Chapter 7 #3
She was sitting quietly in her room, when Eloise came to check on her a few minutes later.
“You had a fight with Gloria?” she asked cautiously.
“I did. I wanted to speak to her about Geoff, before she makes a mistake. I think he’s lying to her, and she believes him. I had to say what I did. The rest is up to her.”
“Gloria fought dirty, even as a kid. She always hits below the belt, and dredges up things from the past.”
“She won’t forgive me for questioning her about him, but I still had to do it,” Eugenia said with a sigh. “That’s my job. Motherhood isn’t a popularity contest, and I can’t win with her. She thinks I cheated your father in the divorce.”
“Oh God, did she bring that up again?” Eloise groaned.
“He whines to her whenever he’s broke. That’s why I don’t want kids.
No matter what you do, you wind up with some vicious fifteen-year-old screaming at you.
I’d rather not go through it. And Gloria got stuck on that page.
She’s still immature and a bitch.” She spoke seriously, and Eugenia smiled.
It was a strong statement but she believed it and had experienced it herself.
Eloise wasn’t wrong, but Eugenia didn’t want a war with any of her children, although she had a feeling Gloria meant what she said.
Under Geoff’s influence, they wouldn’t be seeing much of her, once she got the wedding she wanted.
Eugenia knew there was nothing she could do about it, but she couldn’t stay silent.
She owed it to Gloria to say what she believed, painful or not, and it had been for both of them.
Gloria had an ally in Geoff, but Eugenia stood alone at the top of the mountain, with all the responsibility, and always had.
Even at their ages now, she had an obligation to protect them as best she could.
And she felt she had failed with Gloria.
Her daughter was flying blind into a brick wall, refusing to open her eyes.
—
Patrick texted her as she walked down the stairs to dinner.
“How did the talk go? Are you okay?” He remembered what she had said about being mother and father and how lonely it was at times.
He knew the talk with Gloria wouldn’t be easy, if her mother was challenging the marriage and expressing doubts about Geoff that sounded justified. He didn’t envy her.
“It was tough. I’ll live. I did my job,” she texted back. “She hates me now, but I had to say it.” It was nice having an adult ally, and she was touched to hear from him, and that he was checking on her.
“You did the right thing. No other choice. She’ll get over it,” Patrick texted her.
“Maybe not. But it was still the right thing. I hate these ages, they’re so hard.”
“Enjoy the others. You’re lucky you have more than one,” he answered, and she smiled. “See you tomorrow. Can’t wait.”
She joined the others for dinner then. Gloria and Geoff did not show up, and Eugenia decided to let them be.
There was no point forcing them to come to the table and sulk.
Gloria and Geoff walked into the dining room in the middle of dinner.
They were wearing identical gray hoodies and jeans, with backpacks on.
The others were surprised to see them. Gloria looked at her family angrily, and Geoff said nothing.
“We’re leaving,” Gloria said to her mother in a cold voice.
“Now? For where?” They had startled her and the others.
“London, of course,” Gloria said. “If you’re all going to treat us like shit, there’s no point our being here.
We’re going home.” It was three days before they were due to leave and halfway through the week’s holiday their mother had gone to great pains to arrange, which didn’t matter to them.
She looked straight at her mother then, as the dinner on their plates got cold.
“It cost us two thousand dollars to change our tickets. I put it on your credit card,” which she had use of for wedding expenses.
Eugenia had paid for their tickets to the States, and was going to do so again for the wedding.
“This is your fault anyway, that we’re leaving early. So you have to pay for it.”
“Nice of you to ask me,” Eugenia said calmly. “Running away is never the answer. Why don’t you stay and try to work it out?”
“Geoff doesn’t want to stay in a house where he’s not welcome, and neither do I.”
“You’re both welcome, as long as you behave,” Eugenia said firmly, and the others watched, pained for her.
“That goes both ways. We don’t like the way you treat us,” Gloria threw back at her, in front of all the others.
“I’m very sorry to hear it.” They heard a car pull up, their Uber had arrived.
“See you at the wedding,” Gloria said cavalierly, and no one said a word.
“In three weeks.” She and Geoff didn’t say goodbye to any of them, and didn’t thank her mother for the trip, the vacation, the tickets, none of it.
No thank-you and no goodbye, except Gloria’s speech.
Geoff had not said a single word. They left the house, got in the car waiting for them, and the group heard it drive away a minute later.
Eugenia looked shaken, and glanced at all of them.
“I’m sorry you had to hear that,” she addressed them all.
“What brought that on?” Stef asked her, mystified.
“We had a talk this afternoon. She didn’t like what I said, so they left.”
“She’s the same as she always was, spoiled and entitled. I’m sorry, Mom,” Stefano said to her. He was disappointed in his sister, but not surprised.
“Our talk today was about an incident that happened at the house when we were on the boat on Monday, and Geoff chatting up Daphne’s relief nanny on Tuesday, which almost caused Tucker to drown.
I couldn’t let that pass without saying something to Gloria.
Geoff convinced her he wasn’t to blame, it’s them against the world.
Anyway, I’m sorry to drag you into it, and that they left early.
” She felt terrible about it, but it was the price to pay for doing her job as a mother, and she didn’t shirk her duty, no matter how unpopular it made her.
There was a chorus of “I’m sorry, Moms” around the table, and they slowly got the conversation back on track, but the atmosphere was subdued, and they all felt sorry for their mother.
Eloise had shot off a text to her sister and called her a bitch and a spoiled brat.
The opinion around the table appeared to be that, and Eugenia didn’t comment.
Gloria had responded with a slew of insults to her sister.
“Boy, the wedding is going to be really fun,” Eloise commented. “I can hardly wait. Should we throw rocks or rotten tomatoes instead of rice? Do we all stand up in unison and object when they get to that part?” Sofia laughed, and Daphne followed, and Liz stepped in to try and repair the evening.
“I think we should play charades after dinner, or Cards Against Humanity, or go for a midnight swim. Let’s do something fun.
We can’t let them spoil our fabulous vacation.
Fuck them,” she said, and for once the rough side of her seemed appropriate and everyone laughed and relaxed after the startling departure.
In the end, they did play parlor games and laughed a lot.
Stef drank tequila shots and got a little drunk, and Brad joined him.
Daphne and Phillip left early. She was exhausted at the end of her pregnancy, and she was taking care of Tucker without a nanny and running after him all day.
Their housekeeper was babysitting for them that night.
“I’ll say one thing, this family is never dull,” Liz said, “but you guys are too polite. In my family, one of my brothers would have called Geoff an asshole, punched him in the face and given him a black eye, and in the morning everyone would be friends,” Liz said, and everyone laughed.
She had been a good sport on the vacation and nice to all of them.
She and Stefano had been married for two years, and everyone was finally getting used to her.
She had a big mouth and a good heart, and Eugenia liked her better than before, after this vacation.
She was even beginning to enjoy the sparkling outfits.
They added life to ordinary occasions, and Stef loved them.
After dinner, they all went to their guesthouses and bedrooms, and Eugenia lay on her bed thinking about Gloria and the things she had said. She had meant them to be hurtful and they were. She was just sorry it had to end that way.
She guessed that they had caught a midnight flight to London.
They’d be back in time for the wedding, and Geoff’s parents were due to arrive shortly before that, via quarantine in Mexico, since they weren’t vaccinated for Covid and they would be tested at the airport when they entered the U.S.
Eugenia wondered if the wedding would be a disaster or if they’d all get through it.
She felt as though Gloria had set dynamite traps for all of them, and she wondered who would light the first match to the fuse. It was almost inevitable.