Claire Voyant by Saralee Rosenberg Page B

three girls he dated. He was kind without being solicitous. Intelligent but not condescending. Stunning but unassuming (unlike the vain men of L.A. who wore furs, pampered their skin, and swore on their Speedos that they didn’t believe in cosmetic surgery).
    Oddly, the only time Drew grew tense was when I mentioned his fiancée.
    â€œMarly? Yeah, she’s great.” Drew chugged his beer, then pulled out a picture from his wallet. “This was taken last year on a cruise to Mexico.”
    â€œShe’s beautiful,” I said. She reminded me a little of Courtney Cox. Petite. A hundred and five pounds. Dark brown hair, great green eyes. Their kids would be stunning.
    â€œYeah, she is.” He nodded. “You’ll love her. Everyone loves her. She does this amazing needlework with her mom. They’ve got pillows and wall hangings in every room of the house.”
    â€œOh. Do they own a shop or anything?”
    â€œNo…it’s more a hobby, I guess.”
    â€œSo what does Marly do?”
    â€œDo? You mean for a job?”
    This oughta be good . I nodded yes.
    â€œShe sometimes works for her dad. He runs a commercial linen business.”
    Jeez. Another Lindsey. I think I’ll come in on Tuesday for a few hours after my manicure….
    â€œThat’s nice,” I said. “My sister works for my dad, too. Of course, I’m sure Marly’s father gives her real responsibilities.”
    â€œAbsolutely. She’s vice president of buying.”
    â€œOh. That is a big job.”
    â€œYeah. She buys coffee, lunch, office supplies…”
    â€œBe nice,” I laughed. “I’m sure she’s very bright and talented.”
    â€œEvery day she proves she’s a helluva lot smarter than me.”
    He just didn’t say how.
    â€œSo let me see your family,” Drew said.
    â€œMine? Oh. I’m not the picture-carrying type. I change pocketbooks a lot.” And believe me, they’re nothing to look at.
    â€œReally? You don’t carry a single picture?”
    â€œWell, maybe one.” I rummaged through my wallet, and lo and behold found an old photo.
    â€œThis one’s from a few years ago.” I wiped off the smudges. “It was taken at my sister’s graduation from Towson University in Maryland. Those’re my parents. That’s Adam and Lindsey.”
    It’s funny what happens when you show someone a picture of an unattractive subject. They want to be polite, but honestly, what can you say about an ugly baby, for instance, or in the case of my family, a short, dumpy, curly-headed quartet?
    â€œI’m sure they’re very nice people,” he offered. “But it’s funny. You look nothing like them.”
    â€œYa think? Actually, the big joke in my family is that I was born to aliens from the planet Spend-on-Me.”
    â€œHey, that’s where Marly’s from…just kidding. But no, really. There’s no family resemblance here at all.”
    â€œYeah, but I inherited other things. Like my dad’s ability to make a bad situation worse.”
    â€œNo way. That runs in my family, too. If you say one wrong thing to my mother, she never lets you hear the end of it. Then three days later she’s still on your case, and you can’t even remember what the hell you said in the first place. Drives me nuts.”
    â€œOh, I know. If, God forbid, you tell my mother the steak was tough, she’ll make you eat it every night for the next week until you swear up and down that A-1 should name a sauce after her.”
    Drew laughed. “My dad thinks the reason I studied genetics in college was to figure out how I could possibly be related to her.”
    â€œLot more to it than forty-six chromosomes.” I stirred my straw.
    â€œYou got that right…. Actually, it’s not that unusual for offspring to more closely resemble grandparents, aunts, uncles. I bet you look like one