“I’ll bet he doesn’t even realize how much, poor kid,” Vince mutters.
The middle-aged hippie lady at the table next to ours keeps looking back at us, and I would not be at all surprised if she got up to burn sage all around us to raise our vibrations and clear the air. I would welcome that. Until then, I will have to do my part.
I pat Vince’s hand and smile at Sadie. “Brooks sounds interesting, how old is he?”
“He’s ten. He’s a great kid, actually, really smart. You want to see pictures?”
“Of course.” I bet he’s a South Side Soc.
“He’s a really handsome little devil.”
“Complicated boy, but very shrewd,” says Russell. “Sadie speaks highly of your little brother,” he offers to Vince.
“Good,” is his reply.
Sadie pulls out her phone and smiles innocently as she swipes through some photos. “His parents are super busy, but they’re all in Hawaii this week. Here, this is a great shot of him.” She turns her phone so I can see it, and slowly swipes once she’s thoroughly enjoyed seeing the look on my face as I get a glimpse of the picture of her and Vince kissing each other. That photo is replaced by one of a dark-haired boy who’s looking up at the camera like he’s mesmerized by the person taking the picture.
“He is handsome,” I manage to say, with barely any volume. “He looks like an old soul.” And a total Bob Sheldon from The Outsiders.
“That’s what I always say!” she exclaims, putting the phone away. “It’s too bad he didn’t get to be in your class.” She nudges Russell. “I bet he would have liked her, huh?”
“And vice versa,” he quips. “Nina always did have a soft spot for the bad boys. Tell me, Vince, which college did you go to?”
“Well, I used to tell people that I graduated from the College of Hard Knocks with a double major in Fuck You, if I got the sense they were being condescending. But since this is such a friendly double date…” He doesn’t say anything else, just finishes his glass of wine.
“Vince is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” I say, sounding just a tiny bit defensive.
Vince turns his head to me, grinning. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. You’ve got a sharp mind. Lightning fast, really.”
“Wow,” says Russell. “Sharp and lightning fast. That is impressive.”
“And it’s not even the most impressive thing about him,” I say, looking directly at Russell and Sadie.
Vince is quietly laughing and holding my hand, but it’s the second and third glasses of wine that get me through dinner.
After Sadie insists we all order dessert and coffee, she starts telling a seemingly innocuous story about Charlie that has Vince fuming. It seems to me that she is subtly egging him on, and they sound like a divorced couple with a child, and I just want to get the flork out of here.
“That’s not how it went down at all,” he says through clenched teeth.
“You aren’t actually suggesting that it’s my fault he broke the TV?”
“No, I just don’t think you handled it in the best way afterwards.”
“Well, you weren’t my employer, your dad was and he didn’t have any complaints.”
“No, he just got high blood pressure a few months after hiring you.”
“Oh. My. God. Vince. Can I talk to you in private?” She pushes her chair back.
“Nope.”
She looks directly at me.
I say in the gentlest most easy-going voice I can conjure up, “Go ahead. It’s fine.”
He searches my eyes, and comes to a decision. “Okay.” He nods towards the doors to the lobby. “We’ll be right over there. Be right back.” Vince kisses my cheek and slowly follows Sadie out of the restaurant, passing our confused busboy who is returning with our coffee.
Russell and I are silent and refrain from making eye contact until we are alone at the table.
“How are your parents?”
“They’re great.”
“Good.”
“They stopped by my apartment, actually, on their way to Florida. They met Vince. They loved him.”
“How nice.”
“How’s your early midlife crisis going?”
“It was going great until you showed up.”
“Oh really, that’s not what it looked or sounded like to me.”
“Looks and sounds can be deceiving.”
“Right, like when you look like a totally nice guy and I hear you say that you love me, but then you go and—”
“Nina, let’s not.”
“Fine with me.”
“We’re almost out of the woods here, let’s just let those two let off some steam and then we can all go back to our romantic weekends.”
“Fantastic idea.”
After a beat, he says, “Interesting that you and I had the same idea. For this resort.”
“Yeah. I’m glad we both ended up here with the right person.”
“You think so? Sadie has told me a few things about your gentleman friend. I hope you know who you’ve gotten yourself involved with.”
Do not let that get into your head. Do not let it get into your head. “Oh yes, I am in this with eyes wide open.”
“And legs too, apparently.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.”
“Ahhh, you swear now, what a charming surprise.”
“Sometimes. Just for the summer. I do a lot of things that feel good now, as I am quite certain you do too.”
“Well good for you, but I doubt your boy has told you everything about himself.”
“Did you know that people can have sex standing up against a wall?! And in the shower! And from behind?! And with the woman on top facing away from—”
“I don’t know if you think you’re being funny, but you are not.”
“I don’t know if you realize you don’t have a sense of humor, but you don’t.”
“Okay. I was hoping we could both be adults about this, but…”
If he wants to believe I’m the non-adult here, fine with me. I snort-laugh.
