Fine Things

by Danielle Steel

Paul roared. He had met Mrs. Fine several times. “What did your mother say?”

  Bernie smiled too. “I haven't told her yet.”

  “Let us know when you do. We should be hearing the sonic boom over here, or has she mellowed in recent years?”

  “Not exactly.”

  Berman smiled again. “Well, I wish you the best of luck. Will I be seeing Liz with you when you come east next month?” Bernie had to go to New York, and then Europe, but Liz was not planning to go along. She had to work, and take care of Jane, and they were looking for a house to rent for the next year. There was no point buying if they were going back to New York so soon.

  “I think she'll be busy here. But we'd love to see you at the wedding.” They had already ordered the invitations, at Wolffs, of course. But the wedding was going to be small. They didn't want more than fifty or sixty people. It was going to be a simple lunch somewhere, and then they were leaving for Hawaii. Tracy, Liz' friend from school, had already promised to stay with Jane at the new house while they were away, which was helpful.

  “When is it?” Bernie told him. “I'll try to come And I imagine now you may not be in such a hurry to get back to New York.” Bernie's heart sank at the words.

  “That's not necessarily true. I'm going to be looking for schools for Jane in New York when I'm there, and Liz will look at them with me next spring.” He wanted Berman to feel pressured to bring him home, but there was no sound at the other end as Bernie frowned. “We want to have her enrolled for next September.”

  “Right…. Well, I'll see you in New York in a few weeks. And congratulations.” Bernie sat staring into space afterwards and that night he said something to Liz. He was worried.

  “Christ, I'll be damned if I'll let them stick me here for three years like they did in Chicago.”

  “Can you talk to him when you go east?”

  “I intend to.”

  But when he did, when he was in New York, Paul Berman wouldn't commit himself to a sure return date.

  “You've only been there for a few months. You have to get the branch on its feet for us, Bernard. That was always our understanding.”

  “It's doing beautifully, and I've been there for eight months.”

  “But the store has only been open for less than five. Give it another year. You know how badly we need you. The tone of that store will be set for years by what you're doing there right now, and you're the best man we have.”

  “Another year is an awfully long time.” To Bernie it felt like a lifetime.

  “Let's talk about it in six months.” Paul was putting Bernie off, and he was depressed when he left the store that night. It was the wrong frame of mind to meet with his parents. He had made a date with them at La Cote Basque, because he explained that he didn't have time to go out to Scarsdale. And he knew how anxious his mother was to see him. He had bought her a beautiful handbag that afternoon, a beige lizard with a tiger's eye clasp that was the latest from Gucci. It was a work of art more than a handbag and he hoped she'd like it. But his heart was heavy as he walked from his hotel to the restaurant. It was one of those beautiful October nights, when the weather is perfect for exactly two minutes, and the way it is in San Francisco all year round. But because it's so rare, in New York, it always seems much more special.

  But everything seemed alive as the taxis swirled past, and the horns honked, and even the sky looked clear as elegantly dressed women darted from cabs to restaurants, and in and out of limousines wearing fabulous suits and brilliantly hued coats, on their way to plays and concerts and dinner parties. And it suddenly reminded him of everything he had been missing for the past eight months, and he wished that Liz were there with him, and he promised himself that the next time he would bring her. With luck, he could plan his spring business trip while she had Easter vacation.

  He went quickly through the revolving door at La Cote Basque and took a deep breath of the elite ambience of his favorite restaurant. The murals were even prettier than he remembered and the light was soft as beautifully bejeweled women in black dresses lined the banquettes watching passersby and chatting with dozens of men, all in gray suits, as though in uniform, but they all had the same air of money and power.

  He looked around and said a word to the maitre d'hotel. His parents were already there, seated at a table for four in the rear, and when he reached them his mother reached out to him with a look of anguish and clung to his neck as though she were drowning.

