She needed something to calm her down. For dinner we ate Triscuits directly from the box and hunks of blue cheese and Jarlsberg from the fridge. Grown-up comfort food. I suggested she spend the night.“Lots of empty bedrooms tonight,” I said, sweeping away some crumbs.“You told me the kids are away. Where’s Dan?” Molly asked.I gave her an abridged version of our brief fling in Phoenix: Dan’s initial reluctance about my detecting, then his unconditional encouragement.“You’re lucky,” Molly said. “You and Dan may not be perfect, but it sure looks that way to the rest of us. You have everything that matters. You even look good together. Like Ken and Barbie.”“I thought Barbie dumped Ken for some new surfer dude,” I said, remembering a headline about Mattel’s big switch.“The surfer turned out to be the doll version of New Coke,” Molly said. “So Ken came back. Stick with what works.”“I’m sticking, I’m sticking,” I said. I took a sip of wine and then refilled Molly’s glass.
