by DW Cee
“She knows...” Laney laughed again. “I let my parents know about a month ago that I was leaving the day I graduated, but I think Mom believed that if she planned this party, I’d postpone my trip.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Can we go up to Grandfather’s office and I’ll explain it to the both of you? I don’t have too much time.”
I followed her up to Gimpy’s office and was at a loss for words. I suppose I’d miss her, but in reality, we hadn’t been too close in years past. Laney was never my cup of tea. It’s not that we had a bad relationship...we just had no relationship. Somewhere along the way, life got busy, we ran in different circles, and her “stop and smell the roses” style of living wasn’t the way I looked at life. Perhaps in my narrow-mindedness, Laney wasn’t goal-oriented enough, empowered as a woman enough, or life-experienced enough. Who the hell dated, but never relationshipped??? She was like an endangered species to me where everyone made such a big deal about her, she never had to do any of the work herself. Was I wrong in this assessment? After knowing her for 22 years, I didn’t think so!
“Hi Grandfather,” Laney beamed. “Gram called you, already?”
“Delaney Reid,” Gimpy said with much disapproval. “You did this purposely, didn’t you? I told you I’d get the plane ready to take you to London.”
She went over and held Gimpy’s hands in her hands. “I know, Grandfather. You and Gram are too generous to me. I’m grateful that I have a place to live in London.”
“That place belongs to your grandmother, and it’ll eventually belong to your family. You’re not staying anywhere you shouldn’t be staying.” Gimpy took a few steps back and sat on the edge of his desk with Laney’s hands still in his. Neither person noticed that I was still in the room. Hello?!? “Your father was damn proud of your accomplishments today. He said no one knew about it till the ceremony. How can this be?”
What accomplishments?
“It wasn’t a big deal, Grandfather.”
“Not a big deal? Your gram tells me that you’re the only one in the family to graduate summa cum laude. None of your cousins, nor your aunts and uncles have reached this honor.”
Summa cum laude??? How the hell did she do that?
“I thought you were an English major, but your dad tells me that you graduated with a double major in chemistry and English?”
Laney laughed. “A chem major who struggled in statistics, Grandfather. My parents hoped that one of us would become a doctor, but neither fulfilled this dream. I thought maybe being a science major might be close enough.”
“So are you really going to film school after taking this year off, or...”
...Or what???
“I don’t know, Grandfather. I have a year to decide. For now, I’d like to go to film school, but I’ll explore my options when I have time to think.”
Damn it! Stop being so cryptic!
“Let me walk you out, Laney. I know you’ve a plane to catch.”
“Thank you.”
Still, no one acknowledged me, so I trailed behind the two who walked hand in hand towards the elevator. Gimpy slowed his steps as we got near the all glass conference room. I peeked in and saw Donovan with his M&A team working on their latest merger or acquisition. Laney slowed her steps to the same beat as Gimpy’s and turned her head to look in the room. Donovan stared at the three of us wondering, but didn’t move from his chair. Like an old-fashioned movie reel, Laney delicately and beautifully waved goodbye. Bemusedly, Donovan waved back, and then gave me a what the hell is going on look. I could not tell you why, but this scene broke my heart and made me want to take out my nonexistent hanky. Her goodbye was straight from a scene where the heroine leaves her lover for reasons unknown to him, never to come back and reunite their love.
“You sure you want to leave?” Gimpy asked with a knowing look that had me wondering what the hell everyone but me knew.
“Yes, Grandfather. I wish you and Gram good health. I’ll miss you, but I’ll keep in touch.” She kissed his cheek. “I promise.” She then hugged him one last time.
At this point, I saw movement from Donovan’s side of the conference room and Laney sensed the same. She barely blurted out a goodbye to me and left.
“What just happened?” I asked Gimpy.
“Hey.” Donovan greeted me. “Where’d Delaney go?”
“She left.”
“I can see she left, Jane.” Snarkiness didn’t suit this man in the sharp Don Draper Mad Men-esque two-buttoned suit. “Where did she go?”
“To London.”
Donovan gave me a do I look stupid to you look and I gave him back a yeah, you look like an idiot right now look.
“Lunch?” Gimpy broke up our stare down.
Donovan was pissed at me throughout lunch because Laney didn’t say her farewells to him. “Like it was my fault that Laney didn’t find you important enough for much more than a wave,” was not the right thing to say to him. He left lunch all gruff and boorish. I stayed the hell away from him the rest of the day.