  It was a style of greeting which embarrassed him profoundly, and then made him hate himself for not being happier to see her.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “That's all you have to say after eight months? 'Hi, Mom'?” She looked shocked, as she relegated her husband to a chair so she could sit next to Bernie on the banquette. He felt as though everyone in the room were staring at them as she scolded him for being so unfeeling.

  “It's a restaurant, Mom. You can't make a scene here, that's all.”

  “You call that a scene? You don't see your mother for eight months, and you barely say hello to her, and that's a scene?” He wanted to crawl under the table. Everyone within fifty feet could hear her talking.

  “I saw you in June.” His voice was deliberately low, but he should have known better than to argue with her.

  “That was in San Francisco.”

  “That counts too.”

  “Not when you're so busy you can't even see me.” It had been when the store opened, but he had still managed to spend time with them, not that she would admit it.

  “You look great.” It was definitely time to change the subject. His father was ordering a bourbon on the rocks for himself and a Rob Roy for his mother, and Bernie ordered a kir.

  “What kind of a drink is that?” His mother looked suspicious.

  “I'll let you try it when it comes. It's very light. You look wonderful, Mom.” He tried again, sorry that the conversations were always between himself and his mother. He couldn't remember the last time he and his father had had a serious talk, and he was surprised he hadn't brought his medical journals to Cote Basque with him.

  The drinks arrived and he took a sip of the kir, held it out to her, and she refused it. He was trying to decide if he should tell her about Liz before or after they ate. If he told her after, she would always accuse him of being dishonest with her all night by not telling her first. If he told her before, she might make a scene and embarrass him further. After was safer in some ways, before was more honest. He took a big swallow of the kir and decided on before. “I have some good news for you, Mom.” He could actually hear his voice tremble, and she looked at him with hawk-like eyes, sensing that this was important.

  “You're moving back to New York?” Her words turned the knife in his heart.

  “Not yet. But one of these days. No, better than that.”

  “You got a promotion?”

  He held his breath. He had to end the guessing game. “I'm getting married.” Everything stopped. It was as though someone had pulled her plug as she stared silently at him. It felt like a full five minutes before she spoke again, and as usual, his father said nothing.

  “Would you care to explain that?”

  He felt as though he had just told them he had been arrested for selling drugs and something way deep down inside him began to get angry. “She's a wonderful girl, Mom. You'll love her. She's twenty-seven years old, and the most beautiful girl you've ever seen. She teaches second grade,” which proved that she was wholesome at least. She was not a go-go dancer or a cocktail waitress or a stripper. “And she has a little girl named Jane.”

  “She's divorced.”

  “Yes, she is. Jane is five.”

  His mother searched his eyes, wanting to know what the hitch was. “How long have you known her?”

  “Since I moved to San Francisco,” he lied, feeling ten years old again, and fumbling for the photographs he had brought. They were pictures of Liz and Jane at Stinson Beach, and they were very endearing. He handed the
m to his mother, who passed them on to his father, who admired the pretty young woman and the little girl, as Ruth Fine stared at her son, wanting to know the truth.

  “Why didn't you introduce her to us in June?” Obviously, that meant she had a limp, a cleft palate, or a husband she still lived with.

  “I didn't know her then.”

  “You mean you've only known her a few weeks, and you're getting married?” She made it impossible to explain anything to her and then she moved in for the coup de grace. She went straight to the heart of the matter. And maybe it was just as well. “Is she Jewish?”

  “No, she's not.” He thought she was going to faint, and he couldn't suppress a smile at the look on her face. “Don't look like that for chrissake. Not everyone is, you know.”

  “Enough people are so you could find one. What is she?” Not that it mattered. She was just torturing herself now, but he decided to get it all over with at once.

  “She's Catholic. Her name is O'Reilly.”

