by Maria Geraci
The sound of a man clearing his throat startled them both. She looked up to see Brandon. How long had he been standing there? Not long, or surely either she or Joe would have noticed him before now. The two men exchanged a curt greeting. Joe went back to his table and that was that.
“I’m sorry,” Brandon said. “Did I interrupt something?”
“Nothing I wasn’t expecting.” She looked over at Joe’s table and Brandon followed her gaze, staring for what was longer than had to be considered polite.
“Are you okay?” Grace asked.
“Sure . . . sure.” He shook his head as if to clear it. “I should be asking you that.”
“I’ll be all right.” Considering everything that had happened, Joe was being incredibly nice. She’d lied to him. And even though she hadn’t done it on purpose, the boyfriend club review had made him out to be some cold, calculating playboy schemer. It was a miracle he’d even bothered coming over to talk to her.
Brandon opened his menu. “What are you hungry for?”
“Honestly? I’ve lost my appetite. Sorry.”
“I’m not hungry anymore either,” he admitted.
“You want to come back to my place and watch a movie? We could make popcorn and drink cheap wine.”
“Why not?” Brandon motioned for the server to bring their check. “That actually sounds pretty good right now.” Grace was surprised at how easily Brandon had capitulated. He was probably just saying that to make her feel better. Despite what he’d said earlier, he really was awfully sweet.
Brandon pulled the car up to the front of the restaurant and opened the door for her. “So what movie are we going to watch?” he asked.
“Anything except Titanic. I’m not in the mood to get vested in another doomed relationship.”
“Me either,” said Brandon.
33
Reconciliation Is the New Confession
It was five p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. And way past time to face the music. Had it only been three days since the firing/big announcement? Pop’s car wasn’t in the driveway and Grace had to admit she was relieved, big coward that she was. Mami was in the kitchen, mincing an onion. Thin cuts of steak lay marinating in garlic and lemon on a plate to the side. Mami was making Bistec Palomillo, Grace’s favorite comfort food. She just wished she was hungry enough to want to eat.
“Where’s Abuela?” she asked her mother after giving her a kiss on the cheek.
“Taking a nap.” Mami smiled wistfully.
Grace was glad that it was just the two of them. There were times in a woman’s life when, no matter how old she was, the person she needed most was her mother.
“Mami, what do you think about Charlie and Sarah? Honestly?”
Mami finished mincing the onion and wiped her hands on a dish towel. “Well, I wish they could have gotten married in the Church, with Father Donnelly saying the Mass and Charlie wearing a tuxedo and looking all handsome and Sarah in a proper wedding dress, but . . .” Mami shook her head. “It wouldn’t guarantee that the marriage would last. I’m happy. I think this is the real thing.”
“You don’t think it’s too soon after Sarah’s divorce?”
“I think it wasn’t soon enough. I don’t think you should put a timetable on happiness.”
So everyone had seen the Charlie/Sarah connection a lot sooner than Grace had. And here Sarah was supposed to be her best friend, the person whom she knew better than anyone. It seemed Grace didn’t know Sarah at all. Not if Sarah had been harboring some secret love for Charlie all this time. As for Charlie . . . In retrospect, it made sense. There were tiny signs here and there that Grace had seen but chosen to ignore. Mainly because it was futile, Sarah being a married woman and all. But they’d been there.
“Is Pop really mad at me?” Grace asked.
“He’ll get over it. He’s mainly angry at himself.”
“Why would Pop be angry at himself? He hasn’t done anything.”
“That’s exactly why he’s angry. He thinks he should have paid more attention to the store.” Mami shrugged. “I think he’s still a little angry at me too, for the constant hovering I’ve done the past couple of years. But he’ll get over it.”
“What do I do now?” Grace asked. It felt surreal, going to her mother for advice at age thirty the way she’d done when she was a little girl and had messed up something.
“About what? About your job? About the thing on the radio? Oh, I heard.” Mami shook her head. “What were you thinking, starting up this boyfriend club?”