Unfortunately, Gimpy invited Donovan to catch a ride with us to the BBQ, so my respite from the Grump didn’t last long. While Donovan went straight to Laney’s, I stopped by home, changed and took my time walking to Aunt Babs’. The atmosphere I discovered at the BBQ was more of a funeral than a celebration. Both Uncle Henry and Aunt Babs didn’t break a smile, and everyone ate without making a sound. The only noisy ones were the twins who were slurping, chomping, and dropping their food without a care.
“Hello James! Hi Ellie!” I went over and patted their heads. They were way too messy to kiss anywhere on the face.
They waved their barbeque sauce-laden hands and smiled.
“Hey, Babe.” Max came from nowhere and kissed me right where I like to be kissed—behind the ear, top of the neck. But then again, there aren’t too many places I don’t like, when his lips choose to meander.
“Where’d you come from?”
“I got here a while ago. I went back in the house to bring out more salad for the picnic table. Your aunt is not quite in the entertaining mood.”
“Can you blame her? I can’t believe Laney left so suddenly. That girl can be so flippant.”
“I think she’s been planning this for a while. She didn’t want her family making a big deal out of her leaving so she thought it best to go quietly.”
“But what about her parents?”
“Her parents would have been just as sad no matter when she left.”
“But her mom threw her a party and she’s not even here. What kind of person does that?” I was trying to prove my point that Laney was an irresponsible brat, but my boyfriend wasn’t helping my cause.
“Your aunt knew Laney was planning on leaving today, but chose to throw this party in order to thwart her plans. The tickets were purchased; the arrangements were made. There was no changing her plans without penalties.”
“Uncle Henry would’ve gladly paid the penalties to have her here another day.”
“Jane,” Max admonished in that warning tone I disliked. “That’s not the point. Laney’s a grown adult. It wasn’t like she didn’t give everyone plenty of notice about her plans. Apparently, Roland was going to give her his Net Jet time, Gram and your aunt were going with her to help her get settled in the flat, and she didn’t want to put anyone through the trouble, nor did she want the fuss. What makes you so pissy whenever Laney’s name is mentioned? I don’t get that about you.”
“And why are you always her #1 cheerleader?”
“Seriously? Cheerleader?” He grinned and kissed me on the neck again, though this time it was a little more of an Edward Cullen-type of kiss. You know, the wet and sucking kind???
I giggled, but tried to stay upset with him. “I didn’t appreciate you spending the night with her the other weekend when we babysat.”
“Whaaaat? I did not spend the night with Laney!” Max protested. “I stayed like an extra fifteen minutes until Donovan showed
up, then I came and spent the night with you.” Normally, the sexual double entendre would’ve done something for me, but I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard.
“Whaaat? You mean Donovan spent the night with her?”
“I don’t think they spent the night together. They were just in the same house.” Max gave me the answer I wanted to hear. “But then again, who knows? Why don’t you ask him?”
“Hey, Donovan,” I got up from the table and was going to confront him about sleeping with my cousin. But Max wouldn’t let me, and Donovan wasn’t paying any attention to me, so I assumed all was innocent and copacetic that night.
“So explain! Why do you like her so much?”
“What’s there not to like? She’s sweet, she’s your cousin, and Josh is crazy about her. She’s the little sister I would have loved to have and protect. Growing up with two younger brothers, I always wished we had a girl in the house. Mom wasn’t exactly girly.”
All right. I think that answer was good enough. “You pass.” I answered with the same kinda kiss on his neck. I would be the Bella to his Edward.
“Uncle Henry,” Nick called out in the middle of dinner. “I heard a strange rumor at school today. Care to confirm or deny?”
Finally, both Uncle Henry and Aunt Babs broke into the hugest smile.
“If you are referring to my daughter graduating summa cum laude—an accomplishment no other Reid can claim—PLUS the fact that she deferred her med school acceptance, yes I can confirm that rumor as fact.”
There was a shocked silence reverberating from table to table.
“I thought she was going to film school.” Nick voiced the same thought in all our heads.
“She still may...” Emily added to this conversation.
“What does that mean? How can she go to both schools? And both schools are so different.” I commented.
“Just goes to show you what a genius my daughter is.” My uncle’s peacock feathers waved at all of us as he strutted over to the bar.
Doug laughed at his dad. “Yeah. She was such a genius that none of us knew any of this till today.”
“Can you believe,” Aunt Babs started a small tirade, “that she even fooled her own mother and father? We had no idea she was a double chem and English major, we had no idea she was doing so well in school, and we had absolutely no idea that she applied to med school! What kind of child did we raise? She told us nothing!” Laney’s mother was upset, but proud.