  “Oh my God.” She closed her eyes and slumped in her chair, and for a moment he thought she had really fainted. In sudden fright he turned to his father, who calmly waved a hand, indicating that it was nothing. She opened her eyes a moment later and looked at her husband. “Did you hear what he said? Do you know what he's doing? He's killing me. And does he care? No, he doesn't care.” She started to cry, and made a great show of opening her bag, taking out her handkerchief, and dabbing at her eyes, while the people at the next table watched and the waiter hovered, wondering if they were going to order dinner.

  “I think we should order.” Bernie spoke in a calm voice and she snapped at him.

  “You …you can eat. Me, I would have a heart attack at the table.”

  “Order some soup,” her husband suggested.

  “It would choke me.” Bernie would have liked to choke her himself.

  “She is a wonderful girl, Mom. You're going to love her.”

  “You've made up your mind?” He nodded. “When is the wedding?”

  “December twenty-ninth.” He purposely didn't say the words “after Christmas.” But she began to cry again anyway.

  “Everything is planned, everything is arranged …the date …the girl …nobody tells me anything. When did you decide all this? Is this why you went to California?” It was endless. It was going to be a very long evening.

  “I met her once I moved out there.”

  “How? Who introduced you? Who did this to me?” She was dabbing at her eyes again as the soup arrived.

  “I met her through the store.”

  “How? On the escalator?”

  “For chrissake, Mom, stop it!” He pounded the table and his mother jumped, as did the people at the tables next to them. “I'm getting married. Period. I am thirty-five years old. I am marrying a lovely woman. And frankly, I don't give a damn if she's Buddhist. She's a good woman, a good person, and a good mother, and that is good enough for me.” He dug into his own soup with a vengeance as his mother stared at him.

  “Is she pregnant?”

  “No.”

  “Then why do you have to get married so soon? Wait a while.”

  “I've waited thirty-five years, that's long enough.”

  She sighed, and looked at him mournfully. “Have you met her parents?”

  “No. They're dead.” For a moment, Ruth almost looked sorry for her, but she would never have admitted it to Bernie. Instead, she sat and suffered in silence, and it was only when coffee was served that he remembered the gift he had brought her. He handed it across the table, and she shook her head and refused to take it.

  “This is not a night I want to remember.”

  “Take it anyway. You'll like it.” He felt like throwing it at her, and reluctantly she took the box and put it on the seat next to her, like a bomb rigged to go off within the hour.

  “I don't understand how you can do this.”

  “Because it's the best thing I've ever done.” It suddenly depressed him to think of how difficult his mother was. It would have been so much simpler if she could be happy for him, and congratulate him. He sighed and sat back against the banquette after he took a sip of coffee. “I take it you don't want to come to the wedding.”

  She started to cry again, using her napkin to dab at her eyes instead of her hankie. She looked at her husband as though Bernie weren't there. “He doesn't even want us at his wedding.” She cried harder and louder and Bernie thought he had never been as exhausted.

  “Mom, I didn't say that. I just assumed …”

  “Don't assume anything!” she snapped at him, recovering momentarily and then lapsing back into playing Camille for her husband. “I just can't believe this has happened.” Lou patted her hand and looked at his son.

  “It's difficult for her, but she'll get used to it eventually.”

  “What about you, Dad?” Bernie looked at him directly. “Is it all right with you?” It was crazy, but in a way he wanted his father's blessing. “She's a wonderful girl.”

  “I hope she makes you happy.” His father smiled at him, and patted Ruth's hand again. “I think I'll take your mother home now. She's had a hard night.” She glared at both of them, and began to open the package Bernie had brought her. She had the box open and the handbag out of the tissue paper a moment later.

  “It's very nice.” Her lack of enthusiasm was easily discerned as she looked at her son, attempting to convey the extent of the emotional damage he had caused her. If she could have sued him, she would have. “I never wear beige.” Except every other day, but Bernie did not point that out to her. He knew that the next time he saw her she would be wearing the bag.

  “I'm sorry. I thought you'd like it.”

