Blue Heaven (Blue Lake)

by Cynthia Harrison

  ****

  After a full day of landscaping with Luke, Eva was beat. All she wanted was a long soak in her tub and then lounge on the sofa with the remote until bedtime. But Jane had invited her for dinner, and she’d realized with surprise that it was the first time such an invitation had been issued. Jane always came to her. Or they went out. And she was curious about Jane’s house.

  She zipped into her best jeans and a beautiful silky black shirt with chiffon sleeves. It felt good to dress up a little bit after mucking about in the yard all day.

  She found Jane’s house easily enough, a brick ranch with a huge picture window sparkling in the lowering sun and a red front door. Jane came to the door, all smiles, waving Eva inside. Jane motioned toward her apron and flour-dusted hands. “No hugs, don’t want to ruin your pretty blouse!”

  Eva entered a large foyer area that flowed into the living room space with the big window. Before Eva got more than a glance at the shelter-magazine-perfect décor, Jane clicked across the wood floor, calling for Eva to follow. Since Jane was in heels and skinny red jeans, Eva was glad she’d made an effort beyond her basic wardrobe of jeans and tee.

  Jane washed her hands at the sink, untied her apron, and threw it into a room off the kitchen. Jane’s kitchen was a gourmet’s dream with shiny steel appliances, two ovens, granite countertops, and custom tile work. Two perfect baguettes next to an open bottle of white wine sat on the butcher block center island. “Just took the bread from the oven,” Jane said, pouring Eva a glass of wine and topping off her own glass. “Cheers.” Jane clinked her crystal against Eva’s. The ping hit a sweet high note.

  “To friends!” Eva added.

  “Okay. The coq au vin is warming in the oven, the salad is assembled in the fridge, as is the chocolate mousse I made earlier. French theme. Like Amelie’s.”

  “Sounds fab.” Eva took a sip of her wine. The dinner menu could not be a coincidence. Jane knew about her dinner date with Daniel. Eva took another, larger, sip of her wine, which went straight to her head because she’d skipped lunch and the only food in sight were the two cute loaves of bread. Not so much as a wedge of Brie or even a little tub of butter. Jane made no move to slice the perfectly shaped baguettes.

  “I had no idea you baked!” Eva’s eyes landed on a new-looking copy of The Art of French Cooking closed and propped up on an easel, like a piece of art.

  Jane followed Eva’s eyes and she giggled.

  “Yes. I’m a secret Julia Child clone. I’ve made every recipe in that book. Twice.”

  “Impressive!” Eva wanted to grab a loaf of bread and tear a chunk off and cram it in her mouth. She was that hungry. But something stopped her. Wouldn’t a real friend just come out with it and admit to being starved?

  Jane, despite her perfect hair and manicured nails, had obviously gone to a lot of trouble. Not one pan or whisk or bottle of olive oil in evidence. Everything spotless as a showplace. The round dining table at the other end of the room had been set with a Wedgewood china pattern that picked up the blue and yellow color palette of the room. Even the standing mixer was blue—the stainless steel mixing bowl buffed to a fine sheen and any utensils, like maybe a bread hook, had been tucked out of sight.

  “So what’s new, girlfriend?” Jane asked, wielding the wine bottle. Eva, astounded, peered into her empty glass.

  “Luke came by today and I helped him get the yard in shape.”

  “Isn’t he cute?”

  “Yes!” Eva, suddenly giddy and gabby, said “Daniel is so jealous!”

  “What? I thought you and Daniel were just friends?”

  “I know. We were. We’re progressing.”

  “How far?”

  Jane drained her wine glass, found the bottle empty and grabbed another from the fridge, which she uncorked with the expertise of a sommelier.

  “Just dinner.”

  “I thought I saw you two biking on Camella’s Curve yesterday.” Jane’s voice was pitched an octave higher than usual.

  “We did that too. But we’re taking things slow.”

  Jane had no comment. She turned from Eva to check the stew, took it out of the oven and marched the casserole dish over to the dinner table. Eva hopped up and brought over the bread, which had been resting on a smallish wooden cutting board. She noticed that the loaves had cooled completely. So what was the flour about when she first came to the door?

