by Wendy Chen
They headed uptown, and Kate was immediately struck by how fancy the salon was, the way they offered her sparkling water upon entrance and offered her a robe to wear. The staff gushed over Elizabeth, how they had missed her coming in for her biweekly manicure. An over-tanned man with shockingly white hair and a silver earring came over and twirled a lock of Kate’s hair around his finger. “This is the girl you were telling me about?”
As if sensing Kate’s discomfort over the attention, not to mention the impending price tag of a stylish cut, Elizabeth said, “I know—can you imagine wanting to cut off such fabulous hair? I convinced her to at least let me treat her to my favorite salon.” She winked at Kate then, and Kate was reassured that Elizabeth would take care of everything. Which she did—as the stylist brushed Kate’s hair out of its braid, which was no easy feat given its length and thickness, Elizabeth directed him to keep it long. “It’s your signature look,” she said to Kate.
The stylist nodded and continued to brush. “How long has it been since your last cut?”
Kate thought for a moment and felt herself flush. It certainly was before her father moved out, since he was the always the one who cut it, and even so, he would only trim it once a year or so. So it had been at least three years. “Ummm, not sure. A … long time. Just never seemed to have a chance to get around to it.”
“It’s beautiful,” the stylist reassured her. “You’re like Rapunzel!” He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked at her in the mirror. “We’ll just clean it up a bit to make it a little more … modern,” he smiled. He cut her hair so that it hit well below her shoulders, with plenty of layers for fullness and style. Shorter layers around her face framed her cheekbones.
From then on, Kate was amazed at what the right hair and clothes could do for her. She felt more confident, lighter even, without the baggy clothes and miles of hair weighing her down. She didn’t come out of her shy shell overnight by any means, but the boost of confidence helped to convince her to go out more with Elizabeth and her friends. And there were always those times they would hit a nearby karaoke bar, where Kate had never felt more confident than when she was belting out a popular tune, earning the admiration of her newfound friends. She had always had a good voice, but with a new look, a new attitude, and new friends, she was no longer the glee club geek.
Kate and Elizabeth lived together all four years of college, but during sophomore year Elizabeth met her soul mate in her now-husband, so they spent less time together. When Elizabeth got married ten years ago, hers had been the only wedding Kate had ever been a bridesmaid in, and it was still one of the only weddings where Kate had not been relegated to a singles table on the outskirts of the reception as some second-tier guest.
Kate prized her friendship with Elizabeth still, considered it comparable to her current three girlfriends, who were her soul mates. She felt a little guilty for not telling Elizabeth about the true nature of her engagement, but she had promised Alberto she would keep their inner circle as small as possible.
She noticed a message from Adam pop up on the screen—it was just like him to respond right away, since he was the type to constantly have some device at his fingertips.
Coming to NYC. Would love to catch up.
Chapter 4
It took work to keep her size two figure, so on Monday morning, Kate was back to her daily running routine, starting at 5:30 a.m. By 7 a.m., she was at her desk, just as she was every weekday morning, dressed in her uniform—hair pulled back in a sleek chignon, minimal eye makeup, red lipstick, wearing a fitted sheath dress and stilettos. Yes, she knew she looked like a shark. Her uniform was her armor and helped her cultivate her reputation for severity. She wasn’t here to make friends, just money.
The market had swung up and down that day, unfortunately ending down. By 7 p.m., she was exhausted on the walk back to her apartment. She picked up some dinner and a bottle of wine on the way, just as she always did, since there was nothing in her refrigerator except bottles of water. As she ate in front of her computer a little while later, she contemplated going to the gym in her building to do some weights. But then she saw Alberto pop up on chat and decided that having him over would be a much more fun workout.
Thankfully there were few gigs booked for Monday nights, and Alberto took barely any time at all to arrive from his place in Brooklyn. They barely greeted each other, both clearly knowing what Kate called him over for. As she lifted his shirt over his head, she thought what a great way this was to forget about how much money had been lost that day.
A little while later, she was still in bed, answering work emails while Alberto got dressed. This was one of the things she adored about him—they were just so compatible with each other’s needs: a good romp in bed without the need for snuggling or small talk afterward. She put down her iPhone long enough to accept the kiss on the cheek he gave her and to tell him that she would go to his show on Friday night. Alberto took a sip of her wine before letting himself out, and as she heard the door shut behind him and settled back into her pillows, Kate thought again just how perfect this arrangement was.
By Wednesday, the market had picked up, and so had everyone’s mood. Kate was looking forward to seeing Adam again, for the first time in years. His flight was delayed, so instead of meeting her for dinner with all her friends, she planned to meet him for a drink at his hotel instead.
After work, she stopped at home for a quick change and to shake out her tightly pulled back hair so that it fell in soft waves around her shoulders. She pulled on a mini skirt and sequined tank top with a pair of strappy sandal stilettos. With all the heels she wore, one would think she had a height complex, but at five foot nine barefoot, she really just liked the way they looked.
In the cab ride on the way to Cafeteria in Chelsea, Kate remembered to put on her ring. When she arrived, she spotted Cass, Nick, and Suzanne already seated at a table and joined them just as the waiter was bringing their drinks. The very cute waiter. She flashed him a smile and ordered her usual dirty martini. “Very dirty,” she said huskily.
