by Elle Casey
She puts a key into a slot on the bank of buttons and then presses the thirty-five. “Yep. For now.”
I nod, waiting for the rest of her story.
“I’m not sure if we’re going to stay in here though or move somewhere else.”
“We meaning you and James Oliver?” I can’t keep the grin off my face.
“That’s him. That’s my Boo.” She grins. “We met in the craziest way. I’ll tell you all about it when we get settled in.”
“Will I be meeting him right now?” I wish I’d done something with my hair this afternoon, but I was so anxious to get here before it got too dark that I just threw it up in a rubber band again.
“No, he’s at work. But he’ll be home later.”
As we exit the elevator, the baby sneezes.
“Oh, poor baby,” Leah croons, “do you have a stuffy nose? Aunty Leah will wipe it off for you in just a second. Almost home…”
Aunty Leah? Does this mean she’s married? I can’t see her left hand from where I am. Damn. I’m seriously out of her loop. Superjerk strikes again. She didn’t even invite me to the wedding. I suppose it’s what I deserve.
“Hold her for me for a sec,” Leah says, turning around and dumping the baby into my arms.
I barely have time to drop my bag and get a hold of her when Leah lets go to unlock the door.
“Stupid key. I hate this thing.” She wrestles with the mechanism for a few seconds before it finally gives in. She throws the door open wide and grins. “Ta daa! Condo sweet condo.” She takes the baby from me and I grab the bag at my feet and follow her in.
I thought after seeing Leah dressed in Burberry and carrying a baby I would be prepared for anything, but I was wrong.
“Whoa,” I say as I slowly enter the condo and my eyes roam the colorful space.
“Told ya,” she says, grinning from ear to ear. “I’m still a flower child at heart.”
Chapter Three
THE ENTIRE ROOM IS PAINTED a light robin’s egg blue, the walls, the moldings, the ceiling, everything. None of the furniture matches, but it all somehow works. There’s hot pink, zebra print and marine-blue polka dots on the armchairs and couch. Silk pillows war with batik covered ones and yet they both end up winning. There’s a fireplace mantel, but inside it is a television. Artwork on the walls is a mix of multi-media pieces, Native American art, and if I’m not mistaken, a Renoir. I think Leah must have married a Bohemian rock star. I cannot wait to hear her story and meet this James Oliver guy. I have the strangest urge to Google him, but I won’t. I don’t want to be too obvious. I can be cool in the presence of a celebrity. I think.
“You can put your things in this room,” she says, leading me into a bedroom that’s clearly designed for a child. There’s a crib in the corner and stuffed animals covering every surface. A changing table is set up on top of a dresser and the closet door is open to reveal outfits of every color.
“Oh, no, this is your baby’s room, I can’t stay here.”
“Not yet it’s not. But don’t worry, Cassie doesn’t mind sharing.” She puts the baby in the crib, sitting her down in the center of it. “Keep an eye on her for me while I put the kettle on, would you? We can have some tea while we catch up.” She leaves the room before I have time to reply.
The baby watches her go, her expression going concerned.
Worried she’s going to start crying, I leave my bags on the bed and grab a stuffed animal off the shelf, shaking at her a little as I approach. “Look! It’s an elephant.”
She stops frowning and stares at me, her big blue eyes fringed with dark lashes so thick they look almost fake. Her hair is blonde and curls around her head in gentle waves. She reaches for the animal and pulls it away from me, never taking her eyes off mine. She’s suspicious of my motives, I can tell. I don’t have much experience with babies, but this particular girl is very expressive.
“Don’t worry. I’m not here to cause any trouble. I won’t take your room from you. It’s only temporary.”
Hearing myself say it, I realize how true it is. I can’t paint here. This place is pristine, and I highly doubt this condo has a room with enough light for me to work in. And even if they did have one, I can’t imagine they’d want me in there with my acrylics. Imagining myself in a corner of Leah’s studio apartment was fine, but here? No. It just feels wrong. Intrusive.
