“What are you, the dating police?” Kate said.
“You’re right. It’s not my business.”
Griff was none of her business. Lucas, on the other hand—
Kate grabbed a pack of Marlboro Lights from her desk, and looked at it, hesitating. “Hmm, should I smoke a cig if we didn’t bang? Oh, what the hell. Want one?”
Jenny had never smoked in her life. But she needed a distraction to help her deal with the bombshell, so she took a cigarette, and accepted Kate’s light. When she inhaled, she willed herself not to cough, so Kate wouldn’t notice that it was her first time and rib her about it. Though Kate was so obtuse when it came to other people’s feelings that Jenny probably didn’t need to worry.
Not this time, however.
“So were you close with Luke in high school?” Kate began.
“Forget Lucas, we need to talk about Aubrey,” Jenny blurted. “It’s really important. I’m worried about her.”
“About how skinny she’s getting?” Kate said, falling for Jenny’s change of subject.
“You noticed.”
“How could I not? I’ve been worrying about her, too. Do you think she’s anorexic?”
“Maybe. Or maybe just depressed. She has problems at home.”
“Poor thing. Money troubles?”
The cigarette made Jenny’s head hurt, so she stubbed it out in the Carlisle mug that Kate used as an ashtray, and proceeded to explain the situation with Aubrey’s mom.
“She never told me any of that,” Kate said, which gave Jenny some satisfaction.
“She’s worried you won’t like her if you know she’s poor,” Jenny said.
“You can’t really think I’m that shallow. Besides, obviously I know she’s poor. Look at how she dresses. The same four skanky T-shirts in endless rotation.”
“The thing is, she confides in me, and yet she doesn’t always take my advice. I was thinking we should join forces. You know, sit her down and have a heart-to-heart. Sort of like an intervention. She would listen to you.”
“I have a better idea,” Kate said.
It annoyed Jenny that Kate dismissed her proposal so glibly. Just then, the front door opened, and they heard Aubrey bustling around in the living room.
“In here, Aubrey!” Kate called.
Aubrey walked in, bringing a scent of fresh, cold air. Snowflakes melted in her hair and on her eyelashes.
“It’s snowing!” she announced, scooping snow off her thrift-store peacoat and holding her wet fingers out for them to inspect. “Isn’t it wonderful? I’ve never seen snow before.”
“How fabulous,” Jenny said indulgently.
Kate dragged on her cigarette. “Enjoy it tonight, because tomorrow it’ll be covered in dog pee.”
Jenny took a deep breath, thinking about how best to broach this difficult subject with Aubrey.
“Guess what?” Kate said, before Jenny could get a word out.
“What?”
“Jenny and I were just saying how you seem a little blue lately, like maybe you could use a pick-me-up. So both of you are going to come to New York with me over Thanksgiving break!”
Jenny opened her mouth to protest. Aubrey was coming home with her for Thanksgiving. Her mom had already made up the guest room and planned the menu.
“Oh my God, really?” Aubrey shrieked, jumping up and down and throwing her arms around Kate. “That is the best thing I have ever heard! I’m so happy.”
When Kate met Jenny’s eyes over Aubrey’s shoulder, Jenny could’ve sworn she saw a look of triumph there.
5
Jenny fell asleep on the train to New York and dreamed of Lucas. Nothing surreal, just an incredibly vivid experience of being with him, complete with sounds and smells and tastes. It was the worst type of dream she could have had at that moment. The two of them were alone together in the yearbook office late at night, talking and making out. The yearbook office was the one place they could spend time together without raising eyebrows. He was a jock and she was a brain, and in their school, those cliques didn’t mix, so they were keeping their relationship on the down low for the time being. And that’s where it stayed: they never ended up going public. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears, was Lucas really her boyfriend?
In the dream, she asked to see the photographs he’d taken that day, and he showed her one of them kissing. (This couldn’t happen in real life. No photograph existed of them kissing, which made her sad to think about.) Jenny laughed and looked up into Lucas’s eyes. You would call his eyes brown like hers, yet the word hardly captured them. They had flecks of gold and hazel that sparkled in the light. In the dream, Lucas wore his old blue Cape Cod T-shirt. She put her hands on his shoulders, feeling the hard muscles underneath the soft fabric, and moved her hands down to caress his bare arms. His skin was smooth and velvety. He took her hands, turning them over and kissing the underside of her wrists, then kissing her palms, and her heart went crazy. She felt the familiar heat in the pit of her stomach as he leaned in to kiss her. And then his kiss—soft and slow, his tongue exploring her mouth, yet hard at the same time, his chin bristly, his mouth aggressive.
