A State of Jane by Meredith Schorr Page A

a red sock. With a single goal in mind, I straightened my dress, sucked in my stomach and walked over to her.
    “Katherine! Hi!” I gave her a kiss on the cheek and turned to smile at Red Sock Guy before turning back to her. “Thanks so much for having me!” I did a 360 of the room. “Great party!”
    “So glad you could make it. The exciting life of a single girl. Ah, the good ol' days!”
    I bit my tongue to keep from debating the definition of “good.” “I can always make time for friends!” Glancing over at Marissa deep in conversation with her brother and sister-in-law, I said, “Marissa was so excited about it too.” Remembering my mission, I smiled shyly at Red Sock Guy. People assumed shy meant nice. “Hi. I'm Jane.”
    Before he could respond, Katherine put her hand on his shoulder and said, “Oh how rude of me. Jane, this is Todd. He's a lawyer. Could probably give you advice on law school.”
    “You're in law school?” he asked.
    Shaking my head, I said, “Not yet. Just studying for the LSAT.”
    Todd laughed. “Good times. Almost as good as studying for the bar!”
    Katherine excused herself, claiming that she needed to get back to her hostess duties and that Todd and I probably had a lot to talk about. I found it odd that she was playing matchmaker to me, someone who barely liked her, instead of her own sister, but I needed a date for that coming weekend and so I tossed my concerns aside.
    “Great hat,” I said.
    Todd grinned. “You a Red Sox fan?”
    “I usually stick to black socks. Or white if I'm working out, but red socks are certainly interesting.”
    “Ha ha! Good one,” Todd said.
    Flirtatiously, I asked, “Can I try it on?” Jim had said I looked sexy in his Detroit Tigers baseball cap and I really needed to speed up the pace of this conversation. If he didn't take the bait, I'd cut my losses while it was still early enough to fake interest in someone else at the party.
    Todd removed his cap and, although I thought he was going to give it to me, he turned it around and planted it on his head backwards. He looked like an idiot, but I smiled as I awaited his response.
    Shaking his head, he said, “I'm very superstitious. I let my ex wear it once last season and the Red Sox lost their first place position in the division. No one but me is wearing the cap ever again.”
    I decided that not only did he look like an idiot, he was an idiot. I nodded. “I understand completely.” I glanced around the room hoping to spot the nearest eligible bachelor and was prepared to make my getaway when Todd said, “But… my firm is hosting a bowl-a-thon on Monday night and we need cheerleaders. If you go with me, maybe we'll get you your own ‘Schwetty Ballz’ team hat. I bet you'd look real cute in it.”
    Mission accomplished, I saw no reason to hang around at the party any longer. So, after telling Todd I'd absolutely love to join himand couldn't wait to watch their rivals, “Splitz Happen,” go down the gutter (his words, I just enthusiastically repeated them), I told Katherine that I wasn't feeling well and wanted to get a good night's sleep so that I'd be in tip-top condition for my date with Todd, who was way awesome. After thanking her for making the introduction, I gave a pouting Marissa an apologetic hug for leaving her stranded, waved to Todd across the room, and gave a satisfied smile as the front door of Katherine's apartment closed behind me.

C HAPTER 21
    Exhausted, I fell back on my bed, still dressed in my souvenir “Schwetty Ballz” T-shirt. Todd was a decent guy, but boy was he a Chatty Cathy. The only time he stopped talking to me was when it was his turn to bowl and even then, he'd turn and wave at me first — which meant I had to be “on” all night. And I had to make moon eyes at him so his colleagues would buy that I was into him. We planned another date for Thursday night so I just had to bat my eyelashes and flip my hair one more night to secure a date to Bob