That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it?
“I honestly don’t know.” She thought about the way it had affected the people in her life. Like Charlie and Brandon. But most especially Joe. “What if Pop and I never get over this?”
“You mean, what if he stays mad at you forever?” Mami smiled in the way mothers did when they thought their adult children were being silly. “Grace, your father worked for his father for the first ten years of our marriage. Do you really believe they never fought? Your grandfather fired your father at least three times before you were even born.”
Grace was stunned. “Why haven’t I heard that before?”
“Working with family is never easy. There’s a line that gets crossed so often, after a while you don’t even see it anymore. The last time your father got fired, he had to come to terms with the fact that he wasn’t the only one with a good idea. That maybe your grandfather knew a thing or two about the business and that he should shut up and listen and learn. I’m not saying that you and your father can work together. I don’t even know if that’s what you want. But believe me when I tell you that, while your father might be unhappy with you right now as an employee, it doesn’t change the way he feels about you as a daughter.”
She poured some olive oil into a hot pan and fried up one of the steaks, then slid it into a plate and covered it in onions. “You’re too skinny. Sit down and eat this or we’re going to have to start calling you Cucumber instead of Tomato.”
Sarah’s car was parked in front of Grace’s town house but there was no one in the car, which meant she was inside, waiting. It made perfect sense, since Sarah had her own key to Grace’s place. Sarah wasn’t waiting alone. She had reinforcements in the way of frozen margaritas. She’d even taken the time to rim their glasses with salt.
“Am I going to need that or are you?” Grace asked, taking the margarita Sarah offered.
“We both are.”
“Sounds ominous.”
“I listened to Speedway,” Sarah said, lifting her margarita glass to her lips. The movement brought Grace’s attention to the humongous diamond ring on Sarah’s left hand. When had this happened? Grace tried not to stare. Was Sarah going to show it to her? Or should Grace mention it first?
What was the proper etiquette when your best friend ran off with your brother and didn’t even have the decency to give you a heads-up?
“I think all of Daytona Beach listened to Speedway,” Grace said.
“Grace, I’m so sorry about everything. Especially about losing your job.” Sarah paused. “Your mother told Charlie, and he told me.”
“I deserved it. Joe and I are through too.” Grace tried for a bright smile, because this martyr gig really wasn’t her thing. “It was inevitable. The St. Valentine’s Day Curse, right? And you tried to warn me the boyfriend club was a bad idea. I just wish I’d listened.”
“You don’t really believe you’re cursed, do you?”
“Why not? Someone has to be cursed.” She downed some more of the margarita. Maybe she’d get drunk again tonight.
“Do you think Ellen has left her house yet?” Sarah asked, in an obvious attempt to lighten the conversation. “The last I heard, Speedway had upped the bounty on the panties picture to three hundred bucks.”
“For three hundred bucks I’ll take a picture of Ellen’s panties myself. I need the money now that I’m out of a job.”
They both laughed, but it felt fake.
Have you told Sarah yet? Because she deserves to know the whole truth. The two of you will never be right until you do.
Joe was right about one thing: She and Sarah weren’t right. Only it wasn’t because Grace hadn’t opened up. This time, it was Sarah who was hiding something. Something big.
“Sarah, are you really in love with my brother? Because if this is some kind of rebound, then maybe it’s not too late to—”
“Grace, I’ve never loved anyone but Charlie.”
“Really? Because I thought you did a pretty good imitation with Craig.”
“Craig was a mistake.”
“No shit.”
“Why are you mad at me? I thought you’d be thrilled! Wasn’t it just last month you were trying to get me and Charlie together?”
“Yeah, get you together on a date. That’s how it works. First you go on some dates, then you get serious. Then you get engaged, and then you get married. The whole process usually lasts longer than twelve hours.” She knew she sounded like a bitch, but she couldn’t help herself.
“You think I’ve taken advantage of Charlie.”
