“Have it at a bar,” Teddy suggested. “You can probably negotiate a deal with the owners. They can get the bar business, they can split the admission profits with you, and a lot of bars have kitchens, so you might even be able to fix the food there.”
“You know, Teddy, you might have something there,” I said.
We spent the rest of our lunch reminiscing about old classmates. Teddy had a line on just about everybody and made many humorous references, even if some of them were in questionable taste, like the crack he made about Bitsy. I laughed so hard over his comments that I became short of breath.
“I suppose you know about Marsha Cox,” he said after giving me the lowdown on a classmate who’d been jailed for operating an identity-theft ring.
“No. I just saw her last week, when I was in for my interview with Dr. Norman. We exchanged numbers, but I haven’t had a chance to call her yet. She looks magnificent. What about her?”
“Hell, she should look good. She was married to a big-time drug dealer. Whatever she wanted to do to herself, he had the money to pay for it.”
“She was married to a drug dealer?” I repeated incredulously.
He shrugged. “Well, she was until somebody shot his ass last year. It was big news. He was the biggest dealer to come out of Harlem since Nicky Barnes. I heard the government confiscated everything they had and she had to move back in with her mother, in Sherwood Forest.”
“No, Teddy. Not Marsha.” I couldn’t imagine the woman with the elegant carriage I’d talked to in Dr. Norman’s waiting room living in a notoriously bad housing project. Forest, my butt. Jungle was more like it. But I couldn’t picture her living large off of drug money, either. The Marsha I’d known was a basically moral person. She wasn’t like Tracy Turner, who I felt positive had taken my lunch money that day in seventh grade when I received a restroom pass during science class and left my change purse at my desk.
Then again, a person could change a lot in twenty-five years.
“She did mention her husband had died,” I recalled. “Of course, she didn’t mention what he did for a living, but I guess that’s hard to admit.”
“She wanted to get out of the ghetto, Emily. So she had a chance to live the good life. I don’t think she realized it probably wouldn’t last.”
When the check arrived I reached for my wallet. “Here, let me give you something toward that.”
“Put your wallet away. This was my idea, remember? Save it for the reunion, since you and Rosalind insist on feeding half of Euliss. I can just see people stuffing food in their pockets.”
Laughing, I wiped my eyes with a corner of my cloth napkin. I couldn’t remember the last time I laughed so hard.
“We’ll have to do it again.”
Teddy didn’t miss a beat. “How about next week? Make it dinner.”
I stopped laughing. Lunch was one thing; dinner was something else. “Um…Teddy, I’m, um, kind of seeing someone. So dinner might be awkward.”
The corners of his mouth turned up in amusement. “‘Kind of’ seeing someone? That doesn’t sound very firm.”
He had a point. Aaron had said nothing about our relationship being exclusive. Well, he had said he was sure I carried no STDs, and that I wasn’t out there messing around with anyone else, but that wasn’t an official declaration, just a reassurance.
In my heart, I knew that was a sneaky way of sidestepping the issue or using the technical meaning to whitewash it, along the lines of the famous “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” because it had been just a blow job. Aaron had been married for a long time, and prior to that his girlfriend/future wife had been the only woman in his life. He probably assumed we were a couple, simply because that was what he was accustomed to.
“I guess it won’t be a problem,” I heard myself saying. “Let’s make it during the week, though.” At least that way it wouldn’t interfere with any weekend plans Aaron might make. I knew he’d be spending at least part of the weekend with his family in Sag Harbor.
Teddy shrugged, like he didn’t get what all the fuss was about. “Next Thursday, then?”
“Thursday would be fine.”
We passed on getting on the first elevator after six adults and two children got inside. “I’m curious about something, Teddy,” I said as we waited for the other elevator to arrive. “When’s the last time you saw Tanis?”
“I just saw her on TV the other day. A household product commercial, I think.”
I felt certain he knew that wasn’t what I meant. “I mean in person.”