The train jerked, and Jenny woke to the awful knowledge that it was only a dream. They weren’t together anymore. Officially, they never had been. She had tried to banish him from her thoughts, but since she’d seen him in Kate’s bed, he’d come back with a vengeance. When she looked out the window, the world seemed ugly. New England in November, viewed from the train tracks in the waning light, was a wasteland of sagging clapboard houses coated in a dirty snow that looked like ash. Some of the houses were three-families like the one her family lived in in Belle River, though her parents’ house was in much better condition—perfectly kept, in fact. Her parents lived on the top floor, where Jenny’s bedroom always awaited her return. Her older brother, Chris, occupied the apartment on the second floor. He’d come back from the army not quite the same, and her parents treated him like a conquering hero even though he’d never seen combat. Jenny suspected a substance abuse problem, but her snooping around his apartment had turned up nothing, so maybe she was wrong about that. Chris played video games and worked at the store, where he handled deliveries and moved boxes. The idea that Chris had the chops to take over the business someday was a fantasy, but it wasn’t her problem, so long as her parents didn’t start looking to her. She planned to get out of Dodge the second she had a diploma in her hand. She’d told them so, many times. Her mother kept saying that Jenny would change her mind. The first-floor apartment, currently rented out, had Jenny’s name on it as far as her mother was concerned, no matter how often or how loudly she said she didn’t want it. That reckoning could wait, however. At present Jenny was busy dealing with the fallout of abandoning her family to go to New York for Thanksgiving. Her mother actually cried when Jenny told her about the change of plans over the phone. Jenny had to make a special trip home before departing, where she sat at the kitchen table for half an hour explaining Aubrey’s problems in gory detail, and how going to New York would cheer her up, before her mother grudgingly consented.
“Oh, you’re awake,” Aubrey said.
Jenny looked around. “Where’s Kate?”
“She saw some girls from Omega Chi, and they said for her to go up to first class and sit with them. They want her to rush in the spring.”
“Can you do that? Sit in first class if you didn’t pay for it?”
Aubrey shrugged and smiled, as if to say, Kate can.
“Isn’t it great?” Aubrey said, gesturing at the cold scene outside the window.
You’re delusional, Jenny thought, but she said nothing, pulling her psychology textbook out of her backpack and pretending to do homework so Aubrey would leave her alone.
On its final approach to Penn Station, the train entered a pitch-dark tunnel and began to buck and wheeze, like it was having second thoughts about the trip to the city. Aubrey looked at Jenny wide-eyed.
“Is this normal?�
�� she asked.
“Yeah, it’s fine. Don’t worry,” Jenny said, trying to sound jaded.
Jenny had been to New York City several times at Christmas, to see the Radio City Christmas show with her mom, and she felt like an old pro, like the place belonged to her as much as it did to Kate. Her confidence was put to the test as the train pulled into the station, and Kate was nowhere to be seen. It would be just like Kate to forget all about them. What would they do if they lost track of her? Jenny hadn’t brought along Kate’s address or home phone number, since they expected to sit with her on the train. She thought she remembered Eightieth and Park, but was that enough information for them to find their way?
People began collecting their belongings from the overhead rack.
“Hurry up, get your things,” she said to Aubrey. “We need to find Kate.”
Out on the platform, that old New York City subway smell hit Jenny in the face, and she felt excited about the trip for the first time. She could handle Manhattan. The place was a grid. If you could count, you could navigate. She imagined living here—less than four years from now—going to work in a shiny office tower, in a suit and heels, carrying a briefcase.
