In Love With An Older Man 27

December 1996

"So this is a friendship forged entirely over the Internet." Gary's eyes twinkled with amusement. "You've never even met these people in person, yet you want to get together with them in the park."

"I've been in touch with Faith for about six months now, and she seems to be such a sweet person. I really think you'll like her," Cindy said. The Silvermans were going to be staying in the area over the holidays, and Faith and Cindy had arranged to meet in the park with their husbands and children.

"Mommy, I can't find my other glove!" Rebecca called.

"That's all right, sweetheart. It isn't really cold enough for gloves anyway," Cindy told her.

"But I want it!" Rebecca primped up to cry.

"Don't cry, 'Becca." Jonathan patted his sister's arm in an attempt to comfort her.

At last the Greenbergs were ready to go, and they got in the car and headed for the park. The Silvermans were fairly easy to recognize. Matthew and Faith were both tall and slender with dark hair and eyes, and ten-year-old Jamie and five-year-old Leith had lighter brown hair and the same dark eyes.

"Faith!" Cindy rushed to embrace her new friend.

"I'm Gary." Gary shook Matthew's hand.

Jamie looked sulky. Leith stared at the twins, and Jonathan and Rebecca, holding hands, stared back at him.

"Your twins are so cute!" Faith gushed.

"Thank you. Your children are lovely as well," said Cindy.

Jamie rolled her eyes. Rebecca walked up to her. "How old are you?" she asked.

"Ten."

"What are those things on your legs?" Leith asked Jonathan.

"My braces. They help me walk," Jonathan told him.

"I want braces on my legs too, Mommy!" Leith whined to his mother.

"Will you push me on the swing?" Rebecca asked Jamie.

Jamie shrugged. "Sure."

"Jonathan, why don't you and Leith go and play in the sandbox," Cindy suggested to her son. Jonathan took Leith's hand and led him to the sandbox.

"I love how our children seem to play together so well," Cindy said, watching Jamie push Rebecca on the swing.

"She didn't want to come," Hope told Cindy. "I had to promise her a trip to the mall afterwards."

"So how do you and Matthew handle the whole Christmas/Hanukkah issue?" Cindy asked Faith.

"It was difficult at first." Faith laughed. "It's funny, because neither of us were particularly observant until Jamie was born. Then we fought over which tradition to raise her in. I put a Christmas tree up and Matthew wouldn't speak to me for days. Then I borrowed Matthew's cousin's menorah and put it up as well and everything was all right again."

"It was never really a problem for us," Cindy said. "We agreed from the start that we would raise the children in both traditions, and that's what we've done."

"How are your stepchildren?" asked Faith.

"Very well, thank you. Carly lives in Oregon now with her boyfriend Ben and works part-time as a cantor for a synagogue there. Jake's a sophomore in college and is staying with his grandparents in Miami until he finishes school."

"Was being a stepmother difficult for you at first?" asked Faith.

"It was a real challenge to win Jake and Carly over." Cindy chuckled. "Believe it or not, Carly idolized me before she found out that I was involved with her father. I worked as a DJ at Gary's radio station, and Carly loved to listen to me, sometimes even when she was supposed to be doing schoolwork." Cindy laughed at the memory of the trouble Carly had had in algebra at one time. "One day when we had been dating for awhile Gary invited them to the radio station to meet me. As soon as he told them that he was dating me, they ran back out. It took them both a while to get used to the idea of their father being with someone else other than their mother."

"Cindy tells me that you're in the advertising business," Gary said to Matthew.

"Right. I was in business with my friend Emmett for awhile, and then that went belly up. I work for DAA now," Matthew told him. "How's the music business coming?"

"Pretty good. Can't make heads or tails of some of this new music that's coming out. Whatever happened to the Rolling Stones and the Doors?" Both men laughed.

Cindy and Faith went to separate Leith and Jonathan, who were having a minor squabble in the sandbox. Rebecca had grown tired of swinging and was sitting on a bench with Jamie, who was teaching her a rhyming game.

"Well, I think it's about time we headed back to the motel," Faith told Cindy. "It was lovely to meet you all, and if you're ever in the Pennsylvania area, please don't hesitate to look us up."

"Of course," Cindy told her. "It was wonderful to meet you all as well."

The two families said their good-byes and left the park.

"They seem like nice people," Gary said on the way home. "The Internet is sure making the world a smaller place, isn't it?"

"Jamie's nice," said Rebecca from the back seat. "I want to go back and play with her again."

"Perhaps we can do that some day," Cindy told her. "Jamie and her family live a long way from here, so it might be a long time before we see them again."

"Did you have fun, Jonathan?" Gary asked his son.

"He's asleep, Daddy," said Rebecca. Gary and Cindy both laughed.