“Oh. Hell. Years. Last time I saw her she had her original nose.”
I laughed. “I noticed that change, too.”
“It’s definitely an improvement. You could eat lunch on that old honker she had.”
Indignant, I lowered my chin to my chest. “So why’d you dump me for her in the eighth grade?”
He didn’t hesitate. “I was a typical junior high school kid, Emily.”
“And what’s that mean?”
“It means she had bigger boobs.”
I laughed. This made for just another time when I’d been bested by Tanis. I could laugh about it easily, though, because that was then. This was now.
And I had Aaron.
We parted ways and headed for our respective offices without so much as a peck on the cheek. It had been a completely chaste meal, but Aaron would certainly be disappointed if he learned about the date I’d just made. Not that he’d ever find out about it. Nor was there any need for him to worry. It would be completely harmless, just two old friends catching up on twenty-five years.
There I went again, evading the truth about what might come of dinner. Who was I kidding? I mean, just how much catching up could two people do? Teddy Simms looked at me like he wanted to put me on a plate and suck me like a barbecued chicken wing.
And I couldn’t deny that I didn’t mind being the appetizer if he’d be the entrée.
Chapter 13
I shared the news of my running into Teddy and lunching with him with Rosalind, as well as his thoughts on what we were planning for our class reunion. She admitted that John had vetoed the idea of the reunion being held on their property. Her sheepish expression suggested to me that there were a few expletives involved, but I couldn’t blame him.
At her suggestion, she and I stopped in at Cleo’s, a bar on North Avenue, to see if it could work for our reunion. The bar wasn’t the most elegant place in the world, but in dim lighting it didn’t look too shabby. You couldn’t see that the tears in the vinyl seats of some of the bar stools had been covered with black masking tape. Besides, if we had it at the bar we wouldn’t have to deal with RSVPs or with collecting payments in advance. They also had a kitchen that the owner said we could use provided we clean up after ourselves. We took a good look around, and Rosalind turned on the oven and all the burners in the kitchen. I opened the ancient refrigerator, the inside of which was both clean and cold, which was all that mattered.
“I think we’ve got our site,” I said to Rosalind.
“I think so, too. All we need is somebody to man the door and collect the cover charge as people come in. I can probably get John to do it.” Once again she looked slightly embarrassed. “You know, he keeps asking me why I even want to bother getting our class together in the first place, but I think it’ll be fun.”
“Especially since you’re not inviting them to your home,” I said. “Teddy Simms told me that he wouldn’t want anyone to even know his address, much less invite them over. Rosalind, you have to face the fact that some of our old classmates are up to no good.” I thought of some of the people he’d told me about, like the quiet, soft-spoken girl who’d been convicted of grand theft for taking Social Security numbers from the reputable tax-filing service she worked for and then establishing credit with it and buying furs and jewelry, and the guy who’d been in and out of jail on various drug charges.
We had to give the bar owner a date. We both though
t Thanksgiving weekend would be the best time to hold it, since a lot of people who’d left Euliss came to spend the holiday with family still living there. Rosalind wanted to hold the reunion on Saturday night, but I liked Friday.
“Sunday is such a huge travel day for people going home,” I explained. “I think a lot of people leave on Saturday to get ahead of the traffic. If we hold the reunion Saturday night, they won’t be able to attend.”
Rosalind relented. “Now, we need to get the word out.”
“That’s easy,” I said. “Flyers. We’ll put them up all over Euliss. I’m sure if we ring enough bells we can get somebody to let us in the major apartment buildings. There’s always a bulletin board up in the laundry room. The supermarkets always have bulletin boards, too.”
“So do barbershops,” Rosalind said. “They’re so junky to begin with, with those two-year-old magazines lying around, another piece of paper will hardly make a difference. And all the black beauty salons.”
“Don’t forget Classmates e-mail,” I said.
