It seemed to be happening more frequently, this sweating/breathing issue – and not just when she heard the wood-on-wood banging. Sometimes Leigh would awaken from a sleep so deep it almost hurt, only to find her heart racing and her sheets drenched. Last week in the middle of an otherwise completely relaxing shavasna – albeit one where the instructor felt compelled to play an a capella version of ‘Amazing Grace’ over the speakers – a sharp pain shot through Leigh’s chest on each measured inhale. And just this morning as she watched the human tidal wave of commuters cram onto the N train – she forced herself to take the subway, but hated every second of it – Leigh’s throat constricted and her pulse inexplicably quickened. There seemed to be only two plausible explanations, and although she could be a bit of a hypochondriac, even Leigh didn’t think she was a likely candidate for a coronary: It was a panic attack, plain and simple.
In an ineffective attempt to dispel the panic, Leigh pressed her fingertips into her temples and stretched her neck from side to side, neither of which did a damn thing. It felt like her lungs could reach only ten percent capacity, and just as she considered who would find her body – and when – she heard a choked sobbing and yet another ring of her doorbell.
She tiptoed over to the door and looked through the peep-hole but saw only empty hallway. This was exactly how people ended up robbed and raped in New York City – getting duped by some criminal mastermind into opening their doors. I’m not falling for this, she thought as she stealthily dialed her doorman. Never mind that her building’s security rivaled the UN’s, or that in eight years of city living she didn’t personally know anyone who’d been so much as pickpocketed, or that the chances of a psychopathic murderer choosing her apartment from more than two hundred other units in her building was unlikely … This was how it all started.
The doorman answered after four eternally long rings.
‘Gerard, it’s Leigh Eisner in 16D. There’s someone outside my door. I think they’re trying to break in. Can you come up here right away? Should I call 911?’ The words came out in a frantic jumble as Leigh paced the small foyer and popped Nicorette squares into her mouth directly from the foil wrapper.
‘Miss Eisner, of course I’ll send someone up immediately, but perhaps you’re mistaking Miss Solomon for someone else? She arrived a few minutes ago and proceeded directly to your apartment … which is permissible for someone on your permanent clearance list.’
‘Emmy’s here?’ Leigh asked. She forgot all about her imminent death by disease or homicide and pulled open her door to find Emmy rocking back and forth on the hallway floor, knees pulled tight against her chest, cheeks slick with tears.
‘Miss, may I be of further assistance? Shall I still—’
‘Thanks for your help, Gerard. We’re fine now,’ Leigh said, snapping shut her cell phone and shoving it into the kangaroo pocket of her sweatshirt. She dropped to her knees without thinking and wrapped her arms around Emmy.
‘Honey, what’s wrong?’ she crooned, gathering Emmy’s tear-dampened hair from her face into a ponytail. ‘What happened?’
The show of concern brought with it a fresh stream of tears; Emmy was sobbing so hard her tiny body trembled. Leigh ran through the possibilities of what could cause such pain, and came up with only three: a death in the family, a pending death in the family, or a man.
‘Sweetie, is it your parents? Did something happen to them? To Izzie?’
Emmy shook her head.
‘Talk to me, Emmy. Is everything okay with Duncan?’
This elicited a wail so plaintive it hurt Leigh to hear it. Bingo.
‘Over,’ Emmy cried, her voice catching in her throat. ‘It’s over for good.’
Emmy had made this pronouncement no fewer than eight times in the five years she and Duncan had been dating, but something about tonight seemed different.
‘Honey, I’m sure it’s all just—’
‘He met someone.’
‘He what?’ Leigh dropped her arms and sat back on her ankles.
‘I’m sorry, let me rephrase: I bought him someone.’
‘What on earth are you talking about?’
‘Remember when I got him a membership at Clay for his thirty-first birthday because he was desperate to get back in shape? And then he never went – not one fucking time in two whole years – because, according to him, it wasn’t “an efficient use of his time” to just go and stand on the treadmill? So rather than just cancel the whole damn thing and forget about it, I, genius extraordinaire, decide to buy him a series of sessions with a personal trainer so he wouldn’t have to waste one precious second exercising like everyone else.’
‘I think I can see where this is going.’
