by Jenny Lee
“Where are you going? Why aren’t we going into the house?” he asked, crossly.
Anna didn’t answer, because she couldn’t without lying. She didn’t want to go into the house with Alexander, because it was now the setting of some of her newest and best memories, which she didn’t want to spoil with the ugly ones she was sure were about to come. “There’s a heat lamp. And privacy.” Walking faster, she reached the high hedges that surrounded the oval black-bottomed pool. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to drive you home,” Alexander said. “It’s supposed to snow tonight.”
“We’re in Daddy’s Escalade, it has four-wheel drive. But that’s not what I meant. I didn’t know you were coming in this weekend at all.”
“Eleanor’s dinner is tomorrow night now,” he answered. “She kept calling and begging me to come down, Anna. You know how she gets. What else was I supposed to do?”
“Tell her the world doesn’t stop and start just because it’s her goddamn birthday.” Anna had meant to stay calm, but she couldn’t. She was pissed.
“Anna,” he said.
“Don’t ‘Anna’ me, Alexander. You’re not my father. I can say what I want. There have been ten thousand emails about this stupid dinner. You do realize I’m not the one related to her, right?”
“Have you been drinking?”
“Yes, I have. You know why? It’s a party! That’s what people do at parties, drink and have fun. But maybe you don’t know that, because we never go to parties.”
“Why are you talking to me in that tone? I’m not sure I understand what’s going on with you. What have I done to make you like this?” His voice was now a little bit louder.
“Like what?”
“You’re barely wearing any clothes and it’s freezing. Did Steven give you drugs?”
Anna ignored his question and continued. “Did you know it was a costume party? Why aren’t you wearing one?”
“I’m not here for the party; I’m here for you.”
“But why? I told you I was spending the night, and I’d be back tomorrow.”
“Eleanor was worried you’d get snowed in and Steven’s not the most responsible—”
“I’m not your responsibility. I’m your girlfriend!” Anna yelled.
“Anna.” His voice was calm now. “You are my girlfriend and I love you. That’s why I’m here.”
“Excellent. Then let’s go join the party and have some fun.”
“Anna.” Alexander looked at his gold Rolex. “I can’t. It’s getting late and my paper’s not going to write itself.”
“Oh my god! If you want to stay, great. If you want to go write your stupid paper, then go do that.” Anna stood. “Because I’m going back to the party.” She really needed to leave because she had no idea what she might say or do if she didn’t. It was like the barn doors had been thrown open and all the horses were running free, trying to escape a terrible fire.
“The fellow you were dancing with?” Alexander asked and Anna stopped. “Is he the guy I met at the train station?”
Anna couldn’t turn around to face her boyfriend, so instead she talked to the hedges in front of her. “Vronsky. He’s Bea’s cousin.”
“I trust you implicitly,” Alexander began. “But I couldn’t help noticing that people seem to be talking about you two in a way that is … disheartening.”
“Are you accusing me of something?” Anna asked, whipping around in the dark to face him. “People gossip, Alexander. This is Bea’s crowd, it’s like a sport for them. I’ve done nothing wrong. We were dancing, so what? I’ve been dancing with lots of different people all night.” She looked Alexander straight in the eyes for the first time since he arrived.
“You’re beautiful,” Alexander said in a soft voice. “So beautiful that when you walk into a room, every boy can’t help but notice. Clearly, Vronsky is taken with you, and I don’t blame him. I’m not saying you’re purposefully leading him on, but what I am saying is if you do so, even by accident, it would be untoward. To him, and to me. You should be careful not to let him misinterpret your overtures of friendship as anything more. I don’t like to be the subject of gossip.”
Anna closed the gap between them in four steps, now inches away from his face. “Then you should have worn a costume,” she said. “I’m going back to the tent, or we could go skinny-dipping together. C’mon, I’ll even strip first.” She knew her challenge would be met with silence, which it was. “Figured as much.” Anna turned and headed back toward the house. Alexander’s exasperated sigh made a cloud in the chilly air and then he followed her.