“Does this have anything to do with what I told you the other night? About Craig cheating on you with Carla before the wedding? Is running off to marry Charlie some kind of revenge against Craig?”
“Grace, listen to me. I’m glad you told me about Craig and Carla! It made everything so much easier for me.”
“Easier?” Grace began pacing the living room. “You’ll have to explain that one, Sarah, because right now all I can think about is the sound of your voice six months ago when you called to tell me that you’d just caught your husband in bed with another woman. If you don’t remember, maybe I can replay it for you, because believe me, that voice has pretty much haunted me every day since.”
Sarah flinched. “I’m sorry. I should have told you the truth a long time ago.”
“So tell me now.”
Sarah downed the rest of her margarita like she was going to need it.
“The reason I was so hysterical on the phone that night wasn’t because I was upset about finding Craig and Carla together. Although, I have to admit, it was a shocker. I was hysterical because I gave up Charlie for nothing. Grace, I’ve been in love with Charlie since . . . well, I could say that I’ve been in love with him since I was seventeen, only that wouldn’t really be true. That was more of a schoolgirl crush. But I can honestly say that I’ve been in love with him, I mean really in love with him, for the past six years.”
Grace stopped her pacing. “What?”
“Charlie’s version of our getting together wasn’t exactly honest,” Sarah said. “He made up that whole story of me discovering my feelings Saturday night to protect me.”
“You’ve totally lost me.” Grace took a huge swig of her margarita. Sarah wasn’t the only one who needed a little fortification.
“Do you remember the weekend that a bunch of us all went up to the Florida-FSU football game and we stayed at that bed-and-breakfast in Micanopy? I’d just gotten my interior design license and I was going out with Martin and you were dating that guy Pete.”
“The one who kept doing the Seminole chop in my face every time Florida scored a touchdown? What an asshole!”
“Yeah.” Sarah laughed a little. “And Charlie and some of his friends showed up, and he brought that girl with him, the one who laughed at everything he said like he was some kind of rock star and we kept making fun of her behind her back?”
“Trish the Dish. Blonde, long legs, big boobs.”
“God, I think I still hate her.”
Grace conjured up a fuzzy image of that weekend. She remembered Sarah acting strange. Oddly quiet one minute, giddy the next.
“From the minute that weekend started, I was a mess inside and I couldn’t figure out why. And then it hit me: I was jealous of Trish. And I don’t mean jealous in a little way either. I wanted to freakin’ knock her out.”
“That’s when you realized you were in love with Charlie?” Grace asked.
“You remember how we tailgated after the game, and that by the time we got back to the inn it was really late? And everyone just crashed because they were so drunk and tired. But I wasn’t drunk and I wasn’t tired, so I took a walk to clear my head about . . . you know, all these strange feelings I was having. A cold front had come in and I hadn’t brought my jacket with me, so I cut my walk short. And when I got back to the inn, Charlie was sitting on the porch in one of those big rocking chairs, smoking a cigar, which was weird because I’d never seen him smoke before. And he gave me his jacket and he showed me how to smoke the cigar the right way, but I just kept coughing and we started laughing. And I knew, I mean, I just knew that he’d seen me leave and that he’d been sitting there waiting for me to come back all that time.”
Grace held her breath.
“We must have talked for at least four hours. And he told me . . . well, we kissed, and oh my God, Grace.” The look on Sarah’s face made Grace swallow hard. “It was beyond anything I’d ever felt, and I knew then that Charlie was the only one for me and I wanted to wake you up and tell you everything.”
“Why didn’t you?” None of this made sense. This was Sarah, her best friend, who told her everything. Only apparently not.
“I wish I had, because I wanted to tell someone. I wanted to tell you, but I was afraid you might . . . Remember how we used to make bets on how long Charlie’s girlfriends would last? I think deep down I was afraid that you might try to talk me out of him.”
“Talk you out of him? Why would I have talked you out of my own brother?”