‘What? You think he fucked her?’ Emmy laughed mirthlessly. It sometimes surprised people to hear Emmy trash-talk with such ferocity – she was, after all, only five-one and looked no older than a teenager – but Leigh barely even noticed anymore. ‘I thought so, too. It’s so much worse than that.’
‘That sounds bad enough, sweetheart.’ All-out loving sympathy and support were the best she could offer, but Emmy didn’t appear comforted.
‘You probably wonder how it could get worse, right? Well, let me tell you how. He didn’t just fuck her – I could maybe deal with that. Noooo, not my Duncan. He “fell in love” with her.’ Emmy jabbed out air quotes with the forefingers and middle fingers of both hands and rolled her bloodshot eyes. ‘He’s “waiting for her,” quote-unquote, until she’s “ready.” She’s a VIRGIN, for chrissake! I’ve put up with five years of his cheating and lies and kinky, weird sex so he can FALL IN LOVE WITH A VIRGIN TRAINER I HIRED IN THE GYM I PAID FOR? In love! Leigh, what am I going to do?’
Leigh, relieved that she could finally do something tangible, took Emmy’s arm and helped her to her feet. ‘Come in, honey. Let’s go inside. I’ll make us some tea and you can tell me what happened.’
Emmy sniffed. ‘Oh, god, I forgot … it’s Monday. I don’t want to interrupt. I’ll be fine …’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. I wasn’t even doing anything,’ Leigh lied. ‘Come in this minute.’
Leigh led her to the couch and, after patting the overstuffed arm to indicate where Emmy should rest her head, ducked behind the wall that separated the living room from the kitchen. With its speckled granite countertops and new stainless steel appliances, the kitchen was Leigh’s favorite room in the whole apartment. All of her pots and pans hung from under-cabinet hooks in order of size, and all of her utensils and spices were obsessively organized in matching glass and stainless containers. Crumbs, spills, wrappers, dirty dishes – all nonexistent. The refrigerator looked like someone had Hoovered it clean, and the countertops were entirely smudge-free. If it was possible for a room to personify its owner’s neurotic personality, the kitchen and Leigh could be identical twins.
She filled the kettle (purchased just last week during a Bloomingdale’s Home Sale, because who said you were entitled to new things only when you registered?), piled a tray high with cheese and Wheat Thins, and peeked through the window into the living room to make sure Emmy was resting comfortably. Seeing that she was lying flat on her back with an arm flung over her eyes, Leigh slipped out her cell phone and selected Adriana’s name from her phone book. She typed: SOS. E & D finished. Get down here ASAP.
‘Do you have Advil?’ Emmy called from the couch. And then, more quietly: ‘Duncan always carried Advil.’
Leigh opened her mouth to add that Duncan had always carried a lot of things – a business card for his favorite escort service, a wallet-sized picture of himself as a child, and, occasionally, a genital wart or two that he swore were just ‘skin tags‘ – but she controlled herself. In addition to being unnecessary since Emmy was suffering enough, it would be hypocritical: Contrary to everyone’s belief, Leigh wasn’t exactly in the world’s most perfect relationship, either. But she pushed the thought of Russell from her mind.
‘Sure, I’ll get you some in a minute,’ s
he said, turning off the whistling kettle. ‘Tea’s ready.’
The girls had just taken their first sips when the doorbell rang. Emmy looked at Leigh, who just said, ‘Adriana.’
‘It’s open!’ Leigh called toward the front door, but Adriana had already figured that out. She stormed into the living room and stood with her hands on her hips, surveying the scene.
‘What is going on here?’ she demanded. Adriana’s slight Brazilian accent, little more than a soft, sexy lilting when she was calm, made her almost unintelligible when she felt, in her own words, ‘passionate’ about someone or something. Which was pretty much always. ‘Where are the drinks?’
Leigh motioned to the kitchen. ‘Water’s still hot. Check the cupboard above the microwave. I have a whole bunch of different flavors in—’
‘No tea!’ Adriana screeched and pointed to Emmy. ‘Can’t you see she’s miserable? We need real drinks. I’ll make caipirinhas.’
‘I don’t have any mint. Or limes. Actually, I’m not even sure I have the right booze,’ Leigh said.
‘I brought everything.’ Adriana lifted a large paper bag over her head and grinned.