“Believe it or not, Nina, I do care about you. As a co-worker and as a friend.”
I can’t even snort-laugh at those words. He actually seems to believe them.
“I just don’t want to see you get hurt. This thing with this guy is just a rebound. It won’t end well.”
This is a summer of firsts. I’ve never been gobsmacked before. I’ve always loved that term, never felt it. I am, suddenly, completely smacked in the gob.
“Do you honestly not realize that you’re the bad guy in this scenario?”
He nods. “I’m fine with you thinking that.”
“Wow. Fantastic. Big of you.”
“The truth is, Nina, and I’m just going to say it now, since you wouldn’t hear it that day when you tossed my belongings out the window—you ended our relationship long before I did.”
“Uh huh. Remind me how I did that?”
I see his Adam’s apple bob up and down once. His voice is strained. He says, so quietly that my ears strain to hear him, even though I know exactly what he’s going to say before he says it: “You were never in love with me. You never really wanted to marry me. You just thought you should.” He doesn’t look at me. He doesn’t have to. He knows he’s right. He knows I know it’s true.
I feel the tip of my nose tingling and my eyes get watery. For the first time in ages, I remember why I had so much respect for Russell. He can read people. He knows how to treat children who are angry or sad or hurting, when to point things out, when to let them figure things out for themselves. I didn’t think he was very good at dealing with grown-ups. Until now.
“Um. Russell. I just hope you’re happy now. I really do. I don’t want things to be weird for us when school starts.”
“Same here.” He doesn’t say if he’s happy or not, and I really can’t tell either way. “But I’m not kidding about that guy. He’s got a lot going for him, obviously, but there’s some unreso
lved anger there and it’s as plain as the tattoos on his arm.”
I don’t disagree, but I have to say something. “I love the tattoos on his arm.”
“I’m sure.” He lifts his coffee cup to his lips and says, with a smirk: “I got a tattoo.”
“Shut up.”
“I did. Just a little one. I can’t show it to you, it’s in a private place, obviously.”
I have to ask. “What’s it of?”
“A line from an Amy Winehouse song.”
If I were drinking my coffee I would have done a spit-take. “It is not.”
“It is. Sadie got me into her. I can’t believe I never listened to her before. She moves me in ways that…I never expected.”
I don’t ask him if he means Amy Winehouse or Sadie. He seems just as mystified by everything that’s going on as I am right now, and all I can think about is whether or not Vince is in the lobby feeling moved in ways that I could never move him.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Vince
Okay, so this dinner hasn’t been as entertaining or satisfying as I thought it would be. All I can think about is how I’m going to have to do something pretty fucking awesome to make this up to Nina. Even as Sadie paces around in front of me here in this corner of the lobby, trying as always to make everything about her.
“Where the fuck do you get off being so rude to me, huh?”
“Keep it down, this is a nice place.”
“Really? You think I’m the one behaving inappropriately?”
“Yeah. I do.”
“Seriously—how the fuck did you end up with Russell’s ex? Do you even see how crazy that shit is?”
“I know it seems like a bad idea but I also know it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.”
“You’re talking about the world’s shortest list of good decisions.”
“Not denying that.”
“Okay but you have to at least tell me—who sought who out? Did she find you?”
“No.”
She nods. “That’s what I thought. A revenge fuck.”
“It is so much more than that and I think that’s obvious to you, or you wouldn’t be trying so hard to get to me.”
Her eyelids flutter and her posture changes, and I know she’s going to try to manipulate me and I’m so immune to this shit now it isn’t even funny.
“Vince, I really was hoping that we could all get along tonight. I wanna clear the air. Can’t we be friends?”
“No. We can’t.”
“Well, I want to see Charlie.”
“You can’t.”
“You can’t stop me.”
“Yes. I can.”
She crosses her arms at her chest. “So what do you think of Russ? You like him, don’t you?”
“I can see why you like him.”
“And I can see why you like her.”
“Fantastic. Are we done here?”
She ignores the question completely, slides her hands down her midriff and slips them into the front pockets of her shorts, hunching over a bit so I can see here cleavage. I know that move. I fell for that move over a year ago, it does nothing for me now. “So, he asked me to move in with him.”
“The principal?”
She nods. “Before the school year starts up again. I don’t know if I should. Everything’s happening so fast.”
“Sometimes good things happen fast.”
“So you think I should?”
“I think it makes no difference to me if you do or don’t, and you’ve got no business asking my opinion.”
“It’s just, you know. What if I give up my room at Darcy’s place to move in with him, and then he realizes this was just a rebound? I’ll never find as good a place with as cheap a rent as I have now.” She bites her lower lip, pretending to be confused. I almost hate her.
I think of Nina and take a deep breath. “Who knows what’ll happen. You either enjoy what you have right now or you don’t, I guess. Personally, I’m actually grateful that you ended up with Russell, or I probably never would have found Nina. So thanks.”