When we finished making arrangements, we went to Applebee’s for lunch. By the time our food arrived we’d moved on to the reunion menu. I was grinding pepper over my steak fajitas when Rosalind said, “I must tell you, Emily, Tanis called me last week and asked if I thought things were serious between you and Aaron. I mean, she worked it into the conversation.”
“Oh, yeah? What’d you tell her?”
“I asked her what would make her ask that out of the blue. She said she talked to Aaron’s daughter Arden at the dance studio. Her daughter goes to the same one as his girls, you know, even though she’s a lot younger than they are.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Anyway, when she asked about Aaron, Arden told her he was in Indianapolis for a few days. She said she knew you’d gone out there to close out your condo.”
No doubt Tanis knew my travel plans from her mother. Mom had reported that Mavis continually inquired when I was returning home, obviously put up to it by Tanis, who was eager for me to leave town. “Rosalind, I sure hope you asked her why she felt my relationship with Aaron is any of her business.”
“What I told her,” Rosalind managed to say with remarkable dignity, considering she spoke between chews of a grilled portabello sandwich, “is that I certainly hoped so, since it was my idea to set the two of you up in the first place.”
“Good answer. I bet that shut her up.”
“It did.”
“I wish Tanis would mind her business and stay out of mine. Isn’t she supposed to be getting divorced?”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure that Tanis had Aaron all picked out to replace Rob. She didn’t count on you showing up and putting the eighty-six on her plans.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. But it looks like this is one time Tanis won’t get what she wants. Look, I’m tired of talking about her.”
“Fine,” Rosalind shrugged. “Tell me what Teddy’s up to these days.”
“He works for one of the dentists in the same building I work in.”
Rosalind nodded. “That’s right; it’s a medical building. Is he a dentist? Somehow he doesn’t seem like the type.”
“He’s a denture technician. He creates bridges and crowns, and even full sets.”
“Definitely a viable skill, but it can’t compare to Aaron.” Rosalind flashed a devilish smile. “So how was it, breaking in a widower?”
“Now, now, Rosalind. You’re getting a little personal, don’t you think?”
“Hey, I’ve been with the same man so long, I get a kick out of living vicariously through you.”
I’d practically forgotten that Rosalind and John had such a long history together. Immediately I went to work trying to figure how I could pry without it seeming like I was prying.
“You and John didn’t have a lot of sexual experience when you got married, did you?” I asked, praying it sounded casual and not like I was conducting a survey. Which, of course, I was.
“Of course we did. We went to different colleges, remember?”
I’d forgotten. Neither the Gills nor the Hunters were thrilled with their childrens’ interracial relationship, so they steered them to different colleges. Rosalind and John both chose colleges in Virginia, but their parents were satisfied because Hampton University was on the Atlantic Coast and Virginia Tech was in the western part of the state. The distance made it impossible to maintain a steady relationship, but they hooked up again shortly before graduation, and it soon became clear that it wasn’t mere puppy love. Their families had no choice but to accept the inevitable.
So much for my hopes of getting a better understanding of my predicament with Aaron. And I also had another problem to deal with. Rosalind was sharp, and I knew she’d find my question strange.
“What on earth makes you ask that, anyway?” Then she asked a question that really put me on the spot. “Does it have anything to do with Aaron? I know he married his college sweetheart.”
I did what any self-respecting woman would do. I lied. “Oh, I guess I was just curious about where people who’ve only had one partner learn their technique.”
“Oh, everybody learns,” Rosalind said with a smile. “The important thing isn’t where Aaron picked up his skill; it’s that he did pick it up.”
I grinned. “You can say that again.”
And that was no lie.
My heart sank in what was becoming a familiar Friday night routine. I couldn’t understand it. Every time Aaron and I made love, after exciting foreplay, he’d climb on top of me in the same position. Hadn’t he learned anything about variety in all those years of marriage? I mean, what was the problem here? A lot of sexually inexperienced childhood sweethearts got married and lived happily ever after. I didn’t believe for one minute that sex was so ordinary for all of them.