Leigh often found Adriana’s abruptness irritating, sometimes a little overwhelming, but tonight she was grateful to her for taking control of the situation. It had been nearly twelve years since Leigh first saw Adriana’s smile, and still it left her feeling awestruck and a little anxious. How could someone possibly be that beautiful? she wondered for the hundred thousandth time. What higher power orchestrated such a perfect union of genes? Who decided that one single solitary soul deserved skin like that? It was so fundamentally unfair.
It was another few minutes before the drinks were mixed and distributed and everyone had settled down; Emmy and Adriana sprawled on the couch; Leigh sat cross-legged on the floor.
‘So, tell us what happened,’ Leigh said, placing a hand on Emmy’s ankle. ‘Just take your time and tell us all about it.’
Emmy sighed and, for the first time since she arrived, appeared cried out. ‘There’s not that much to tell. She’s absolutely adorable – like, nauseatingly cute. And young. Really, really young.’
‘What’s really, really young?’ Leigh asked.
‘Twenty-three.’
‘That’s not so young.’
‘She has a MySpace profile,’ Emmy said.
Leigh grimaced.
‘And she’s on Facebook.’
‘Good lord,’ Adriana muttered.
‘Yeah, I know. Her favorite color is lavender and her favorite book is The South Beach Diet and she just adores cookie dough, campfires, and watching Saturday-morning cartoons. Oh, and she simply must get nine hours of sleep or else she’s really, really cranky.’
‘What else?’ Leigh asked, although she could predict the answer.
‘What else do you want to know?’
Adriana started the quiz show-like round.
‘Name?’
‘Brianna Sheldon.’
‘College?’
‘SMU, Comm major, Kappa Kappa Gamma.’ Emmy enunciated these last three words with a perfect Valley Girl inflection.
‘Hometown?’
‘Born in Richmond, raised in a suburb of Charleston.’
‘Music?’
‘Like you even have to ask. Kenny Chesney.’
‘High school sport?’
‘Let’s just all say it in unison …’ Emmy said.
‘Cheerleading,’ Adriana and Leigh simultaneously.
‘Given.’ Emmy sighed, but then she smiled for a second. ‘I found some pictures of her from her sister’s wedding photographer’s Web site – she even manages to look good in teal taffeta. The whole thing is positively nauseating.’
The girls all laughed, each accustomed to this oldest of female-bonding traditions. When your life was in the gutter because your ex-boyfriend suddenly surfaced on weddingchannel.com, nothing offered comfort like trashing the new girlfriend. It was actually how they had become friends in the first place. Leigh and Emmy met each other first in Astronomy 101, a class both were taking to fulfill the dreaded science requirement. Neither realized until it was too late that Astro was actually an aggressive mixture of chemistry, calculus, and physics – not the chance to learn all the constellations and look at the pretty stars, like they had hoped. They were the two least-competent and lowest-scoring members of their lab group, and their TA had strung together enough English words to let them know that they’d better start improving or they would fail the class, which prompted Leigh and Emmy to meet three times a week in the study lounge at Emmy’s dorm, a glass-enclosed, fluorescent-lit pod wedged between the kitchen and the coed bathroom. The girls were just beginning to tackle the review notes for the upcoming midterm when they heard banging followed by distinctly female shrieks. Emmy and Leigh looked at each other and smiled as they listened to the angry words being exchanged down the hall, sure it was yet another argument between a scorned sorority girl and the drunken guy who hadn’t called the next day. The yelling shifted, however, and within seconds Emmy and Leigh watched as a gorgeous honey blonde with a sexy accent took a verbal barrage from a hysterical, red-faced, significantly less pretty blonde directly outside the study lounge.
‘I can’t believe I voted for you!’ the red-faced girl screamed. ‘I actually stood up in front of the whole chapter to speak on your behalf, and this is how you show your appreciation? By sleeping with my boyfriend?’
The stunner with the accent sighed. When she spoke, it was with quiet resignation. ‘Annie, I’ve said I’m sorry. I never would have done that had I known he was your boyfriend.’
This was not calming to the screamer. ‘How could you not have known? We’ve been together for, like, months!’