I hate that I’m already chickening out on my plan. It’s so depressing to think I’m back to square one without a clear future in sight. Leah was my last hope.
“Tea’s on!” says Leah from the other room. “Could you bring Cassie with you?”
Lifting the baby from the crib, I smile to keep the little girl from worrying again. She looks so serious as she descends to my hip, still holding the elephant against her.
“Don’t worry, it’s just me. I’m Sarah. I won’t hurt you. I love babies.”
Cassie shoves the elephant up into my face, squishing my nose sideways.
“Oh, thank you.” I lean away from it so I can see my way into the other room.
She keeps pushing. By the time I’m in the kitchen at the small table set with tea and cookies, I’m halfway to doing a backbend.
“Cassie, stop that,” Leah says, taking the elephant out of my face. “Sharing is nice, but over-sharing isn’t. Remember? I told you that already about fifty times.”
Cassie nearly does a head dive trying to retrieve the elephant from Leah’s hands. I hold onto her with an iron grip when I feel her slipping out of my arms.
“In the highchair first,” Leah says, talking to Cassie, “then the elephant. Come on.” She takes the baby from me and puts her in the chair, trapping her in with a clipped-on tray. “There we go,” she says, breathing out a sigh of relief. Her gaze shifts to me. “Have a seat and we can chat while we stuff ourselves with cookies.”
I lower myself into the seat opposite her. Cassie is between us, to my left. Leah spills a few Cheerios on the baby’s tray and then busies herself with pouring us tea out of a gorgeous teapot that has a ceramic bird on top of it. She’s too busy to notice me staring at her clothing.
Never have I seen Leah looking so sharp, so put together, so … so … rich. There’s no other word for it. That outfit had to cost more than her old studio rent.
“So, what brings you to Manhattan?” she asks, winking at me.
It’s not cold in here, but I feel like I’m about to start shaking. I squeeze my hands together between my legs, the denim seams pressing into my skin. “Change. A need for change, I guess you could say.”
“You were living in the city before, right? Down there in Boston? That doesn’t sound like much of a change.”
“Yeah, I was, but … yeah.” I sigh. Not having a plan sounded bold and exciting a few weeks ago. Now it just feels irresponsible and stupid.
“At loose ends, is that it?” She sits down and takes a cookie from the plate in front of us. “I know how you feel.”
My eyebrows go up. “You’re at loose ends?”
“No, not now. But I was.” She grins.
The happiness evident in that grin finally calms me down. Who cares about my life? I want to know about hers.
“So what’s the deal, woman?” I ask. “Last time I saw you, you were living in a hole in the wall, barely making ends meet.”
“I know,” she says, looking off into the distance. “Remember that?” She turns her attention back to me. “After I saw you, I moved to another hole in the wall. That place really sucked. I got evicted.” She shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “I don’t know what I would have done if Boo hadn’t come around.”
“Who is this Boo person, anyway?” I look behind me at the living room. “Is he a rock star or something?”
She looks up at me surprised and then starts laughing. “Are you kidding me? James Oliver a rock star? That’ll be the day.” She snorts and then crunches away on her cookie. “No, James is a plastic surgeon. He’s about as stick in the mud as a guy can get.”
I gesture towards the other room. “So what’s all this?”
“What? That?” She points to the living room.
“Yeah.”
“That’s all me.”
I twist around in my seat so I can take it all in. “Really? Because it’s fabulous. Really, really cool. I love it.”
“You should have seen it before. I think I have a picture.” She gets up and leaves me with the baby, who is very carefully picking up one Cheerio at a time and eating them. She eyes me with a serious expression, her little arm moving like it’s in slow motion. She’s a very precise child.
“Here.” Leah comes back in the room and hands me a framed photograph. “That’s James and his sister Jana, and you can see the living room in the background.”