  She nodded, as though humoring him, and Bernie insisted on picking up the check, and as they all walked out of the restaurant, she grabbed his arm. “When are you coming back to New York?”

  “Not until spring. I leave for Europe tomorrow, and I'm flying back to San Francisco from Paris.” He felt less than pleased with her after what she had just put him through, and he was not warm toward her.

  “You can't stop in New York for one night?” She looked crushed.

  “I don't have time. I have to be back at the store for an important meeting. I'll see you at the wedding, if you come.”

  She didn't answer at first, and then she looked at him just before she entered the revolving door. “I want you to come home for Thanksgiving. This will be the last time.” And with those words, she passed through the revolving door and emerged again on the street, where she waited for Bernie.

  “I'm not going to prison, Mother. I'm getting married, so this is not the last anything. And hopefully, next year, I'll be living in New York again, and we can all have Thanksgiving together.”

  “You and that girl? What's her name again?” She looked at him mournfully, pretending to have a memory lapse, when he knew perfectly well that she could have recited every single detail she'd heard about “that girl,” and probably described the photographs in detail too.

  “Her name is Liz. And she's going to be my wife. Try to remember that.” He kissed her and hailed a cab. He didn't want to delay their departure a moment longer. And they had to pick up their car, which they'd parked near his father's office.

  “You won't come for Thanksgiving?” She hung out of the cab, crying at him again as he shook his head, and physically pushed her inside to her seat, in the guise of assistance.

  “I can't. I'll talk to you when I get back from Paris.”

  “I have to talk to you about the wedding.” She was hanging out the window and the driver was starting to snarl.

  “There's nothing left to say. It's on December twenty-ninth, at Temple Emanuel, and the reception is at a little hotel she loves in Sausalito.” His mother would have asked him if she was a hippie but she didn't have time as Lou gave the driver the address of his office.

  “I don't have anything to wear.”

  “Go to the store and pick som
ething you like. I'll take care of it for you.”

  And then she suddenly realized what he had said. They were getting married at the temple. “She's willing to get married in temple?” She looked surprised. She didn't think Catholics did things like that, but she was divorced anyway. Maybe she'd been excommunicated or something like that.

  “Yes. She's willing to get married in temple. You'll like her, Mom.” He touched his mother's hand, and she smiled at him, her eyes still damp.

  “Mazel tov.” And with that, she pulled back into the cab, and they roared off thundering over the potholes, as he heaved a huge sigh of relief. He had done it.

  Chapter 10

  They spent Thanksgiving at Liz' apartment with Jane, and Liz' friend, Tracy. She was a pleasant woman in her early forties. Her children were grown and gone. One was at Yale and wasn't coming home for the holidays, the other, a daughter, was married and lived in Philadelphia. Her husband had died fourteen years before, and she was one of those cheerful, strong people whom misfortune had struck often and hard, and yet managed not to be a downer. She grew plants and loved to cook, she had cats, and a large Labrador, and she lived in a tiny apartment in Sausalito. She and Liz had become friends when Liz had first begun to teach, and she had helped her with Jane frequently during those first difficult years when Liz was saddled with a very young child and no money. Sometimes she babysat for her just so she could scrape a few dollars together and go to a movie. And there was nobody happier than Tracy over Liz' sudden good fortune. She had already agreed to be matron of honor at the wedding, and Bernie was surprised at how much he liked her.

  She was tall and spare and wore Birkenstock shoes, and she came from Washington State, and had never been to New York. She was a warm earthy person, totally foreign to his more sophisticated ways, and she thought he was the best thing to have ever happened to Liz. And he was perfect for her. Perfect in the way her husband had been before he died. Like two people carved from the same piece of wood, made to fit, made to blend, made to be together. She had never found anyone like him again, and she had stopped trying a long time since. She was content with her simple life in Sausalito, a few good friends, and the children she taught. And she was saving money to go to Philadelphia to see her grandchild.