"Paul Di Filippo - Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me A Text" - читать интересную книгу автора (Di Filippo Paul)

years, and I was by now quite familiar with at least the names of her favorite
authors, and a little of what went on between those lurid covers.

Back then, Sheila and I became instantly infatuated with each other
during our speed date, and marriage followed shortly thereafter. Perhaps
too swiftly, given the revelations of our subsequent incompatability.

Sheila flipped the paperback open to a house advertisement at the
back. “Dorchester has just started a counseling service for all the couples
who met through their earlier dating program. Who would be better able to
help us? And it’s completely free—”

“How does it work? Would we have to go to their headquarters?
Where are they anyhow?”

“New York. No, there’s no travel necessary. They send a counselor to
us....”

“I don’t know. It all sounds pretty weird....”

“Stan, please? For me?”

Looking at my wife, with her dewy eyes and trembling chin, I saw
again what had first attracted me to her. A small, dim spark began to kindle
in my heart. Perhaps there was some way to salvage what we had once
enjoyed, and to have some happy future together.

“All right, let’s give it a try.”

I must say that my lateness for work that morning was a good sign of
possible improvements to come.

Just a little over a week later, on a Saturday, the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it!” Sheila called out, dashing through the house. I followed
more sedately.
 There on the doorstep stood a woman whose face I recognized from
numerous appearances in various Dorchester newsletters and website
links.

Faustina Chambliss.

Faustina Chambliss was the general shape of a fire hydrant, and not
much bigger. Beneath auburn curls, her plump, animated face reminded
me of a wheel of strawberry cheesecake. She wore a pants suit whose
fabric replicated a Henri Rousseau jungle landscape. She held the strap of
a large bag slung over one shoulder. She could have been any age from
twenty-seven to sixty-seven.

Beside her rested a steamer trunk three times her size. An airport