The difference is shocking. The old decor reminds me of a hotel room — a very expensive one on a private island somewhere. A bit too sterile, though. Definitely nothing like it looks now. And James? Oh my goodness gracious. He’s hot. Definitely not the type that Leah ever went for before. He must really be special, because I know for a fact it’s not his money that got Leah going for him. She was always kind of an anti-money person.
“It’s very … white,” I say, trying not to offend whoever decorated before Leah.
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
I hold it up against the background of the newly decorated room. “The difference is like night and day.”
“When James asked me to move in, I started redecorating pretty much right away. I couldn’t take all that white and cream. I felt like I was living inside a carton of milk. It was depressing as hell. It really harshed my mellow.”
Turning back around, I laugh. Leah always had a way of painting pictures with her words. She and I were the perfect buddies; she painted with words and I with acrylics.
“I can imagine.” I take a sip of my hot tea, burning my throat in the process. “So, how did you two meet? Seems like he’s not the kind of guy you normally date. Are you dating, or are you married?” My gaze slips to her left hand. There’s a diamond there but no other band.
“We’re not married yet, but we will be. Next summer maybe, if I can hold out that long.” Her hand drops to her waist and she rubs her stomach.
It’s the first time I notice a slight bulge there. Is she pregnant? Should I dare ask?
“We met earlier this year when I found a ring he lost … actually his brother lost it … and I tracked him down, and we just kind of fell in love.” Her expression goes dreamy.
“A ring?” This story is getting better by the second. “How did you find it? How did you know it was his?”
“Actually, it was an engagement ring he bought for someone else, and I found out it was his by the laser engraving on the diamond. He’d bought it at Cartier, so I just went there with the laser-number and they knew he was the owner.”
“Wow. That’s just … wow.” Talk about destiny. I’m jealous that the universe is so obviously in her corner. What does a girl have to do to get that kind of power on her side? I wish I knew. It makes me even happier that I came here. Maybe some of her good karma will rub off on me.
“I know. It’s a long story, but it ended up well.” She rubs her belly again. Suddenly she seems very shy. “We found out we’re pregnant pretty much right after we moved in together. I’m five months along. Almost six.”
“Congratulations!” I reach over and touch her hand as it rests on the table. If it were me finding out I was pregnant just after moving in with a guy, it wouldn’t be a congratulatory moment, but she seems to be happy about her situation. And who am I to judge? I’m nobody to be moralizing over anyone’s decisions. I don’t even have a place to live anymore, and I’m hoping to sponge off a friend I’ve neglected for way too long. Yeah … judging is the very last thing I should be doing.
She’s all dreamy again, oblivious to my discomfort. “Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. I was scared to death at first, of course, but after taking care of Cassie every other weekend and getting to know James better, I know it’s a good thing. Karma took good care of me.”
I look at the baby, trying to see her features on a man’s face. “So who is Cassie? Is she his daughter?” This is getting juicer by the second. I can’t believe my friend is so cool with taking care of some other woman’s baby like that. Cassie can’t be more than nine months old.
“No, she’s his niece.”
“Oh.” That makes a lot more sense.
“His brother has kind of fallen off the map, so James and his sister Jana take turns with Cassie.”
I’m not sure I understood correctly. “Fallen off the map? What does that mean?”
Leah’s face loses its sparkle. “It’s a really sad story. Eight, almost nine months ago, Jeremy — that’s James’s brother — was married to this girl named Laura. She was nine months pregnant. One day she went out by herself, and she got hit by a car.”
“Oh my god.” My heart seizes up just hearing the story, and I don’t even know these people. Poor Jeremy. I wonder how old he is, if he’s James’s younger or older brother.
“Yeah. It was bad. So Cassie was born as her mother died. It was all very tragic. Jeremy adored his wife, and from everything I hear, I guess she was a pretty special person. James and Jana loved her so much.”
“That’s so sad.” Tears are welling up in my eyes for complete strangers.
“Yeah, it is. And ever since her funeral, Jeremy’s been on a mission to basically drink himself to death.”
“Oh, God. Awful.” I’m shaking my head, picturing this man at a bar slumped over and wallowing in pain.
