6. Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, July 2012 #3
She would never have been able to say this at university, but something about having a baby strapped to Ren’s chest made it feel possible. “How do you deal with being so handsome that people stop talking in the middle of their sentences when they see you?”
“That is not what just happened,” Ren said. Seeing her skeptical glance, he shrugged. “Okay, so…” He paused again.
“Go on.” Sarah felt brief delight at his discomposure.
“So I have girls’ eyes, right?” Ren began.
“You do?” Ren’s beauty wasn’t just about his eyes, but Sarah wasn’t going to say so.
“It’s the lashes. I get them from my father, and boys used to make fun of me in school. They said I looked like a girl, that I was gay, all that stuff. And I was no good at sports, which didn’t help. And I was named Rene, which sounded like a girl’s name to my English-speaking classmates.”
“Wait a minute. Is that why you went by Ren?”
He shrugged, hiding a smile. It was funny to find that out about him after all these years.
“Anyway, when I got into my later teens, it turned out that girls found my eyes attractive, and it felt like getting something back for all the teasing I got. But…it’s not real, right?
I mean, I understand my looks catch people’s attention, but I always preferred people who didn’t notice them much at all. ” Ren met her gaze warmly.
Did he mean her? She felt a little ashamed. She had definitely noticed his looks when they first met.
She tried for a light tone. “Well, I’m glad you have a healthy philosophy to deal with that terrible cross you have to bear.”
“It’s been hard,” he agreed with a grin as they walked.
“I guess your wife is equally gorgeous, so you’ve provided people with a useful distraction when she’s next to you.”
He paused in his stride. “Yeah. Paola’s um… Listen.”
Sarah stopped to face him. His expression was strange.
“I’m moving. I told you that Paola’s parents moved back to the States.
Her father manages hotels, and he came to Toronto to launch a boutique hotel line, but that’s done, and he got a job offer in Las Vegas and moved back there last year.
So Paola wants to move there to be closer to her parents. In Nevada.”
“And you’re all going.” Stupid Sarah. Of course they were all going.
“I’m going to have to find something to do for work down there, but it’s really important to her, so…
She always talked about going back to the States or Mexico where her grandparents are, but it was going to be a few years from now, when Jandro was a bit older.
But now she wants to do it right away. Her mother has health issues, and she wants to be closer to her, make sure that Jandro’s grandparents get to spend time with him. ”
“Can Paola work as a lawyer down there?”
“She’s going to study for the Nevada bar. It might take a year or two, but she can do the coursework online. She’ll be working for her father’s business in the meantime, doing contracts. And I’ll figure something out.”
She tried to put on a cheerful smile. “Well, you’ve covered people behaving badly in Toronto, so I’m sure there are plenty of people behaving badly in Las Vegas that you could write about.”
He looked uncertain. “Yeah. If someone will hire me. It’s not a good time for newspapers right now. Initially, I’ll probably stay home with Jandro. We’re going to live with Paola’s parents for a while to save some money.”
“Ren…” It sounded potentially nightmarish, living with his in-laws as an unemployed stay-at-home dad while his wife worked for his father-in-law. She didn’t want to say so, but she couldn’t force her usual cheerful attitude. “That sounds really hard.”
He looked unexpectedly defensive. “I can handle it.”
“Of course you can. That wasn’t what I meant.” Sadness was hitting her in a rising wave. It felt like they had just recovered their friendship in the last year, and now it was being washed away again. “When are you leaving?”
“Three weeks.”
Her heart dropped. “That’s soon.”
“Yeah. Paola’s going down next weekend, taking Jandro with her. I’ll follow her once I sort stuff out here. We’re getting someone to take over our lease.”
“I’ll miss you,” she said at last, her voice more emotional than she meant for it to be.
“I’ll miss you, too.” His tone was carefully neutral.
He was watching her closely. She had to act calm enough that he didn’t give her that look filled with pity again.
“Well, don’t stop texting me,” she said, managing a little bit of cheer. “I’d miss getting to mock your depressing taste in movies.”
“I won’t.”
She wanted to give him a hug, but his son was between them, a solid wall of baby, utterly consequential.
Jandro would be the most important thing to Ren from now on.
She didn’t mind coming after his wife and son, but she did mind not mattering to him at all.
And that would happen, surely, if they weren’t in the same city anymore.
They would drift apart. It had happened before.
“Your baby series,” he said. “I want to see it, Sarah.”
She smiled, feeling tearful. Before he left, he gave her a kiss on the side of her forehead that lasted a few seconds longer than she expected. She tried very hard not to think too much about it.