  “Oh, here, give me that.” Jane took the bread from Eva and put it back on the island. She pulled a serrated knife from a drawer and started attacking the bread.

  “What can I do to help?”

  Eva had a sinking feeling that Jane was more than a little drunk. And a bottle of red wine, French burgundy with lots of writing on the label, sat at the dining table, breathing. Fresh red wine glasses nestled next to water goblets.

  Eva needed to drive home. She’d already had a glass and a half on an empty stomach. Could she say she was allergic to red wine? Or maybe she’d just had her teeth bleached?

  “You can grab the salad out of the fridge,” Jane said. Oil and vinegar already sat on the table as well as salt, pepper, and butter.

  Eva went to the enormous fridge and opened the door on the right. No salad but an Amelie’s take-out box was shoved behind two pretty bowls of pudding.

  “Not that side!” Jane snapped, throwing hunks of bread into a plastic container and plopping it on the table, where it didn’t quite match up to the elegance of the still life.

  Eva opened the other door. A fridge with two doors! Oh, so the chest thing on the bottom was the freezer. Hmm. She pulled out the salad, took off the cling wrap, and joined Jane at the dinner table.

  “Well, it looks great.” Eva’s voice was never more sincere. “Thank you so much.” Eva reached for a chunk of bread while Jane filled their wine glasses maybe a third of the way up and proposed another toast.

  “To friends!” Jane declared, swirling her wine before tapping Eva’s glass.

  “Yes, to friends.” Eva took a polite sip while noting that the wine was excellent. Nevertheless, she set her glass down and went to work buttering her bread.

  She ate with the concentration of a dieter on a binge. “This is all so good. Wonderful.” She managed between ravenous bites of chicken and bread. She ignored her salad for now.

  “Thanks.” Jane was smiling and mellow but not eating much. Eva had so much dinner she wasn’t sure where she’d put the mousse.

  “We should have music!” Jane clicked a remote and music from high school days roared from discreet speakers somewhere else in the house. Jane turned the volume down a notch even as her head bopped in time to the chords.

  “I love this song!” Eva yelled over the music.

  “Me too!” Jane got up and began clearing, her plate still almost full. Eva stuffed a buttered bit of bread into her mouth and stood to help. Jane was simply throwing everything into the sink in a messy pile without rinsing off the dishes or taking care with her fine china.

  Eva turned on the faucet and started to rinse and stack but Jane turned it off and grabbed Eva’s wet hand. “Leave it! Let’s dance.”

  So Eva did. They had fun, just the two of them in Jane’s kitchen, rocking out to everything from high school. After an hour, they collapsed and guzzled water.

  “This was so great!” Eva said.

  “You’re my best friend!” Jane replied.

  “You’re my ONLY friend.” But Eva remembered Meg, who might someday become one.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The next morning, Eva’s bedroom door opened before she’d even gotten out of bed. She was awake. Barely. “Jane?”

  “Hi, Eva.” Jane sat at the foot of the bed in one of her designer work suits. “Sorry if I woke you.”

  Eva got up from bed, not caring that she was in slouchy yoga pants and a faded T-shirt. “No, that’s okay, thank you so much for last night!” She really wanted to pee and brush her teeth. “Be right back!” She fled into the bathroom. Jane was acting weird. L
ast night had been a mix of good and bad vibes. Jane had gotten super drunk and didn’t want Eva to leave.

  Eva finished in the bathroom, but Jane was still sitting on the bed. So Eva went in and sat next to her. “What’s wrong, Jane?”

  “Did we drink three bottles of wine last night? I can’t remember.” She picked at the cuticle of her thumb, not looking at Eva.

  Eva patted her shoulder. Jane looked at her. “You don’t remember?”

  “No, but I feel really hung over and, and ashamed. I must have blacked out.”

  “We did drink quite a bit. But I felt fine to drive home.”

  “Do you know how much you had?”

  Eva thought. “Two white and one red. Then water and coffee for like, the last two hours.” She didn’t say that she never finished her second glass of white or that she left most of the red in her glass.

