally do that. And then, about a week later, everything they do irritates you—”
    â€œAnd then poof,” Connie finished, “they’re gone.”
    â€œI’m not like that!” I protested. “It isn’t me! It’s them!”
    Connie gave me a highly significant look while Vida nodded in satisfaction.
    â€œWhat?” I demanded.
    â€œNothing. You’re right. It’s them.” Connie agreed. “But here’s a question—Who’s the one picking them out?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou totally dismissed Sean,” Vida said.
    â€œSean who?” My head was beginning to spin. I’d set out that morning perfectly prepared to drink too much at lunch and spend too much on wedding stuff. Having my recent disastrous dating history dissected and thrown in my face had not been on the agenda.
    Vida compressed her lips briefly before answering. “He’s the guy from the mayor’s office that I introduced you to at Connie’s engagement party.”
    I searched my memory. “Oh, Sean. I thought he was gay.”
    My friends exchanged pitying looks.
    â€œHe isn’t gay,” Vida explained to me, speaking as though I was a rather slow five-year-old. “He’s perfect for you. He’s got a great job, a great house—”
    â€œAnd a sailboat,” Connie supplied.
    â€œAnd he has a degree from the London School of Economics,” Vida continued, ticking off the meritorious qualitiesof this guy I could barely remember. “And season tickets to the opera and—”
    â€œAnd a boyfriend he keeps in a little place on Potrero Hill,” I concluded.
    â€œHe’s not gay!” They both insisted loudly. The saleswoman poked her head around the corner with a curious expression on her face. She probably thought we were discussing the groom. She opened her mouth as if to speak, then smiled brightly and backed out of the doorway.
    â€œMaybe it’s time we were going,” I suggested.
    â€œHe’s not gay.” Vida refused to be distracted. “I know someone he used to date, and she said he was unbelievable in bed. Apparently he did this thing—”
    â€œThe point is”—Connie cut her off before Vida could provide any details of Sean’s advanced sexual technique—“that you, Becks, when presented with this perfectly good specimen of the single male of the species, didn’t even take a second look.”
    â€œRight,” Vida agreed. “Sean didn’t jump up and say ‘I’m interested’ so you didn’t even notice him. Instead, you went out and got involved with Greg.” She scrunched her nose in distaste as she said his name. “Who was an okay guy but totally wrong for you.”
    â€œBut he did all the work. He called you. He pursued you. He fell right into your lap,” Connie said.
    â€œUntil you kicked him back out again,” Vida concluded. “Right on schedule.”
    I behaved in an un–Bridal Elegance manner by