The whole thing struck me as implausible. Women who married young might have had only one sexual partner, but didn’t all guys have some experience? I mean, didn’t there exist in every town the slut who fucked like the Energizer bunny, as well as those sexually aggressive older women who liked their partners young, like those notorious schoolteachers who have made headlines? And if neither of those was available, what about that old sex-ed standby, the porn movie?
I wasn’t sure how to handle the situation. I was afraid that if I should suddenly start riding him or kneel seductively on the edge of the bed I’d scare him off. Maybe I shouldn’t do anything at all. I mean, it wasn’t that he didn’t have what it took to get the job done. He’d been gifted with more than healing hands. It was just that I’d like some variety and spontaneity, so that the initial excitement that made my heart pound would continue and, yes, even increase.
By Saturday morning, when Aaron left for the Hamptons, I doubted that doing nothing was the answer. Sex with Aaron was as mechanically organized as a Detroit assembly line. I merely lay back expectantly and told myself diversity wasn’t everything. At least I tried to convince myself of that.
It might not have been so bad if I could have had my misery in peace, but everyone around me assumed I was the luckiest woman on earth. My own mother repeatedly told me how overjoyed she was for me. Rosalind ribbed me about standing up for me at the wedding. My friends from Indy, all of them looking for Mr. Right, wanted to hear every detail of our courtship, their listening interrupted by an occasional romantic sigh.
And then there was Marsha Cox, whom I caught up with on the phone. At the end of our lengthy conversation we agreed to get together for an early dinner at the Outback on Saturday night, which I had free because Aaron was in Sag Harbor.
“You don’t know how lucky you are, Em,” Marsha said wistfully when our fried shrimp was delivered to our table. “You snagged a doctor.”
“I haven’t snagged anybody, yet,” I said, just a teensy bit envious. Everyone telling me how fortunate I was was starting to get tiresome, especially since I didn’t see it as a complete gift. God certainly had a sense of humor. Aaron was a prize in every
way but one.
“Trust me, he’s as good as got. The man’s wife died. He’s probably been really lonesome, and along you come. Pretty, charming, witty…”
I started to feel better. There’s nothing like a load of compliments to perk up a person’s ego.
Marsha’s next words quickly made me realize it wasn’t just about me. “You know, the only job I could get after Roger got killed was as a bank teller, which was what I did before I met him. Me and my kids are living with my mother in Sherwood Forest, and at this rate I’ll never get out of there.”
Sherwood Forest was probably the only public-housing project in Euliss that wasn’t named after some long-deceased public official no one’s ever heard of.
Marsha sighed. “I guess I should have taken advantage of Roger’s money and gone to school, learned how to do something.”
That was my thought as well, but of course it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to point that out. “Does the bank offer any type of tuition reimbursement?” I asked instead.
“Yeah, the key word being reimbursement. It’ll probably take forever for me to get the money together just to pay for one course. I’m forty-three, Emily. Getting a degree will take too long.”
“Lots of people go back to school and get their degrees when they’re in their forties. Remember our old English teacher in high school? She was past fifty when she got her bachelor’s, and she was one of the best teachers we ever had.”
“Sure. She was a nice, cozy, stay-at-home mother whose kids had grown up and left home and her husband was at work all day. She wasn’t a widow with no money and two kids to support. Teaching was more of a hobby for her, not a necessity.”
I hesitated only a moment before proceeding with a slightly prying question. “Didn’t you get any cash at all after Roger was killed?”
“Not a cent. He was barely cold when the FBI showed up. They attached everything: the house, the furniture, the cars, the bank accounts. We were only allowed to take our clothes. And of course I didn’t get to keep any of my furs.” She grunted. “I’m all right for the time being, but eventually everything I’ve got is going to go out of style.”
A New Kind of Bliss Page 13
