Always he’d say, “I am sorry, Daisy. I am really, truly sorry.”
In all her dreams, Jake apologized. It totally wasn’t enough, but it was better than what she’d had.
Then he’d reach out and curl his fingers around hers, and his palm was warm and dry and he’d squeeze tight.
They wouldn’t kiss or anything.
He’d just feel bad and hold her hand.
“Lady,” said the Urban Lobster Shack guy, waking her up.
Daisy’s order was ready, and so she paid up at the takeout counter and took her lunch bag. She looked at her watch.
“Oh my God,” she said out loud. It was late, and it was time to get back to work.
She started to trot down Stone Street as fast as she could on those high heels, skittering along on the cobblestones, heading back to the office, her lunch bag flapping against her thigh.
I was a funny kid, she thought, as she ran.
I am still funny.
Acknowledgments
I am very grateful to Jennifer Barth for her precision and intelligence, to Kristyn Keene for her early and sustaining support, to Elissa Schappell for her sharp eye and Denise Bosco for her gentle lens, and also to Christopher Beha, Morgan Moss, Brian DeLeeuw, Steven Estok, Chin-Sun Lee, Kate Rogan Monahan, and Lila MacLellan. Deepest thanks also go to my patient husband and in-house editor, Bruce Handy, and from the bottom of my heart to Sloan Harris, my most cherished reader.
About the Author
HELEN SCHULMAN is the author of the novels A Day at the Beach, P.S., The Revisionist, and Out of Time, and the short story collection Not a Free Show. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Vanity Fair, Time, Vogue, GQ, the Paris Review, and the New York Times Book Review. She is an associate professor of writing at The New School in New York City, where she lives with her husband and two children.
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Also by Helen Schulman
A Day at the Beach
P.S.
The Revisionist
Out of Time
Not a Free Show
Wanting a Child (coedited with Jill Bialosky)
Credits
Cover design by Richard Ljoenes
Cover photograph © Dorling Kindersley/Getty
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THIS BEAUTIFUL LIFE. Copyright © 2011 by Helen Schulman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
ISBN: 978-0-06-202438-1
EPub Edition © AUGUST 2011 ISBN: 9780062024381
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Helen Schulman
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
This Beautiful Life Page 20