Chapter 15
Chapter 15
A fter that night, they continued to go to Piedmont’s events, but something new sprang up between them.
“What else haven’t you done?” Paley asked on the way home from bowling.
“I’ve never walked on the moon, never been to Mars,” Piedmont said.
“No, I mean normal things like bowling.”
“If I haven’t done them, how would I know they’re normal?” he asked.
“See, it’s reasoning abilities such as those that will make you partner in no time,” she said, and he smiled. He was tired, but it was a good kind of tired, more than the usual exhaustion from having to be “on” all night. His instinct to invite Paley had been correct; she had made the evening more than the bearable he’d been expecting. With her, it had been fun, the most fun he’d had in recent memory.
“I’m going to have to make a list,” she said, alerting him to the fact that he’d dozed.
“Check it twice, find out who’s naughty and nice?” he guessed.
“Have you ever been Christmas caroling?”
He shook his head.
“That’s going on my list,” she said, her tone cryptic.
“What list?” he repeated.
“The list of normal things you missed out on by being a genius. Jumped on a trampoline?”
He shook his head.
“Played hide and seek in the dark?”
He shook his head.
“Wow,” Paley said. “I’m going to have to put some thought into this.”
“Kay,” he said, only half listening. He rested his head on the seat, and the next thing he knew they were home and she tapped his shoulder.
“Piedmont, we’re here,” she whispered.
“Where?” he asked, momentarily confused.
“We’re home,” she said, and his heart turned over unexpectedly. It was his home, yes, but it was hers too, and she had made it such with her warm presence, her brimming garden, her laughter, her hot meals and fresh baked treats, the thousands of thoughtful little things she did for him that he probably didn’t even notice. All of a sudden he realized she was the best friend he had, which was kind of sad really, given she was his employee.
“I’m glad you’re here, Paley,” he whispered.
“Me too,” she said, smiling.
Piedmont felt it again, the little spark of electricity between them. He wondered if she also felt it this time because her expression clouded, her smile disappeared.
“I forgot to set the chicken out of the freezer,” she whispered, and he laughed. “What? Why is that funny?”
“Nothing. I’m slaphappy, I guess. It is three in the morning, after all.”
“And you have to get up in an hour to work out,” she noted.
He groaned. “You’re making me a lazy night owl.”
“I’ll skip the Saturday pastry tomorrow,” she offered.
“Do and you’re fired,” he warned.
“You say that so often it’s starting to lose meaning.” They stared at the house, each of them loathe to leave the cozy warmth of the car.
“I guess we’d better let Charles go to sleep, too,” Piedmont said, referring to his driver.
“He’s probably fine, he slept all the way home,” Paley said, and Piedmont smiled at her.
“Thanks for tonight, Paley. It was fun.”
“You mean it was unexpectedly fun,” she surmised.
“Yes. These events are usually tedious, but tonight was different.”
“According to you, we have a few more coming up. We’ll have to see if we can make tonight the new normal.”
Suddenly Piedmont found himself looking forward to the future, more than he had at any time since before Amelia. Maybe it was going to be okay; maybe eventually he’d get over her and life would resume and the hole in his heart would go away or fill up or whatever might make it better, make him better.
Somehow they had started spending their weekends together unspoken. On Saturday mornings they slept later than usual, had a leisurely and fattening breakfast, and worked out. After that Piedmont followed Paley to the garden and read while she dug in the dirt or weeded. At night Paley made supper or they ordered pizza and watched a movie in the entertainment room downstairs. It was the first time in his life Piedmont had ever really hung out doing nothing. He’d had no friends in school, thanks to his odd age at the time, always different from everyone else in every school he’d ever attended. His friends now were colleagues who were all decades older, so he still didn’t fit. Amelia had been too busy to hang out. She worked long hours at the salon and had her sister and friends, so when they saw each other, it was usually at one of his events where she was his date. He began to wonder if perhaps his relationship with her hadn’t been as deep or as solid as he’d believed. She had been twenty two, five years younger than him, and yet they had never once lounged on the couch and watched mindless TV, the way he and Paley did.
“Is this what you and your husband did together?” he blurted one night. He was looking for a frame of reference, trying to understand what was normal and realizing, surprisingly for the first time, that he wasn’t.
“In the beginning. I like to go out, but I also need time at home, to recoup and regroup, to refuel. Aaron always wanted to be on the go. When we were first dating, he was happy to spend some nights at home with me, and I was happy to go out some nights with him. We had a good balance. Somewhere along the way that shifted. I started staying home alone every night, and he started going out alone all the time. I don’t know how or why. Did I start refusing to go or did he stop asking me?” She shook her head. “Either way, it’s been nice to get out again.” She patted his knee and gave him a smile.
“It’s been nice to stay in,” Piedmont agreed. Being with her was a reason not to work, and he was thankful for that. He didn’t need a psychiatrist to tell him there was more to life than a job, and he was on his way to major burnout if he didn’t make a change. Paley provided that change; she gave him something to do with his downtime, helped him learn how to relax and unwind. He’d read more in the last few weeks than he had since the textbooks he read for law school.
