6. Brooke
From: [email protected]
Subject: URGENT – RSVP AND REQUEST!
Dear Brooke,
It”s ten days until the reunion, and you haven”t told us the name of your plus-one! If it was anyone else, I’d tell them the cutoff was two weeks ago. But we’re sisters, so I’ll let it slide.
Speaking of, can you sort the seating chart for dinner? I’m attaching it, and I haven’t got a spare moment. Whatever you do, you MUST put us at the same table. We have so much to catch up on.
Love,
Caroline
P.S. There’s no shame in not bringing a date. It’s terribly modern.
* * *
“How’s living the glamorous life as a big-city doctor?” I ask as I sweep in the front door of my building with a smile for the doorman.
“Double shifts with a ham on rye. I’m living the dream.” Ruby holds up her wrapped sandwich over FaceTime.
I laugh.
My apartment building is in a great location. I can walk to lots of places. I wave to the concierge and pick up my mail before heading upstairs, doing a silent fist pump when I see a package that must be the vibe I ordered. “I’m making a pitch for Elise and thought you might have some advice since you overlapped.”
I’ve been up working on it all night, pacing my apartment.
“Her room was next to mine the first year I was a sister,” Ruby confirms. “She was cooler than most of the girls—driven, but everyone in that house was.”
“What does she like?”
“She appreciates ambition. I remember she headed up three different committees at once. I know we all like to say, ‘I don’t know how she does it,’ but truly… I don’t know how she does it.”
I take the stairs, for the cardio and because the cell reception has a tendency to cut out.
“I’ve got to make this work, Rubes,” I vow.
I need the money.
I didn’t work in high school because I played basketball and we traveled for Jay’s tournaments. I volunteered for several non-profits but I’m guessing they don’t pay the kind of money I need to maintain my lifestyle.
Plus, a part of me would love to prove that I’m fine without my mom’s support doing exactly what I’m doing.
Living a fabulous life and posting about it.
“You’ll crush it. How will it be to see Kevin again?”
The back of my neck feels damp under my hair. “It’s in the past. I’ve put everything about him behind me.”
Upstairs, I let myself into my apartment. My floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides have views of the mountains.
Every day I wake up and throw the curtains open, I feel like I can do anything, be anyone.
“You don’t have to pretend with me,” Ruby says.
“I’m not.” I step out of my shoes, leaving them haphazardly next to half a dozen other pairs. “Did his actions back then mess with me? Sure. But in the end, he did me a favor.”
When I drop the mail on the quartz counter, a bank statement slides out from the bottom.
“I can’t wait to see you in person. Is Tim coming?” I ask.
“No, he’s busy. It’s girl time.”
“Please tell me your husband is pulling his weight while you do all these shifts.”
“He’s busy at work too.”
As she talks, I tear into the envelope.
I have almost no money left, but I’m too embarrassed to volunteer that to Ruby, who put herself through medical school.
“I’m actually bringing someone. I thought it would help present a solid front to Elise.”
“And you didn’t lead with this?! Which boy will be desperately clinging to your arm?”
I tuck the bank statement under the other mail and round the counter to the living room, sinking into my plush couch. “Miles. He’s my brother’s teammate.”
“Standby while I look this guy up.” She frowns and types away, her brows rising. “Little Sis, you’ve been holding out on me.”
I laugh. “I’m not interested in a boyfriend. It’s one weekend only.”
“You’ll be sharing a room. Making eyes at each other. Flirting and laughing and cuddling.”
Now I’m imagining doing those things with him.
“What about Hannah? Is she going?” Ruby’s question brings me back.
“I haven’t heard from her lately.” One of the handful of sisters I keep up with regularly since graduation was a year ahead of me and one behind Ruby. She was partly responsible for me pledging, being the smiling face who helped recruit me, and one of the few sisters I knew I could take any of my school problems to.
“Being partner track at her firm in New York probably doesn’t leave much time for a social life.”
“True, but Caroline will love that. Hannah was always part of her carefully curated collection of friends.”
Ruby rolls her eyes. “You ever regret pledging?”
“No, because I met you.”
Ruby knows firsthand the daily challenges of being Black in a white sorority—all the girls who’d say loudly that they were color blind but in the next breath, they were fascinated by your hair or impressed by your family’s seamless integration into the state’s political fabric.
We each had our own reasons not to pledge a historically Black sorority. For me, I did it for my mom.
She wanted me in this sorority because it was full of high achievers in business, law, and medicine, and it presented the right image.
Like my mom, it wasn’t as if the sorority had explicit expectations. More like there were unspoken ideals, and the fact that Jay and I came from a family where success and education was important meant we should be successful too.
Didn’t matter that Jay wanted to play basketball. Once he got an athletic scholarship, then was drafted into the NBA, his image proved to poll surprisingly well for my mom.
Me on the other hand…
One night of mayhem and a near scandal in college ruined that.
“You’ve always had my back, Ruby. With what happened junior year…” I shake my head. “I wouldn’t have made it through without you.”
She sighs. “It gets pretty lonely even in a house full of girls. We all need allies. If Miles is going to be that for you, then I’m glad you’re bringing him.”