But in that instant, Grace knew what Sarah said was true. On some level, just like Abuela and Mami, Grace had suspected there was something between Charlie and Sarah, only that level was buried so deep inside it hadn’t found its way to the surface. Not until that night at Grace’s apartment when she’d seen them bantering and caught the look of sheer longing on Charlie’s face. But even then, Grace hadn’t suspected the depth of those feelings. Or that Sarah felt them just as strongly. Grace hadn’t wanted to.
Sarah took a deep breath and continued. “So I thought, okay, this is it. It all begins now and I won’t have to tell Grace because she’ll see it. Only the next day he was the old Charlie again, calling me squirt and acting like nothing had happened between us. Then, about a week later, we went out for coffee and he told me he was sorry, that it would be dumb of us to start something because if—and I could tell what he really meant was when—it went sour, it would be too awkward between you and me, since you were my best friend and I was already practically part of the family. So it was best to just leave things the way they were.”
“Charlie got cold feet.”
“I was so angry, Grace. I started yelling at him right in the middle of Starbucks.”
“You yelled in public?”
“Oh, yeah. I showed out bad. I told him he was just a big coward and that he didn’t deserve me and that one day he would be sorry.”
How could all this have gone on and Grace not known about it?
Sarah, who was like a sister to her. Sarah, who Grace loved just as much as she loved Charlie, had gone through all this and had never said a word to her.
“Then I started dating Craig and we got serious and I thought, this is it again. I was at a crossroads, and surely Charlie would say something or do something, but he never did. It’s not that I didn’t love Craig in my own way. But I was settling and it was just stupid. Really, really stupid of me. And then before I knew it, Craig asked me to marry him and I said yes. And Mother planned this huge wedding, and everything cost a fortune, and a few days before the wedding Craig and I got in a big fight. He told me that he loved me but that if I wasn’t really into it that we should call the whole thing off. And I freaked and told him that there was no way I was backing out.
“Then, the night before my wedding . . . the night before my wedding, Grace! Charlie knocked on my door at two in the morni
ng. He’d been drinking. He asked me to call things off with Craig and give him another chance. If he thought he’d seen me angry before, he hadn’t seen anything yet. What was I supposed to do? Call everything off because Charlie had finally come to his senses?” Sarah blinked, and Grace could see she was fighting back tears. “I told him he was too late and to get the hell out of there and to never talk to me again unless he had to.”
Sarah’s stubborn and unforgiving. Charlie hadn’t been talking about Craig; he’d been talking about his own relationship with Sarah. The thought made Grace shiver.
“My brother is a total idiot.”
“I’m the idiot. If I’d just swallowed my pride and had some guts, I’d have called off my wedding.”
“But what he was asking . . . the night before your wedding! I don’t know how he could have expected you to change your mind like that.” Then something occurred to Grace. “If I’d told you about Craig and Carla, maybe you would have.”
The realization that Grace’s omission had done so much more harm that she’d even imagined was staggering.
“I don’t know, Grace. I was angry at Charlie. And I wanted to hurt him the way he’d hurt me. Maybe this was how it was all supposed to happen. Maybe Charlie and I had to go through everything to get to where we are now.”
“You think you were supposed to stay married to a lying scumbag for two years before you got your happily-ever-after?”
There was a long silence before Sarah spoke again. Her voice was low and Grace had to strain to hear her. “Craig didn’t cheat on me until after I’d cheated on him. At least, not while we were married.”
“But that’s not possible!” Even as she said it, Grace realized that anything was possible. Everything she thought she knew about herself, about Sarah, even about her own brother had been challenged in the past few days.
“Last May, when Craig was out of town on business, I ran into Charlie at the gas station.” Sarah shook her head. “Not the most romantic place in the world, but it was the first time since the night before my wedding that Charlie and I had been alone together, you know, without family or someone we knew around. We talked and I followed him back to his place and I think it took us about all of five minutes before we started tearing off each other’s clothes. You have no idea what it’s like to want something so badly for so long and then finally have it.”
