Chapter 3
Girls' Wednesday.
Ellie arrives at the bar door when it's just minutes before seven in the evening.
It's Wednesday, the famous girls' Wednesday that she shares every week with Ruby, but she feels she needs this one more than ever.
She uses her key to enter and locks it from inside when she hears noise within, which means her friend is already inside.
Ellie drops her purse on one of the tables, allows herself a few seconds to enjoy the silence that reigns inside the bar, and then approaches the counter, where Ruby stands with her back turned, finishing up something.
"Hi," Ellie greets, sitting on a stool like a customer.
"Right on time," Ruby says, turning toward her with a cocktail, and not just any cocktail, but a Ramos Gin Fizz, her favorite.
"Oh my God," Ellie marvels, "you made it for me."
It's not that the cocktail has anything special or its ingredients are hard to get, but it takes time to make it right, and only Ruby has managed to find that perfect touch that Ellie loves.
"I had time and I think you need it," she says, sliding it toward her. "On Monday you seemed a bit off, and yesterday we didn't see each other all day, so I wasn't sure if you were feeling better."
Ellie swallows as her hands wrap around the glass. On Monday she didn't tell Ruby anything about her argument with Marcel, she needed to clear up some things first, and yesterday they didn't see each other because she took the day off, so she'll do it today.
"I hope this cheers you up," Ruby finishes, and Ellie can't take it anymore and bursts into tears suddenly.
"Ellie..." Ruby says, both surprised and concerned.
She rushes out from behind the bar and, before Ellie can hiccup again, her body is wrapped in her friend's arms. She comforts her for a couple of minutes until she manages to calm down and helps her off the stool.
"Let's go to the patio and you can tell me what's happening," Ruby decides, taking Ellie's cocktail and a beer for herself.
Ellie grabs a few paper napkins and follows her to one of the iron tables, the one right in the center.
"What happened, Ellie? Why are you like this?"
"On Monday I had a fight with Marcel that ended with me kicking him out," she confesses and pauses to savor a sip of her cocktail.
"You kicked him out?" Ruby asks, perplexed.
"Yes."
"But..."
"I broke up with him, Ruby, for good."
Ruby gapes without saying anything, unable to understand.
"But, Ellie, I didn't know things were bad between you. Why didn't you tell me anything before?"
"Because I was embarrassed. All my relationships always end the same way and I wanted this one to work, to have at least one turn out right, but I couldn't make it happen," she admits, overwhelmed. "Now I can add one more failure to my list."
"Hey, you don't have to be embarrassed with me about anything. If things aren't going well, you tell me, damn it. You don't have to go through this alone," Ruby scolds her. "Always together, remember?"
Of course Ellie remembers.
"Yes, I know," Ellie smiles while wondering why the hell she can't find a man who's as sweet and understanding as Ruby.
"Why didn't you tell me on Monday when we saw each other?" Ruby inquires.
"Because I wasn't sure if he'd left like I asked. Marcel is a bit stubborn and sometimes doesn't listen or take into account what I want, but when I got home he was gone, and I can't describe the relief I felt. I should have done it sooner," Ellie explains.
"And on Tuesday, why didn't you come? Was it because of him or because you needed to be alone?"
"Well, now that you mention it, being alone helped me think, but I did it so he wouldn't have to come pick up his things," Ellie pauses to blow her nose.
"Once I realized he was gone, I didn't want him coming back.
The house is mine and I felt like I'd regained my privacy.
So I changed the locks and spent the day packing his stuff.
Now I just need to be there the day he sends the truck to get it all. "
Ellie continues taking sips of her cocktail until she finishes it, savoring the last one with pleasure.
"Want another?" Ruby offers.
"No, a beer is fine. I'll get them."
Ellie stands up and returns with two bottles.
"And what did you think about yesterday while packing his things?" Ruby asks, opening her beer.
"That I'm sick of men. Those specimens are done for me," Ellie declares.
Ruby's heart suddenly flips and her pulse quickens.
Those feelings for Ellie that she always keeps in check betray her, and Ruby interprets the comment as a crack she might slip through.
What for Ellie is a way of saying she plans to spend some time without men, for Ruby is an open door toward women, and those dormant butterflies that always rest at the base of her stomach start to flutter uncontrollably.
"And now comes the worst part," Ellie says, unaware of Ruby's emotional earthquake.
"What's that?" she asks, trying to focus.
"Telling my mother I'm getting divorced."
Ruby snaps out of her daze and lets out a loud laugh before resting her arms on the table to look directly at Ellie.
"Your mother has been divorced three times, Ellie. I don't think she's going to be shocked because her daughter does it once."
"It's not that," Ellie smiles. "It's not about the divorce itself. It's that she adores Marcel and she's going to subject me to an endless, tedious interrogation that I don't feel like answering."
"I can go with you if you want," Ruby offers, attentive as always.
Ellie looks at her for a few seconds that seem to freeze time for both of them.
"Damn, Ruby, if you were a man, you'd be perfect," Ellie blurts out, unaware of what those words mean to her friend.
Ruby freezes in place, trying to get air into her lungs.
It's not the first time Ellie has made a comment like that.
They always hurt, they sting as if she's being pierced with a burning dagger, because she doesn't understand Ellie's inability to see her beyond her gender, but this evening she doesn't let it disturb her.
She knows her friend is affected by the situation she's going through and pretends not to have heard it.
"How's your mother doing?" Ellie asks when the conversation changes direction.
"The same," Ruby sighs. "Every time I tell her she needs to leave the house, she burns me with her killer stare."
Thomas Hebert, Ruby's father, died eleven months ago from a massive heart attack.
Mother and daughter were devastated by the sudden loss, but while Ruby gradually accepted it and finally overcame it, Adele Hebert has sunk into grief and doesn't leave her house.
At 55, she's already retired, but she's gone from being an active woman who volunteered for charitable organizations to remaining locked within the four walls of her house, feeling sorry for herself while life passes by.
She doesn't have many friends; in fact, the bond that united her with the Trahan family broke when Ellie's father made the fatal mistake of courting Adele.
Fortunately for the girls, their relationship didn't suffer consequences because their mothers were mature enough not to separate them.
Ruby has allowed her to grieve in her own way, but she feels it's not healthy for her mother to have stopped socializing and that the farthest place from the house she travels to is her backyard.
"Something must be done. We can't let her continue like this. We could try to convince her to go to therapy," Ellie suggests.
Ruby lets out a laugh loaded with irony.
"Maybe later, but now it would be impossible to convince her," Ruby comments. "I have to think of something, Ellie. She seems like the living dead, and I can't let her go on like this."
"We'll think of something, be patient," Ellie says, stretching her hand across the table to grasp Ruby's.