When they were halfway up the grassy lawn, a figure approached them in the dark. “Alexander? Annie?” Eleanor’s voice cut shrilly through the darkness. “Where have you been? Aren’t you cold, Anna? I’m freezing. I should have worn my long coat like Mommy told me to. Some weirdo dressed like the Cookie Monster spilled his wine on my dress and now three of my polka dots are burgundy!”
“I’m going back to the party,” Anna said as she passed Eleanor in the dark.
“But, but…” Eleanor whined, giving Alexander a confused look. “It’s almost one in the morning, shouldn’t we leave? You know I’m prone to dark circles when I don’t sleep enough.”
“Anna’s staying,” Alexander said, putting his arm around his sister’s shoulders. “C’mon, I need to get a cup of coffee to warm up before we head out.”
Eleanor held her ground. “What do you mean, she’s staying? We drove all this way to get her. This is so not fair to me.”
“It was a mistake. My mistake,” Alexander responded. He waited for a moment longer, and then he, too, continued walking toward the tent.
“Alexander!” Eleanor cried out, stomping her foot in the wet grass. “Wait for me!”
When Alexander and Eleanor entered the tent, Anna was sitting on the floor next to Beatrice, who was in Rooster’s lap. Surrounding them were Olivia, Brayton the ballerina (who was dressed as Belle from Beauty and the Beast), and Adaka. Alexander walked past them to the coffee station by the desserts, and fixed himself a double espresso, which he needed before he made the long drive back to Greenwich, especially with an unhappy Eleanor in the passenger seat. He walked back to the couch area and stood behind Anna. Anna didn’t turn to greet him.
“Beatrice, thank you for the lovely party, but Eleanor and I are going to head out now,” he said in a subdued voice. He was about to turn and go, as he had fulfilled his duty by thanking the host, but he stopped. “Also, I apologize. It was rude of me to not show up in costume.”
“No apology necessary,” said Beatrice, who had just taken a hit from the hookah, which contained a purple budded hybrid called Crunchberry. She exhaled a huge plume of smoke that rose and shrouded Alexander in a momentary fog. Beatrice smiled, the squinty-eyed smile of the super-stoned. “If anyone asks, just say you came as a giant dick.”
XXVII
Vronsky and Murf were perched on two different sturdy branches of a hundred-year-old oak tree in the center of the circular driveway. It hadn’t been an easy tree to climb, but they managed it by carrying over a large decorative urn from the front steps of the house. The urn weighed at least two hundred pounds, but between the two of them, they beasted it to the base of the tree.
Murf was rolling a blunt in his lap while Vronsky stared off, looking dejected. “You goin’ true Scotsman under there, flying commando?” Murf asked, nodding at Vronsky’s kilt.
“No freeballin’ tonight,” he said. “Gotta keep it classy. Anna’s here, I mean … she was.”
“Well, good then, we already had one dickhead pop up at this party,” Murf chuckled. “Except it wasn’t yours; it was your girl’s.” He lit the freshly rolled blunt then passed it to Vronsky, who took a drag and held in the smoke for as long as he could, hoping to ease his troubled mind. Tonight was his big chance with Anna, and it hadn’t gone well. “Alexander…” he muttered disdainfully, exhaling the smoke.
Murf took the blun
t from Vronsky and shook his head. “That guy is everything I hate about Greenwich. I don’t know how you didn’t put hands on that chump waltzin’ up in here acting like he owned Anna’s ass.”
“The thought crossed my mind,” Vronsky said.
“If I were you I’d’ve shown homeboy some manners, but if my black ass so much as looks at a guy like Alexander the wrong way, shit, I can hear the police sirens just thinking about it…”
“So you’re calling me a pussy then.”
“Yeah, basically.”
Vronsky laughed and shook his head. “This girl’s in my goddamn head, man.”
Murf took huge rip off the blunt and let out an enormous amount of smoke drift up into the branches. “Maybe you wanna drop this whole Anna K. obsession you got going on. I ain’t ever seen so much talent in one place as there is here tonight and I’m sure all these little shorties would happily line up to make your pretty ass forget your troubles. I mean, Anna’s great, but she’s just a girl.”
