Improvisation by Karis Walsh

first if she had a choice. All she’d wanted was to get through the evening as quickly and impersonally as possible. A reluctant prom date hadn’t been part of the plan. She searched wildly for a way to back out, but she had to go to the dance. For her kids. Tina would have to be the one to make an escape, and Jan figured she’d be so practiced at breaking dates it would be easy for her. She probably had a thousand handy excuses at the ready.
    “Worst safety net ever ,” Jan whispered to Chloe when Peter and Tina went to the bar for another round.
    Chloe smiled. “It seemed like the best way to get him to ask me out.”
    Jan glanced at the two cousins who seemed to be having a similar conversation at the bar. “So you used me?” she asked, shocked by Chloe’s manipulation. She hadn’t gotten close to Chloe over the years they’d been teaching together, and she had simply thought of her as a very nice, but sort of bland person. She was definitely more interesting—albeit annoying—than Jan had expected.
    “Well, you used me first, to be your third wheel. I’m just better at the game than you are,” Chloe said, looking decidedly unrepentant. She laughed and bumped Jan again. “Besides, it’s obvious one of you will find a way to get out of going. But I’ll still have my date, so everyone wins.”
    Jan didn’t quite see how she had won anything, but she stayed silent. In fact, she was out a date to the dance since she had planned on hanging out with Chloe for the evening. She supposed she’d end up going to the prom with the predatory Sasha. Ah well, worse things had happened.
    Tina interrupted her musings when she set a drink in front of her. Jan thanked her and bit back an urge to ask how much she owed for it. She didn’t want it to seem like a date, but she also didn’t want to make a prudish fuss about money. “Why don’t I order us some appetizers?” she asked instead.
    “I should warn you,” Tina said, once they had been served. She leaned toward Jan over their shared plate of tempura vegetables, glaring at Chloe and Peter, who had retreated to their corner of the table, as isolated as if a wall had been erected between the two couples. “If they start feeding each other, I’m going to throw up on the table.”
    “I’ll probably join you,” Jan said with a shrug, eating a crispy fried spear of broccoli rabe. “I have to apologize. I had no idea Chloe was such a flirt.”
    “Yeah, but it’s my cousin’s parody of Casanova that makes me want to puke.”
    “I agree. You know, they’re as bad as Brooke. It’s one thing to want a relationship for yourself, but to force innocent bystanders into them, too? It’s not right.”
    “I agree,” Tina said, looking surprised by the revelation. “Do your own disgusting flirting. But leave those of us who aren’t interested in any serious commitments alone.”
    “Well,” Jan said with a frown as she ate some cauliflower. “I wouldn’t say I don’t want a partner. But I’m waiting for the right time, and the right person.”
    Tina shrugged and spilt the last fried zucchini in half, giving one piece to Jan. “Not me. I’m not interested in being tied down. Ever. To anyone.”
    Jan ate the zucchini in silence. She was tempted to say something about Tina’s dating habits, but it would only send them circling back to the earlier, insult-filled portion of the evening. They agreed they wanted to be left alone. She should accept the slight bit of camaraderie and leave the rest. Take her own advice, and let Tina make her own choices. Temporary and insubstantial as they were.
    “So. Geometry,” Tina said, wiping her greasy fingers on a burgundy cloth napkin. “What a thrilling subject. I vaguely remember something about pi from my high-school class.”
    “Actually, it’s quite fascinating, especially when you get past the basics,” Jan said, unperturbed by Tina’s dismissal of her field as uninteresting. She was used to the attitude—in