  “That’s not even a bottle!” Jane dismissed Eva’s alcohol consumption like it was nothing. And really, when you’ve gotta drive home, that’s the way it is. “What did I do? Did I say anything mean?”

  “No! Of course not. We ate, and danced, and laughed our asses off.”

  “Whew.” Jane visibly exhaled. “That’s never happened to me before—where I just forget everything!”

  Eva gave Jane a one-armed hug. Jane was a lush. Eva had kind of knew it all along.

  “I was nervous, I guess. I never have people over.”

  Jane didn’t have people over and she didn’t go out with the old high school gang to Eddie’s on Friday nights. Eva wondered why but she didn’t want to be intrusive or bring up old wounds.

  “Did you take any medicine yesterday?”

  “How did you—my meds—let’s see—God. I had a Sudafed. I get wicked hay fever every spring.”

  “There you go. Never mix pills and booze. According to Dr. Oz.”

  “Oh.” Jane’s face lightened. “And you’re sure I wasn’t rude about Daniel or anything?”

  “No. We discussed our date at Amelia’s. I told you we are taking things slow.”

  “Yeah, Amelia’s. My dad eats there.” Then her mouth turned up in a sly grin. “So no sex yet? Am I right?”

  Eva shook her head no. She didn’t tell Jane that it wasn’t for lack of trying.

  ****

  Daniel walked right in when he saw Eva ironing in the office. She had a stack of what looked like fifty pillowcases on the registration counter and was misting the one on the board with something flowery smelling. A few ironed pieces were draped over a chair.

  “Hey, babe.” He came over and she lifted her mouth to his, which he took as a good sign. He was determined not to ask her how things had gone at Jane’s last night.

  “So it’s pillow day, huh?”

  “Yep.”

  Lily came in from the open door to the private quarters, snagged an ironed pillowcase and shoved a new pillow into it, grunting and moving back into the kitchen where a dozen covered pillows, he now noticed, were stacked on the kitchen table.

  “We’re a little ahead of Bob with the bed situation. Not a problem. Just, things are happening fast! I feel bad for taking time off.”

  Daniel hoped she didn’t mean taking time off to be with him. Although that’s probably what she meant. He didn’t ask.

  “Where’s the list?”

  She’d been keeping one, an actual printed out list, with lots of slashes for tasks completed.

  “Next to the computer.”

  He went over to check it. “I can get my stuff done before opening and help. Also, we can call others to help with the domestic end of things if you need them. But really it looks like you’ve got time.”

  “Well,” she said, “I can iron and talk at the same time. If you’re not worried about the airplane.”

  He got a kick out of her saying “airplane” all the time. He got a kick out of almost everything she said, everything she did, these days.

  “Yard looks great.”

  “Yeah—” She seemed like she wanted to say more, but then she didn’t.

  “Well, I can see you’re busy…”

  “Not in any way that would hinder conversation, unless you have stuff to do.”

  “I have stuff to do.” He started up the stairs, then stopped. “How did it go at Jane’s last night?”

  Eva looked back toward where Lily was stuffing pillowcases and arranged her face into a funny expression, then mouthed something that looked like “later,” but he wasn’t sure.

  “Good,” she said.

  He went up to finish his room. Well, it was her room, but he thought of it as his room. As usual he got lost in work, sanding the mantel, giving the window frames another coat of clear varnish.

  Eva pounded up the stairs.

  “Done with the pillow cases already?”

  “It took three hours!”

  “Oh.” Time when by like that when he worked here. Not so at the bank. “So was there something you wanted to tell me about Jane?” He didn’t want to ask the question because things were so complicated, but he was curious.

  She seemed reluctant to talk. “Looking good,” she said, walking around and checking things out but not touching.

  “Where’s Lily?”

  “I think she and Bob went to the beach. You’re right. We’ve got time. I’m just stressing for no reason. We’ll be fine.”

  If she didn’t mention Jane, he wouldn’t either.

  “Can I ask…is Jane…does Jane…well, does she have a drinking problem?”

  Shit. “Like how bad a problem? Define it a bit more. How much wine? One glass? Two? That’s not a problem, right? That’s all I’ve seen her drink recently.”