“I wish it were that simple.”
“Tell me why it’s not.”
“How can I explain it to you when I don’t even understand it? It’s like whenever I see her, nothing else matters except for her, like I just wanna be around her all the fucking time and I’m obsessed with everything she says and does and when she’s away from me, I feel completely and utterly empty, like I’m a ghost or something.”
“You know what you sound like?”
“What?”
“Every single girl who’s ever been in love with you.” Murf laughed. “Kidding! But real talk, you, my friend, are in hella deep,” Murf said. “Which means you got one play left.”
“What’s that?”
“You gotta go after her with everything you got. No more of this bullshittin’ around, having your cuz throw big-ass parties just so y’all can be in the same place.”
“I know, I know, I just wish she didn’t leave with that asshole…”
Murf cut Vronsky off and put his finger to his lips with a quiet shush, stubbing out the blunt on the tree bark as none other than Alexander and Eleanor burst through the front doors of the house and hurried down the steps. Up in the tree, Vronsky and Murf could hear them clear as day.
“This is ridiculous!” Eleanor’s whiny voice cut through the cold winter night. “Just go back in there and make her come home with us.”
“And what do you propose I do? Club her over the head and throw her over my shoulder like a caveman?”
“She’s your girlfriend!” Eleanor wailed. “You shouldn’t leave her here with all these drunken idiots frolicking around like they’re at some bacchanal in ancient Greece!”
“Just get in the car. I want to go home.” Alexander opened the passenger door of his hunter-green Range Rover for Eleanor, but she didn’t get in.
“I’m going back in to get her,” she said, and her half-brother grabbed her by the arm.
“No, you’re not,” Alexander said sternly.
Still listening breathlessly up in the tree, Vronsky and Murf both looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
“Let go of my arm,” Eleanor said, her nostrils flaring.
Alexander released his grip and Eleanor got into the front seat, slamming the door behind her. He walked around the back of the Range Rover and grabbed both sides of his head before composing himself and getting in on the driver’s side.
“Damn.” Murf finally breathed as the SUV trundled away down the long driveway. “At least that white girl showed some fight, which is more than I can say for his sorry ass. You know what I say, he’s canceled. Anna deserves better.”
Vronsky remained silent, his head spinning as much from the new development as the pot. “She’s still here…”
“Looks like it’s your lucky night … hopefully both our lucky nights. Those two model chicks your cousin’s friends with been clockin’ me since dinner.” Murf hopped down out of the tree and looked up at Vronsky. “You wanna go hit the dance floor, let old Murf show you how to tear it up?”
“I have to find Anna,” Vronsky said.
“Hells yeah y’are,” said Murf. “Time to go out-gangsta the OG.” Murf danced around in the frozen grass like a prizefighter warming up for the ring.
Vronsky hit the ground beneath the tree with a soft catlike plunk. The first snowflakes of the night began to drift in the frigid night air. “Hey, Murf.”
“Whatup, bruh?”
“What if she doesn’t feel the same way about me?”
His friend stopped jumping about and thought for a moment. He walked over to Vronsky and put a hand on his shoulder and looked him square in the eyes. “Then at least you’ll know…”
Vronsky exhaled deeply, the high from the marijuana enveloping him and shielding him from all thoughts of his feelings for Anna going unrequited. In his mind, that was an impossibility. “Yeah,” he said. “I guess.”
“Come on, Romeo. Last one to the tent is a no-ass-gettin’ chump,” Murf said and took off running.
Vronsky broke into a sprint.
XXVIII
After putting Lolly to bed, Steven found his sister in the chef’s-grade kitchen, sitting on the pantry floor, stabbing at a five-gallon tub of strawberry ice cream with an oversized spoon. It hadn’t taken him long to find her in the enormous house, because he knew exactly where to look. Many times, he had found his sister sitting in the pantry of their own house, eating a snack. She did this out of necessity, unable to enjoy her food while two drooling dogs stared at her. She would find a small space with a door where she could hide and eat without distraction. The pantry door in their Greenwich house had been painted twice to remove the scratch marks.