They spotted Kate’s bright hair in the distance, heading up the escalator, and hurried to catch up with her. Outside in the cold, Kate beckoned to them from the open door of a yellow cab. The driver popped the trunk. They heaved their luggage in and piled into the backseat of the taxi laughing breathlessly. On the ride uptown, Jenny craned her neck and drank in the tall buildings. She really should put Lucas—and Kate in bed with Lucas—out of her mind, and enjoy this trip, or she’d be wasting an opportunity, and Jenny hated waste. On Park Avenue, Christmas trees lined the medians. Their white lights twinkled against the blue of the evening sky, making her happy, until Kate killed the mood by warning them about what to expect.
“Beware the stepmonster,” she said.
Kate’s mother had died of cancer when she was ten, and she was on her second stepmother.
“Victoria hates me. She’ll be all sorts of nasty when she sees you because she’ll hate you by association. Ignore her. Dad will run interference, since you’re from Carlisle, and anything Carlisle is cool with him.”
“Wait a minute. They know we’re coming, right?” Jenny said.
Kate waved her hand airily, and Jenny’s stomach fell.
“Relax. It’s fine,” Kate said.
The cab came to a stop in front of a stately brick building. A uniformed doorman rushed over and open the door. He was jolly, with a silver mustache and a big smile, and wore a jaunty cap with earflaps.
“Welcome home, Katie,” the doorman said, in a nasal New York accent, then knocked on the driver’s window. “Open the trunk, my friend.”
“Hey,” Kate said, waving at the doorman perfunctorily as she jumped out and hurried into the lobby.
The sidewalk was wide here, and spanking clean. Well-dressed people glided by in both directions, some in furs, others walking fussy little dogs. Jenny stepped hesitantly from the cab. Kate was inside already, and the doorman was pulling bags from the trunk of the taxi and loading them onto a shiny brass luggage cart. Apparently their bags would be taken care of, but what about the cab fare? Jenny reached for her wallet, trying not to feel resentful. She was getting free lodging in New York, after all, and she knew Aubrey couldn’t afford to cover the meter. Hopefully they wouldn’t be taking too many cabs, or she’d end up with no money to buy Christmas presents this year.
The lobby sparkled in the light of a tall Christmas tree and an enormous crystal chandelier. Kate stood inside the open elevator, practically bristling with anxiety and impatience. It had never occurred to Jenny before that Kate might be nervous to come home.
“Let’s go,” Kate said.
“Our bags,” Jenny said.
“Gus’ll bring ’em up in the service elevator.”
A second doorman lurked in the corner of the elevator, operating the old-fashioned controls. He slid the door closed noisily with a brass handle, and they started to climb. The elevator was dark and smelled of lemon furniture polish. A moment later, it deposited them directly into the Eastman apartment. The girls stepped into a grand entry gallery with a black-and-white checkerboard marble floor. There was no obvious place to put their boots and coats, only a carved table with a claw-foot base that held a tall vase of lilies, and impressive oil paintings on the walls. Three towheaded boys, who all looked to be under the age of eight, came running into the foyer, shouting Kate’s name.
“My favorite monsters!” she cried, patting them like puppies as they hugged her legs. Over their heads, she rolled her eyes at Jenny and Aubrey. “Every time Victoria pops out a little Eastman, my inheritance shrinks. Plus there’s my stepsister Louise. She’s not here, she lives in Switzerland with her mother. They spend money like it’s water.”
Money must be the source of the conflict, then. Certainly when Victoria came out to greet them a moment later, she didn’t seem remotely like a monster. To the contrary, she was young and pretty, with expensively highlighted hair, and did her best to be gracious in receiving her stepdaughter’s unexpected guests.
“A crowd at Thanksgiving, how jolly,” she said, smiling tightly. “Plenty of food, and we’ll make room at the table. I’ll have Gus bring up some caterer’s chairs from the storage room.”
Kate hugged her stepmother hello and they exchanged pleasantries. Every word out of Kate’s mouth dripped with contempt, no matter how innocuous the literal meaning. Comments as seemingly agreeable as “Don’t you look fab” and “What gorgeous earrings. Are they new?” carried a poisonous undertone that was as apparent to Jenny as it surely was to Victoria.
Victoria showed them to a hall closet where they could stow their things, and said she would get to work finding sleeping bags for the floor of the library.
“You can duke it out for the couch,” Victoria added.
“Can’t we sleep in the maid’s room so we can have some privacy? Rosalba’s off for the holiday, isn’t she?” Kate whined.
