Free Lying With Strangers by James Grippando Page B

balance. He slipped on the frozen sidewalk and fell on his ass. He cursed the bar, cursed Boston, cursed himself for ever having set foot in a city so crazy that people actually waxed nostalgic over the fabled hundred-hour blizzard of 1969 and grumbled over the fact that with global warming Boston didn’t get real snowstorms anymore. He missed his friends in Florida, the balmy winters, the scuba diving trips in warm waters on beautiful coral reefs. He’d given up so much, and for what? A big, prestigious law firm that worked him seventy hours a week with the elusive lure of partnership. A wife who had driven him to cheat. A wife who had cheated on him.
    No way. No way in hell would Peyton cheat . Not that he deserved such loyalty. It was just something Peyton would never do.
    He kept telling himself that as he plodded through the snow and headed back to the office.

12
    PEYTON REACHED THE LECTURE HALL A FEW MINUTES BEFORE NOON. she’d managed to keep the war-wound talks to a minimum, but a friend caught her in the hallway just before she could disappear inside.
    “Hey, Peyton,” said Gary Varne.
    Gary was a nurse and, of all things, an old high school boyfriend. Their first date had been a disaster at one of those busy casual restaurants at Faneuil Hall Marketplace. A hostess was keeping a waiting list and calling out names on a loudspeaker as tables opened. Gary had left the phony name “Itsmy,” causing the hostess to announce unwittingly “Itsmy party,” upon which Gary cut across the room singing “ It’s my party and our table is ready ” to the tune of that sixties pop hit. This, of course, was sidesplitting fun to a fourteen-year-old boy and unforgivable geekiness to his fourteen-year-old date. They didn’t have another date until they were seniors, by which time Gary had turned into a hottie and Peyton was more than willing to give him a second chance. Things had gotten fairly serious, until Peyton went away to Tallahassee for college. She met Kevin and knew it was right, and never looked back.
    The next time she saw Gary, she was a doctor and he was a nurse studying for the MCATs. He was definitely smart enough. Discipline was his problem. Every now and then, Peyton dropped a polite reminder that you actually had to crack the books ifyour sights were set on something other than the Caribbean Correspondence College of Last Resort.
    “I can’t believe you’re back at work already,” he said.
    “Just for lectures. I’m taking it easy till the leg heals.”
    “Good idea. They’ll probably want you to march in the parade when you get back.”
    “Stop.”
    “I’m serious. From what I hear, you’re a hero among your peers.”
    “Really?”
    “Oh, yeah. The hospital dumps more tasks on its residents all the time. You’ve pretty much cinched it that they’ll never be asked to drive the hospitality bus.”
    “Very funny.”
    He winked and started away, but Peyton stopped him. “Hey, I never did get to thank you for that surprise birthday party. That was really sweet of you.”
    “No need to thank me.”
    “It was very thoughtful.”
    “I mean there really is no need to thank me. I had nothing to do with it.”
    For a moment, she thought he was just being mindful of Kevin’s jealous side, denying any involvement in the party so that Peyton wouldn’t have to explain anything to her husband about a handsome ex-boyfriend doing something nice for her. Kevin was not one of those people who believed that romance could dissolve into mere friendship—a philosophy that he had made abundantly clear to Gary back in college, which was the last time Gary had called to wish Peyton a happy birthday. But Peyton could see from Gary’s expression that he truly had not organized the celebration.
    “Then who hired the mime I danced the tango with?”
    “I don’t know. I got a note telling me to be in the lounge at nine A.M. All I did was show up, like everyone else.”
    Peyton felt a sudden chill, thinking