Anna, no longer wearing her platinum blond wig, looked up at Steven expectantly, as though she had been waiting for him the whole time. The pantry was bigger than most Manhattan studio apartments and could easily fit a bedroom set. He entered and closed the door behind him, joining Anna on the floor. She reached over and handed her brother a second spoon, which confirmed she had been expecting him.
Steven, wired from all the coke he had done, seized the spoon and dug in. “Lolly’s passed out. She’s going to freak when she finds out what she did. By accident, of course.”
“Don’t say anything,” Anna told him. “It wasn’t her fault. I only have myself to blame. Well, and Eleanor.”
Steven agreed. As much as he wasn’t a fan of Anna’s boyfriend, he despised Eleanor’s self-righteous brand of brattiness even more. It was spoiled whiny girls like her that gave rich kids a bad name. He had once witnessed Eleanor pitch a fit at a country club Sunday brunch when they hired a new pastry chef who added raisins to the carrot cake. “Who fucking shows up like that? Normally party crashers come to have fun, but they were more like party crushers.”
“She was worried we’d get snowed in and I’d miss her stupid birthday dinner tomorrow night.” Anna didn’t see the point in telling her brother that her boyfriend had also felt Steven would impede her punctuality, as Steven was forever running late.
“It’s snowing now,” Steven reported. “But we’re only supposed to get a few inches.”
Anna nodded distractedly.
“I heard from Bea that Alexander left right after your talk?” he said, fishing for more information, but not wanting to press her.
“You mean after our fight?” Anna corrected. “How dare he show up here to retrieve me like I’m some child? Though in his defense, I’m sure he wouldn’t have come if Eleanor hadn’t pushed him.”
“Maybe he did it to shut her up. I’d drive to Brazil if it kept her trap shut,” Steven said. He was positive Alexander had put some of the blame on him, too, as if he wasn’t trustworthy enough to get his sister home in a few inches of snow. He knew Anna would never confirm his suspicions. “How did you leave things with him?”
Anna shrugged. “I don’t know. He came in and said good-bye to Bea, but I refused to look at him. I didn’t say good-bye to either of them.” Anna pushed the ice
cream away, suddenly sick of the sweetness. “He had the nerve to warn me about leading on Vronsky. He said he didn’t like to be the subject of gossip and it was obvious people were talking about us.” Anna watched her brother as she said this, studying his reaction.
Steven blew the hair out of his eyes and shook his head. “That guy,” he said, “is such a toolbag, the granddaddy of tools.”
Anna couldn’t help but laugh. She knew her brother didn’t like her boyfriend, but Steven had never once spoken ill of him in front of her. “I don’t know if he’s the granddaddy of tools, but he really can be difficult,” she agreed. “Were people talking about us, Steven? I mean, before Alexander showed up and got everyone talking about us?” She watched her brother nod his head.
“People talk shit about everybody, Anna,” he said. “What you and Vronsky are doing is nobody’s business except your own.”
“That’s nice of you to say.” Anna shook her head sadly. “But we both know it’s not true. Sure, my life is my own, but I am also Alexander’s girlfriend. So the company I keep is a little bit his business, too. Like how Lolly had every right to be upset over Marcella.”
“That was different,” Steven said, choosing to defend his sister’s honor instead of his own. “I was guilty of being a scumbag. You and Vronsky were just dancing.”
Anna grabbed her brother’s hand. “I adore you for defending me, but it was more than dancing. I mean, not more like that. But, more like … well, you know.”
Steven looked away, not wanting to let Anna see his face. Of course Steven had noticed the way Vronsky and Anna had been looking at each other throughout dinner, like they were the only two people at the table. Lolly had told him earlier about showing up to Anna’s room and finding Vronsky there. Lolly made a point to say the door had been wide open, so it wasn’t like they were hiding. Lolly’s exact words were, “I felt like I walked into the falling-in-love montage of a rom-com. He’s such a smitten kitten!” Lolly had found the whole thing innocent, which is what Steven loved about her. Sure, Vronsky was gorgeous and all, but Anna had a boyfriend, and was in no more danger of straying than Lolly was herself.