She looks at me, her lower lip quivering, and then her eyes harden. “Yeah, I feel the same way. If you hadn’t made it so unbearable for me to keep being Charlie’s nanny towards the end there, I wouldn’t have gotten my job now and I wouldn’t have met Russ. So thanks for being such a moody dick all the time.”
“My pleasure.” I grin. She smiles. It’s probably as close as we’re ever going to get to a truce. I start to turn to go back into the restaurant. “Just stay away from Charlie. I mean it.”
I gave our waiter my credit card to pay for the table before returning from the lobby, and managed to get through dessert without showing any hint of emotion towards Sadie, but she had to get in one last dig about how “fascinating” it is that Nina and I got together, and I slammed my water glass down on the table. It startled Nina, I saw how Russell gave her a look afterwards, and Sadie had this smug expression on her face. I had to get us out of there immediately.
Now we’re back in our room, and she’s barely said two words to me. The TV is on, probably more to block out any sounds that Sadie and Russell will make when they get back to their room, but also to give her something to look at other than me.
I feel sick.
“I shouldn’t have agreed to go to dinner with them,” I say.
She looks down at her hands. “I’m glad we did, to be honest.”
“You are?”
She nods. “Mostly. I had a pretty good little talk with Russell when you were in the lobby.”
I feel my ears getting warm. “Yeah?”
“Not a lot, I just…I think it’ll be okay for us to work together. I’m not mad at him anymore. I don’t think he’s mad at me.”
“That’s good. I’m glad. Can we turn off the TV?”
She picks up the remote and turns it off.
I sit on the sofa beside her and take her hands in mine. We both jump a little when we hear doors and drawers in the next room slamming shut.
“Uh oh,” she mumbles. “How’d your talk with Sadie go?”
“It was…mildly dysfunctional.”
“She’s very…shrewd.”
“If by that you mean ‘manipulative,’ then yes. She is.”
“I think Russell’s really taken with her.”
I exhale, slowly. “I do too. I’m so sorry I let her get to me like that. Slamming the glass down, and…”
“I saw what she was doing, I don’t blame you.”
“Still, I should have been able to control myself better.”
She gives me a quick glance, and I have no idea what it means.
I can hear Sadie yelling behind the wall, so clearly, “Oh my God just give me one minute!” I can’t imagine the principal’s still going to want her to move in with him now, but maybe he likes the drama. You never know how people are going to respond to each other. Maybe I wouldn’t have found Nina so appealing if I’d met her a couple of years ago, although that’s hard to imagine.
She’s watching the door to our room, as if she’s afraid one of them will knock on it. We hear Russell say “Just come on,” and then a few seconds later their door shuts and Sadie is stomping past our room.
“We’re leaving!” she yells out. “Enjoy the rest of your stay!”
Russell shushes her.
Nina’s holding her breath, until we hear their footsteps go all the way to the end of the hall. It’s quiet again.
“I actually feel bad for the guy.”
She nods. “I think I need to go to sleep,” she says, sounding genuinely apologetic. “Sorry. It’s just hitting me how tired I am.”
“It’s nine-thirty.”
“I know, I just…I haven’t gotten that much sleep since I met you.” She’s grinning. “I’m not complaining, believe me. I guess it’s just catching up with me. During the school year I’m in bed by ten, you know.”
Those words, “During the school year.” She might as well say: “W
hen you’re not a part of my life.”
She puts her hand on the side of my face and kisses me. “Do you mind?”
“Course not. I’ll read in bed beside you. If you don’t mind me keeping the lamp on.”
She smiles. “I don’t. I’d like that, actually.”
It’s the first time we’ve gone to bed without fucking first. Although, yes, we did it multiple times today already, but still. I’m all for domesticity, if that’s what this is a preview of, but something ain’t right.
When I wake up, Nina is standing at the window, looking out at the rain.
Perfect.
“Morning.”
She keeps looking out the window. “It’s raining,” she says, ominously.
“I’m sure it won’t last long.”
“My weather app disagrees with you.”
“Sounds like you should come back to bed.”
She half-smiles. “I was thinking we should get breakfast in the lobby while they’re still serving it.”
“Okay. I’ll get up. Can we bring it back here?”
“Probably. If that’s what you want.”
“Is that what you want?”
“I guess. Let’s see what it’s like when we’re down there.”
“Yeah. Let’s do that.”
Fuck me. It’s like we just fast-forwarded three years into the relationship. Not that I’d really know what that’s like. Right now I would do anything to take back everything that happened from the second Sadie invited us to dinner on. Except for the sex part.
We bring our breakfast back up to the room, and Nina has her Rainy Day playlist streaming on her Spotify app. I hate listening to music from a phone, but it’s so cute that she has playlists based on weather that I do not complain.
I stare at her as she eats her buttered toast, watching her lick her lips, and even though we’re at a resort in upstate New York this feels like home to me. I just don’t know how to say that to her without it sounding totally cornball gross.
She looks up and sees me staring at her. “What?” She wipes her lips with the back of her hand.
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