“She’d kill me if she found out. I don’t need her moping over it,” Victoria said, and strode off.
“See? She cares more about her housekeeper than she does about me,” Kate said, loudly enough that Victoria surely heard.
Kate led them to the library, which was basically a large, lavishly appointed, misnamed den. The walnut shelves held no books, but were filled instead with expensive-looking knickknacks and silver-framed photographs of the little stepmonsters. Kate dumped her bag on the floor, and only then did Jenny realize that it wouldn’t be just her and Aubrey camping on the gorgeous leather sofa. Kate didn’t have her own bedroom in her father’s apartment. This was Kate’s only home away from Carlisle, and it didn’t belong to her.
“Come on, this is better than the digs I usually rate,” Kate said, seeing Jenny’s dismayed expression.
“It’s fine. I didn’t say a word,” Jenny said. “What do you usually rate?”
“Normally I sleep on a cot in the monsters’ room so I’m not in Victoria’s way. I got upgraded to the library because of you two, I guess. The room doesn’t matter. We’ll only be here to sleep,” Kate said.
Kate set about making good on that promise. They changed out of their travel clothes and did their makeup in the hall bathroom, then hailed another cab. When they reached their destination, Jenny was careful to hop out first, and Kate opened her wallet without batting an eye. They cut a long line, and a bouncer looked them up and down and nodded, removing the velvet rope to let them into the nightclub of the moment, not bothering to check their IDs.
“Your new hair got us in!” Kate shouted to Aubrey over the din as they entered the dark club. Jenny thought that was generous. Kate got them in—something in her looks, her outfit, her attitude. Anybody who believed otherwise wasn’t paying attention.
“Blondes have more fun,” Aubrey said, smiling broadly.
They threaded through the packed crowd, looking
for the friends Kate had arranged to meet up with. Music pulsated. Young, fabulous-looking people, dressed in the hottest fashions, danced and swayed and made out under flashing colored lights. Everywhere she looked, Jenny saw waiters carrying trays weighed down with lavish cocktails and oversize bottles of champagne.
“How much do the drinks cost?” Jenny worried aloud, but neither of them heard her.
Kate’s friends were already ensconced in a large elevated booth overlooking the dance floor. Kate’s on-again-off-again boyfriend Griff Rothenberg sat next to a glamorous brunette, who leaned toward him and giggled suggestively while he ignored her, his eyes searching the dance floor restlessly. He spotted Kate, and his face lit up with wild desperation.
As the girls mounted the steps to the booth, a security guard stepped in front of them.
Griff sprang to his feet. “She’s with us,” he said.
The guard turned. “Which one?” he asked.
“Oh. All of them,” Griff replied, and Jenny realized he hadn’t even noticed her, or Aubrey either, so preoccupied was he with Kate.
Griff sat down and slid over to make room, and the three girls crammed into the booth, thigh-to-thigh. Kate’s friends were the most uniformly beautiful people Jenny had ever seen, from Griff with his fine profile and head of sun-streaked hair, to the glamorous brunette, to a waif with mile-long eyelashes who looked like Edie Sedgwick and turned out to be the daughter of a famous billionaire. (The bodyguard who’d stopped them belonged to her.) Jenny recognized a few people from Carlisle, from the frat parties Kate took them to, but most were strangers—Kate’s friends from Odell, or kids from her set who went to other schools but hung out whenever they were back in New York at the same time. Every single one of them was thrilled to see Kate, and completely uninterested in Aubrey and Jenny after saying a cold hello when Kate introduced them. Jenny wondered why she was there, and thought about leaving. The music was too loud, plus she was worried they’d get arrested for underage drinking, which would put her scholarship money at risk. She tapped Kate on the shoulder and said she might leave. Kate snorted and handed her a Cosmopolitan—the first of many—which was tart and delicious and extremely strong, then shouted, “Lighten up and come dance!” She pulled Jenny down the steps into the middle of a gyrating mob. Disco lights flickered over them, and the bass line of the music throbbed deep in Jenny’s head. Kate twirled and flipped her hair wildly, then did an Egyptian dance that made Jenny laugh.
It's Always the Husband Page 4