“We raised a summa cum laude genius is who we raised.” Uncle Henry took a swig of beer and continued the story. “The dean of med school told me today that she begged him not to let me know that she’d applied!” He then turned to Jake and accused, “Did you know? You and Emily knew, huh?”
“I did know, but only recently.” Jake declared. “I’d heard rumors all year, but didn’t bother confirming them since I believed Laney was looking only at film schools. Apparently, she applied to several med schools and got into...” Jake abruptly stopped his train of thought and turned to his wife. “You knew, didn’t you? Did you actually keep a secret from me?”
Emily smiled beautifully. “Wasn’t my secret to tell.” She squeezed her husband’s hand as a gesture of affection and apology. “Uncle Henry and Aunt Babs,” she addressed them only, “not only is your daughter bright, but she also is just headstrong enough, and has enough common sense to live life the way she wants to live. Nobody is going to push your daughter around. I hope I can do just as good of a job with my little girl as you have with yours. She’s a phenomenal young lady.”
Now we had Aunt Babs bawling. “But why does she like to leave me all the time? This is the second year in the last four where she’s away from her mother...”
“Laney will always come back to you, Aunt Babs. She’s just spreading her wings and looking at life from a different angle,” Emily reassured.
From where I was sitting, it was ridiculous that my cousin did all this and didn’t want anyone to know. I think in secret, she knew that if it all came out at once, there’d be an even bigger deal made about her accomplishments. I know I sound spiteful, but her actions make absolutely NO sense to me!
“Why didn’t Laney want anyone to know she got into med school?” Josh, who sat with Emily and Jake, spoke. I’d forgotten he was here.
“She wanted to figure a few things out for herself before letting everyone know.”
“What does that mean?” Aunt Babs stopped crying just enough to be curious.
Emily thought through her answer before speaking. “In some ways, she wants to go to med school and follow in her father’s footsteps.” That brought out the peacock in Uncle Henry again. “But in many ways, she wants to get married, have kids and live the housewife life like her mom.”
This is what I mean when I say I have no idea what is wrong with my cousin. If she’s so damn smart, why would she want to stay at home and veg out with kids all day? No offense to stay-at-home moms like mine, Emily, and all my aunts, but we live in the 21st century. What woman wants to just stay home all day???
“Laney always said she couldn’t be a part-time doctor or a part-time mother, and therein lies the dichotomy in the life of Delaney Reid,” Emily continued.
“In short, she wants to be a housewife? She’ll give up med school for a chance to be barefoot and pregnant?” I blurted out those words and immediately regretted it. That’s exactly what every married woman in this backyard was or had been at one point in their lives. Uh-oh...!
Emily wasn’t even fazed at what I’d just said. “I think our Laney has a way of looking further into the future than most of us. She doesn’t want to start something now, or maybe not start something now, that she will regret later in life. She believes whatever she chooses to do, she’d like to do her absolute best and not have any regrets.”
“Then why film school?” I had to know.
“She also likes writing and she wants to try her hand at script writing. She figures she could do this at home while she’s ‘barefoot and pregnant.’” Emily mimicked me and caused a riot among all the Reids under thrity-five. “If you get to know her, Laney is insightful and deep. Very few things are left to chance with her, and whatever she does or feels, her whole heart goes into that very action. Why, you only need to see her with my kids to know that some man out there will be loved profoundly.”
With that sycophantic speech, Emily went back to caring for her kids, the mood got a lot livelier, but I didn’t understand my cousin any better. If I were her, I’d stay here, enroll in the best med school, become a doctor as quickly as possible, and work under her dad. How much easier could life get if your dad is the Chief at a major hospital? There’d be plenty of time to get married and have kids in her thirties. Not everyone was an Emily, who got married practically straight out of college, and popped out three kids in under two years. I shook my head in disapproval. No wonder we never got along. She so did not understand life!
June 3, 2013 Playing House
We started furniture gathering for our new home! Though the Davis boys weren’t closing on this property for another few weeks, we decided to make a checklist of what we already had, what we needed to purchase, and what we needed to fleece from Emily’s basement.
If you’ll all remember, Jake and Emily moved into my grandparents’ (that’s Jerry and Estelle Reid, not Roland and Estelle Ascot) home. This massive home came with tons of furniture. Our money-conscious Emily recycled a lot of furniture, but there are still a large number of pieces sitting in the gigantic basement. We decided to make an afternoon of rummaging through all this furniture, rather than spending unnecessary money.