“Having said that, I think we should go out tomorrow,” she said.
“Where?” he asked.
“Mattie and my brother helped me come up with a list of normal experiences you should have had by now. We’re going to work our way through them.”
“Why again?”
“So you won’t have regrets when you’re ninety,” she said.
“You really think I’m going to be ninety and regret never jumping on a trampoline?” he asked.
“Now you’ll never have to face that question,” she said. “Shh, this is my favorite part.”
“Other employees don’t tell their bosses to ‘shh,’” he said.
“Shh,” she reiterated, pressing her palm to his mouth.
He was tempted to kiss it, but he didn’t. So far their friendship had remained purely platonic. Piedmont was reluctant to break that, for both their sakes. They needed each other, needed their friendship. Whether they would someday need more than that remained to be seen. For now, this was enough. In fact, this was everything. So he pushed her hand away, rested his head on the couch, and tried to pay attention to the movie and not to her.
Was she wearing new clothes? He thought so, and he tried not to wonder why. These clothes fit her, highlighting what he had confirmed was a nice figure. Don’t think about her figure. How can I not think about her figure when it’s pressed against my arm, all warm and soft and good smelling? Don’t think about how she smells. Stop telling me not to do things in regards to her. You’re hopeless. Shut up.
“If you fell asleep during the middle of this movie, we can’t be friends,” Paley said, poking him.
He opened his eyes, regretting it immediately when she was mere centimeters from his face.
“I’m not asleep.”
“Your eyes were closed.”
“I was talking to myself,” he said.
“Are you a supreme being that you have to do that with your eyes closed?” she wondered.
“You said supreme, and now I’m hungry for pizza,” he said.
“We’re having chicken and waffles,” she declared.
“You know I’m paying you. I’m supposed to be the one who chooses the menu,” he said.
“It’s Saturday, I’m off the clock, and I’m making you chicken and waffles,” she said.
“Let me tell you in Latin all the ways that argument went wrong,” he said, and she pressed both palms to his lips, knocking him over in her effort to reach him. She landed on his chest, and his hands rested automatically on her hips.
“Okay, that did not turn out as I intended,” she said. She removed her hands from his mouth and quickly sat up away from him. Before Piedmont could comment, her phone buzzed with a text. She read it and tossed it away with a huff.
“Not Mattie, I take it,” he said. Whenever it was Mattie, she smiled like she’d gotten a letter from Santa. Piedmont tried and failed not to be jealous of that look.
“Aaron,” she said.
“What did he say?”
“The same thing he always says. That he needs to meet with ME.” She smiled and shook her head.
“Whatever it is, refer it to your lawyer,” Piedmont said.
“I would, if I had one.”
He faced her. “You’re in the midst of a divorce, and you don’t have a lawyer?”
She shook her head.
“Paley.”
She jumped at his sharp tone. “He said I didn’t need one.”
“Your husband told you that you didn’t need a lawyer for the divorce he foisted on you, and you believed him?”
“I know it was stupid.” She rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes. “I wasn’t in a good place when it first happened, I didn’t think clearly.”
“You’re going to think clearly from now on,” he said. He removed his phone and began to text. “Who is his lawyer?”
“I don’t know, maybe himself.”
He froze and looked at her again. “Your husband is a lawyer?”
“Did I not mention?”
“No, you did not mention. Do I know him?”
“I doubt it, he’s new, barely out of law school. He certainly knows you,” she said, giving him a smile that was fully amused now.
“I bet he does,” Piedmont agreed. “And he’s about to know me better.”
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Asking one of my friends to handle your case. He’s the premier divorce attorney on the east coast. By the time he’s finished with your husband, he’ll be selling his plasma to afford oats for breakfast.”
“I don’t want that, really. I only want what’s fair.”
“Did you work and support him while he was in law school?” Piedmont asked with his lawyer voice, the one that demanded she answer immediately with the truth or so help her.
“Yes.”
“Then, baby, everything is fair.” He sent his text, received one in reply, and smiled. A minute later, her phone beeped with another text from Aaron.
You got a lawyer?? How are you affording Ashley Benholt?
“Is my lawyer’s name Ashley Benholt?” she asked.
“Yes,” Piedmont answered absently. He glanced over her shoulder, shamelessly read the text from Aaron, then snatched the phone out of her fingers and sent one in reply. Now it was Paley’s turn to read it over his shoulder.
Please direct all further discourse to my lawyer.
She whistled appreciatively. “You don’t mess around, Piedmont Bonvoy.”
“Nothing’s too good for my maid,” he declared. “Now go order me a pizza.”
“Chicken and waffles,” she said, reaching for the remote.
“You vex me, Paley, you really do,” he said, but when she settled back against the cushion, he rested his head on hers, a smile of contentment on his face.