“Yes, it’s awful. Worse than awful. James and Jana had to go to court and get guardianship over Cassie. Jeremy never even showed up to the hearing. Now they can’t find him.”
“That’s horrible!” My tea has gone cold, but I don’t care. I need to drink it to keep my hands busy. I feel like crawling into bed and crying myself to sleep. And I thought my life sucked…
“So, poor little Cassie here has to deal with me playing mom and Jana playing mom and James trying to be a stand-in dad.” She reaches out and takes the baby’s hand, leaning over to kiss the back of it.
Looking at Cassie again, I see her in a whole new light. No wonder she’s so serious. Even at less than a year old, she’s aware of her circumstances. I can see it. “What about her real dad? Doesn’t he come visit her at least?”
“Nope. Never. Even when he was around, he never mentioned her.”
“But why? She’s so beautiful.” I reach out and stroke her little head. Her hair is so soft and silky. She looks at me calmly as she shoves another Cheerio in her mouth.
“It’s too painful for him. He told James once that he talks to his wife’s ghost. He’s really messed up.”
“And you don’t even know if he’s around?”
“Nope. James hired a private investigator and everything. He’s disappeared without a trace.”
“Doesn’t he have a job? Or need money to pay for all those drinks?”
“No, he doesn’t work anymore. He used to renovate houses with his wife, but he only did that to keep busy with her. All of the Olivers have a ton of money they got from their parents and grandparents. He’s not using his credit cards, though. That much we do know.”
“You said James is a surgeon?”
“Yeah. He does it to keep busy too.” She refills her tea and sighs. “It’s not that he doesn’t love it, he does. But he doesn’t need to work. He just … does it to keep everyone happy.”
“Everyone like who? You?”
“Me? Heck no.” She snorts. “As if. Honestly, I think he’s doing it to keep himself from having to deal with Jeremy right now. I try to get him to slow down, but it’s not easy. He doesn’t really know how to relax yet, but we’re working on it.” She sips more of her tea. “I work for him part-time and for a friend part-time in her shop. Otherwise, I hang out, decorate this place, or take care of Cassie.” She shrugs. “I’ve had friend
s of Jana’s ask me to decorate their places, but so far I’ve said no. I’m too busy with Cassie, and soon I’ll be busy with my own baby, so…”
“Sounds like a great life.” I really mean that. I’m not just giving her the response that’s called for after hearing her story. There’s drama here, for sure, but I can sense the love they have in this family. It comes through in her tone, and in the fact that this man from a completely different world from us let this crazy girl come in and turn his life upside down, and gave her a job. I actually envy Leah, when before I think it used to be the other way around. I used to have my stuff together, back in the day, back when I thought I knew what I was doing with my life.
“I was going to bring Cassie back to Jana’s place. Do you want to come with us or rest before dinner?”
I stand, bringing my teacup over to the sink. “I think I’ll rest if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. Take a nap, shower, do whatever you want. James and I will be back around seven thirty or so and we’ll have dinner after.”
“Sounds good.” I pause to hug Leah and then kiss Cassie on the top of her head.
The little angel turns her head sideways and then tilts it way back to be able to see me behind and above her. She blinks her eyes a few times, looking wise beyond her years.
I’m holding back tears looking at her beautiful face. “See you again soon, Cassie, I hope.”
“Oh, you will. She’s here a lot.” Leah busies herself with wiping the baby’s face as I leave the kitchen.
After a quick pitstop in the bathroom, I’m back in my borrowed bedroom. I lie down on the bed and use the throw-blanket at the foot of it to keep warm, thinking I’ll just sleep a half hour or so to refresh myself.
The next thing I know, it’s eight o’clock and time for dinner.
Chapter Four
A TALL MAN IN DARK gray suit trousers and a white shirt with the tie mostly undone is standing in the middle of the living room, a glass of what looks like whiskey in his hand.
“You must be Sarah,” he says, lowering the glass and walking over to me, smiling.