  “She pretty much killed three bottles last night. And she came over today to apologize and said she blacked out and couldn’t remember anything that happened. We had fun. It makes me sad she doesn’t remember it. She said it was just a one time thing, that she doesn’t have company very often and she was nervous. I think she bought the food, too, but she pretended she’d cooked an elaborate meal.”

  Double triple shit. He stopped working, put his brush down carefully on top of the varnish can, and got up to stretch. He pulled Eva into his arms. “Jane has had her share of problems in the past. Let’s just hope they stay there.”

  “Like what?” She pulled away to glue her eyes on him.

  “What?” He knew he was stalling, but it was better this way. He glanced away from her stare. “Nothing. Stupid high school stuff.”

  Eva’s face relaxed and she put her head on his shoulder. Let him hold her. They had a lot to accomplish today so he knew this was a short respite, but it was oh so sweet. And Jane. Well, he was going to forget all about Jane and her problems. She wasn’t his problem anymore.

  “You need to expand your circle of friends.”

  He felt her nod her head against his chest. “I like Meg.”

  “And you’ll like the others too.”

  “They all have families. Husbands and kids.”

  Daniel felt himself tense up and made an effort to relax. “Not everyone. And who says you can’t be friends with married people?”

  “It’s like being friends with a millionaire. Really hard.”

  He was a millionaire. He’d never mentioned it. There were tons of millionaires. It was the billionaires who had cachet now. Millionaires? Dime a dozen.

  “I love new babies. If I become friends with Meg, who I like so much, I would be holding her new baby. And then I’d want one for myself.”

  “What, no daddy?” He tried to tease her out of her mood.

  “Yes.” She pulled away and socked him on the arm.

  “Honey, Meg and Steve met in elementary school. They went steady starting in sixth grade. They never broke up once.”

  She let out a big sigh. “I know. You’re right. I just feel like I wasted my twenties on Marcus.”

  “But that was good, because now you have me.”

  She smiled a sad smile. “Yes. Now I have you.”


  “All finished with your ironing?”

  “All done. There are pillows everywhere.”

  He decided just like that. He was done for the day, too. The sun was going down. The light wasn’t right. And he had her here now. All her attention focused on him. It felt good.

  “Got any plans for tonight?”

  “No. You?”

  “Well—I was hoping to spend it with you.” He was hoping for a whole lot more, but tonight was not about that. Tonight should be him showing her how much he cared. Trouble was, he couldn’t think of a date type thing they had not already done. Dinner, movies, bike ride, picnic, another dinner. There had to be something special.

  Then he thought of it. “I’m not sure this will work. The wind has kicked up a bit. He looked at the sky. No clouds. That was good. The tide churned as dusk settled in.

  Sounds from television and teenagers floated up the steps. He could take her to his house instead of the other thing, but the last time she was there they’d been in bed within ten minutes. She’d asked him to take things slow. He wanted to honor that promise, no matter how difficult it was to keep.

  ****

  Daniel was being very secretive. Still, Eva wanted Lily to know they were going out. “We’ll be back in an hour or so. I have my cell if you need me.”

  “Yes, mom,” Lily teased.

  Daniel not telling her where they were going, even once they were in his car and on the way down the road, didn’t bother her. Wherever he was, that’s where she wanted to be. They drove out of town, past the high school. He turned down an unpaved road, wooded on both sides of the path. Branches hit the windshield but Daniel kept driving, slowly now on the narrow path. Dusk drew in and darkness settled. The trees looked black.

  Daniel stopped when they came to a clearing with an old barn on one side, practically falling apart. The roof had peeled off. In the glare of the car’s headlights, she saw how it hung down on one side of the building, like a giant head of unruly hair.

  Daniel cut the lights and grabbed a flashlight from his glove box. They got out, and guided by the flashlight, she followed him around the car. He opened the trunk and handed her a blanket.

  He turned the light toward the path and when she didn’t move he said, “Come on!” He took her hand and they walked up to the barn by the light of the beam. When she stopped in front of the decrepit building, he tugged her hand. “Let’s go.”