After he left, Suzanne laughed. “Do you ever turn it off?”
“Now what fun would that be?”
Mia wound her way to their table a few moments later, almost crashing into a waiter who apparently didn’t see her. Much as she loved her friend, Kate sometimes wished Mia didn’t present herself so invisibly. Tonight she was wearing black pants, a grey top, and sensible mid-heel black sandals. Kate was pleasantly surprised that she was able to make it tonight since she often cited the hip Chelsea scene as “not for her” and preferred to stay home. If she didn’t already have a soon-to-be live-in boyfriend, she might have been a good hookup for Adam.
Kate looked around and thought of Adam then. It was probably for the best that he hadn’t been able to make it to dinner. This sort of place wasn’t for him either—loud and trendy—and she certainly wanted him to have a good time while he was here. Yes, it was better that they just meet for a drink later.
“So your friend Adam is coming?” Suzanne asked. “What’s he like?”
“We’ve never met any of your friends from Michigan; I’m so curious!” Mia chimed in. “Is he going to share your secret past?”
Cass gasped in mock revelation, picking up on Mia’s cue. “You lost your virginity to him, didn’t you? That’s why he’s so special.” They all laughed then, even Nick, who shook his head a little. If he and Kate hadn’t been friends since college, it may have been awkward, but as it was, he was glad to be included in the occasional dinner.
“Ugh, hardly!” Kate laughed. The thought of sex with Adam … well, he’d been not quite like a brother back in high school, but certainly not anything close to a romantic interest. He had been a fixture in her life, just a constant presence, neither romantic nor unromantic. “Adam was my rock. I didn’t have that many friends in high school.” Hardly any at all. “Adam was just always around to do homework with or see a movie. We were pretty
nerdy together, quite honestly!”
“Ever since we’ve known you, you’ve been some sort of a financial wizard, a man magnet, and major party girl—”
“Don’t forget great friend,” Kate interrupted Mia. “I’m very complex.” She said it jokingly, but she truly felt that there were few others who understood her. She also hardly ever talked about anyone from home, except a little bit about her parents. So it was natural that they would be curious about anyone from her past.
“Adam and I just … lost touch,” Kate continued.
She didn’t really like to think about that night when she had gone to visit him at Stanford. It had hurt that he had been so harsh. It had hurt more that he’d been right.
“It’ll be great to see him again even after all this time. There’s just such a familiarity with people that you grew up with, you know? We’ve both changed, I think; we’re totally different people now—at least I am. But we have all that history—I’m sure we’ll have tons to talk about.”
“Legacy Friends,” Cass said. “You’d probably never have noticed him now, but since you were friends before, you’ll stay friends now.”
To say that Kate would not have noticed Adam had they met now would not have been entirely accurate. The bar at the Tribeca Grand where Adam was staying would often attract a pretty fancy crowd in the evenings—a mix of trendy and financial types, young women in short dresses, young men in slim-cut suits. It would have been difficult not to notice Adam at the end of the bar, alone, nursing a beer, wearing a white T-shirt that quite possibly came in a three pack, a pair of jeans that had seen better days, and flip-flops. Kate smiled. He looked so … California … and yet his sandy blond hair that was too long in the front, and the slightly downturned corner of his eyes that made his natural expression slightly sad—it was so familiar and so Adam.
She snuck up behind him and whispered, “Can I buy you a drink?”
Adam turned and grinned, knowing it was her right away. He stood to greet her, and she had to admit she was a little bit wowed. She knew she had changed a lot since their friendship, both inside and out. And it was apparent that Adam had changed a great deal as well. When she had run into him while in college, she had noticed he was taller, but now he wasn’t quite so skinny—still on the slender side, definitely, but nowhere near the scrawny teenager he had been. He stood taller as well, no longer hunching his shoulders forward. He had a great smile now, one that reached his blue eyes, erased any trace of unhappiness, and showed off his teeth, which he’d had straightened somewhere along the way. And he was tan—those Michigan winters did nothing for him, but apparently his condo in Maui did (she did follow his Facebook updates, after all).
“You look so California,” she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. It was odd to have to crane her neck up to do so since she was more than six feet tall in her shoes.
“You look so New York,” he responded, taking in her outfit. He shook his head a little, and she wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not.
She slid onto the bar stool next to him, and before she even thought to get the attention of the waiter, Adam had already ordered for her. “She’ll have what I’m having,” he said.
“How do you know what I want?” she said, automatically defensive. She hadn’t even thought about her drink order yet.
“You always want what I’m having,” Adam smiled. “Always have.”
Kate couldn’t help but laugh. It was true after all. When they were in high school, she would constantly eat off his plate or munch on half his movie popcorn after saying she didn’t want her own. And she had to admit, she didn’t really feel like having another martini, and that amber lager in front of him looked pretty refreshing.
“So what are you doing in New York anyway? How long are you here for?” Kate asked. Beyond meeting tonight, they hadn’t talked about why he was there or how long he was staying. She would certainly plan to spend some time with him before he had to go back home.