‘I didn’t know, because he accosted me last night, flirted with me, bought me drinks, and asked me to his fraternity formal. I’m sorry if it didn’t occur to me that he had a girlfriend. If it had, I assure you, I wouldn’t have been interested.’ The girl held out her hand in a gesture of reconciliation and apology. ‘Please. Men aren’t that important. Let’s forget about it, okay?’
‘Forget about it?’ the girl hissed, almost snarled, through closed teeth. ‘You’re nothing more than a little freshman whore, sleeping with the seniors because you think they actually like you. Stay away from me and stay away from him, and keep your stupid freshman trampiness out of my life. Understood?’ The girl’s voice had gotten louder; by the time she’d asked if Adriana understood, she was shouting again.
Emmy and Leigh watched as Adriana took a long look at the girl, appeared to weigh a response in her mind, and then, deciding against it, simply said, ‘Understood perfectly.’ Immediately the angry blonde swiveled on one Puma and flounced away. Adriana finally allowed herself to smile before noticing Emmy and Leigh watching from the lounge.
‘Did you just see that?’ Adriana asked, moving into the doorway.
Emmy coughed and Leigh blushed and nodded. ‘She was really pissed,’ Leigh said.
Adriana laughed. ‘As she so kindly pointed out, I’m just some stupid freshman. How am I supposed to know who’s dating who around here? Especially when the guy in question spent half the night telling me how great it is to be single again after being tied down for the last four months. Was I supposed to hook him up to a polygraph?’
Leigh leaned back in her chair and took a swig from her Diet Coke. ‘Maybe you should start carrying a list of every single older girl on campus and their phone numbers. That way, every time you meet a guy, you can call every one of them to make sure he’s available.’
Adriana’s face broke into a huge smile, and Leigh was charmed: She saw immediately why the boy from the previous night had lost all memory of his girlfriend in Adriana’s presence. ‘I’m Adriana,’ she said, giving first Leigh and then Emmy a little wave. ‘Apparently also known as Class of 2000 Queen Slut.’
Leigh introduced herself. ‘Hey. I’m Leigh. I was thinking of rushing next semester, until I just met your
“sister.” So thanks for that informative lesson.’
Emmy dog-eared her textbook page and smiled up at Adriana. ‘My name is Emmy. I also go by The Last Remaining Virgin in the Class of 2000, in case you haven’t heard. It’s a pleasure to meet you.’
The girls had talked that night for three hours, and when they were finished, they had established a game plan for the next few weeks: Adriana would drop out of the sorority she had joined under duress (pressure from her mother), Leigh would withdraw her application to rush in the spring, and Emmy would lose her virginity the moment she met an appropriate candidate.
In the twelve years since that night, the girls had barely come up for air.
‘And I also happened to read on her Friendster page – using Duncan’s password, of course – that she dreams of having two boys and a girl and wants to be a young mom. Isn’t that just precious? It doesn’t seem that part bothered Duncan.’
Leigh and Adriana exchanged glances then looked at Emmy, who was completely absorbed in removing a cuticle in an apparent effort not to cry.
So there it was. The new girl’s age, her cheerleading, even her oh-so-adorable name might have been infuriating, but they weren’t intolerable; the fact that she, too, yearned to be a mom as soon as humanly possible was the real clincher. For as long as anyone could remember, Emmy had been very vocal about her desire to have children. Obsessed. She told anyone who would listen that she wanted a huge family, and she wanted it as soon as possible. Four, five, six kids – boys, girls, a bunch of each; it didn’t matter to Emmy, as long as it happened … soon. And while Duncan certainly knew better than anyone how badly Emmy wanted to be a mom, he had managed to wriggle free of any major discussions about the topic. The first two years of their relationship, Emmy had kept this particular desire to herself. After all, they were only twenty-five, and even she knew there was plenty of time. But as their years together started to cycle past at what felt like warp speed and Emmy grew more insistent, Duncan only got cagier. He would say things like ‘Statistically speaking, chances are I’ll have kids one day,’ and Emmy would ignore the lack of enthusiasm and his telling pronoun choice, focusing instead on the fact that Duncan had uttered those three magical words: I’ll have kids. It was because of those magical words that Emmy conceded Duncan his overnight ‘work’ absences and once – god knows why now – an inexplicable brush with chlamydia. After all, he had agreed to be the father of her future children.
Lauren Weisberger 5-Book Collection Page 82