Adam took a sip of his beer and shrugged. “I have a few meetings set up. Not sure how long I’ll be here, depends on how those go.”
She tried to picture him in business meetings, shaking hands with clients, wearing a suit and tie, and found she couldn’t. She could picture him dressed just as he was now, in front of a computer, with his wire-framed glasses. That’s what’s different! “Where are your glasses?” she exclaimed.
He laughed. “Lasik is the best invention ever.”
They spent a little more time chatting, mostly over how much each other had changed, when Adam yawned. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think I’d be this tired with the time difference and everything. The flight must have taken a lot out of me.”
“It’s OK,” and it really was. Kate didn’t take it personally that he was tired in her company; he was just Adam. “I have an early morning anyway, so we should probably call it a night.”
Adam walked her out of the hotel and watched her leave after she declined the need for a cab or the offer for him to walk her home, which he did out of habit more than anything else.
Back in his room, he was tired, exhausted really, but unable to sleep. All these years, he hadn’t known, or hadn’t been willing to admit, how much he missed her. When he first heard her voice, it felt like a homecoming, cutting through the din of all that bar noise. When he turned around, sure, she looked different, but as soon as she sat down and did that thing where she twirled her hair with her finger, he saw the old Kate, his friend Katie. He swallowed the lump that had suddenly formed out of uncertainty for how he should handle this feeling, and out of guilt.
Claudia had been right after all, though he wouldn’t admit it until this very moment. There had always been something between them, she had accused—something that kept their relationship from being as close as it should have been. He had thought he had been happy with her, had gladly handed over his credit card when they had gone engagement ring shopping together, had gamely signed the title deed on their house in Palo Alto, which had perfect floors made of sustainable bamboo and was located in the best school districts. He had supportively sat through hours of listening to her wedding guest list angst and genuinely was puzzled when she accused him of not caring enough, not having his heart in it, of acting like a robot with no emotions.
He certainly didn’t lack for feelings now. They hadn’t talked about Kate’s engagement at all; she hadn’t brought him up, hadn’t brought him period, thank God. What would he have done if she had shown up with her fiancé in tow? It was bad enough that he saw that ring with every gesture she made. It made him feel like it was really too late, that after all this time, he had lost the chance with her that he hadn’t even known he wanted.
But no, he told himself. She wasn’t married yet. He wasn’t big on breaking up anyone’s relationship, but he knew better than anyone that being engaged wasn’t the same thing as being married. And the fact remained—she hadn’t mentioned a word about him. It was the right decision for him to come to New York, to see for himself. If she was happy, truly happy with this guy, whomever he may be, Adam would leave, he told himself. He would see her happiness for himself, as the old friend he was, looking out for her like he always had.
Chapter 5
The next afternoon, Kate was at work when she got a text from Adam:
Done with meetings and sick of hotel. Can I hang at your place?
She texted back:
Sure, front desk has extra key. I’ll let them know you’re coming.
Kate chuckled to herself. It was just like him to want to just hang out at home. Most people would want to take in the tourist sites during a rare trip to the city. She thought for a moment and then texted him again:
If you’re still around, I get home a little after 7. I can get dinner on the way.
Adam texted:
Sounds good.
And it did. Unbeknownst to her, Adam actually had taken a lot of the day to see the city. He had walked all the w
ay up to Herald Square and back, grabbing lunch and snacks along the way. It was nice to actually walk around and not be in a car all the time. He could see why so many people loved it here—the energy, the diversity. The last time he’d been here was years ago for a technology conference. He’d barely seen the outside of the conference center then and hadn’t bothered to contact Kate. He had just started dating Claudia at the time, and Kate had never really entered his mind. This time was different. He hadn’t lied exactly when he said he had meetings; it just so happened that the meetings were in California and he attended by Skype. It was true that he was sick of his hotel room, or more accurately that he would rather be at her place.
As the doorman let him into Kate’s apartment, Adam got the distinct impression that it was not a common occurrence for a man, or anyone else, to be here when Kate wasn’t. Did she spend most of her time at her fiancé’s place? As he looked around, he was struck by how pristine everything was, as though it had either just been cleaned, or that no one was around that much. Adam frowned. There was no dust on her shelves, shelves that held no photos, just nondescript vases and knickknacks. Even her work space in front of her computer had papers neatly lined up in rows. It was as if she purposely hid any of her actual personality from would-be visitors.
But then he saw her bedroom. He wasn’t being overly nosy, he told himself—the door was wide open. And he didn’t go in, just stood in the doorway and saw evidence of the Kate he knew. Her running shoes were next to the door, alongside an overflowing basket of laundry. On top of the dresser was a neat stack of clothes that looked like they had just come back from a laundry service and had yet to be put away. A bunch of small purses in a variety of colors spilled out of a basket. A pair of bright blue high-heeled shoes peeked out of her closet door, as if they were trying to kick themselves out of confinement. And the bed—it looked like it had been slept in, and only by one person, the way the blanket was tossed aside just on the left. Adam couldn’t remember exactly when it had started, but at some point he and Claudia spent every night together, even when they still maintained separate apartments.
