Day Forty-Five #2
“Perfect timing. We have a dinner guest in need of a partner. Here. Have some bruschetta and wine.”
Brian was confused by the chaos he was joining, but also strangely delighted.
Norman began to introduce him around, but Brian stopped him.
“You don’t need to do that.” He was used to Manhattan’s literary dinner parties and was more than capable of introducing himself.
Jesse set an egg timer and put it on the counter next to Norman.
“What’s that for?” Norman asked. He quickly counted the pots on the stove to see if he’d forgotten something.
“We have until the main course before I get the inevitable question.” He didn’t need to say what that was. Norman understood. What are you working on next?
After all eight of them were seated at the dining table, conversation zigzagged.
Gail tortured Lally with horror stories about ill-behaved children who came into the Toybox, while Randall announced he was finally ready to break ground on a house, joking it was payback for the inconveniences Jesse and Norman’s endless renovation had caused him.
Brian discussed the success of Jesse’s previous book with Luisa, who was excited to hear he might be publishing again, as she was thinking of retirement next year and she wanted to recommend that Jesse become department chair.
“The soup is incredible,” Brian raved when there was a lull in conversation.
Norman beamed. Finally, appreciation from someone, even if only for minestrone. “It’s amazing what one can do with a few simple ingredients.”
“Is this Mom’s recipe?” Lally asked. It was, although Norman had tweaked it with pasta and extra fennel. He told the table there were as many recipes for minestrone as there were Italian families.
“Lally is your sister?” Randall asked Norman, trying to keep everyone straight. Indeed there should have been an org chart.
“Jesse is an only child,” Gail offered.
“Something he no doubt blames you for,” Brian said with a wink.
Gail slurped her soup in agreement.
“On the bright side, at least I’m her favorite child.” Jesse smiled at the others, thinking himself quite clever.
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Gail replied.
“Excuse me. If I’m your only child, by default that makes me your favorite.”
His mother fidgeted uncomfortably with the napkin in her lap. “By default, that also makes you my least favorite.”
Norman and Randall laughed, but Lally, the mother-to-be, sank uncomfortably deeper into her chair.
“What is wrong with you? Just say I’m your favorite.”
“I can’t do that.”
Jesse dropped his spoon and it clattered in his bowl, sending drops of soup over the side.
“I can’t! I don’t play favorites. You know that.” Gail dabbed at the tablecloth with her napkin where Jesse had spilled, making him further seethe. “Norman. Okay? Norman is also my child. And he can cook.”
“Not anymore! Norman and I are divorced,” Jesse announced to shocked looks from the table. Luisa, however, ever mindful of her own marital woes, clapped.
“On paper,” Norman was quick to clarify.
“What do you think divorce is?” Jesse asked. “Marriage is paper, divorce is paper.”
“Ah, a romantic,” Harlan said.
“A book is paper,” Brian inserted, perhaps already counting the commission he would make on a large new publishing deal. And then he whispered to Harlan, “It’s a good thing he doesn’t write romance.”
“Be that as it may,” Gail continued. “I don’t want to pick between you two.”
Norman’s heart raced, and he pushed back his chair and pulled a bottle of champagne from a bucket.
He poured eight glasses and handed them out, including to Lally.
He then clinked his glass with a fork and stood.
It was now or never. “Well, Jesse. You’re my favorite.
And I have something I’d like to say before we have our main course.
” He shoved one hand in his pocket to feel for the ring.
“Jesse. From the moment we first collided I knew you were the one for me.”
“Oh god,” Jesse muttered, and he pressed his temples again. Not the response Norman had been hoping for, but he forged ahead.
“In fact, it seemed we were on a collision course our whole lives. Destined in some way. I don’t want some midlife crisis to overshadow the fact that we were meant to spend our lives together.” He pulled the ring out of his pocket and dropped down to one knee.
“Is that my wedding ring?” Jesse gave an incredulous gasp.
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
He took it from Norman and held it up to a candle to see. “Where did you find it?”
“What difference does that make, where I found it? I’m kind of in the middle of something here.”
“I tore this house apart looking for it!”
Norman could see that this was a huge lapse in judgment, but since he was already down on one knee he really had no choice but to press on.
Lally took pity on her brother and gave a supportive nod, while Luisa buried her hands in her curls.
He took a deep breath and then asked, “Will you marry me…again?”
“I don’t believe this.” Jesse looked around the table to see if others were hearing this, too. “Is that what this last year was, a midlife crisis?”
Using his eyes, Norman pleaded with Jesse to remain calm. “We don’t need to get bogged down in the details in front of company.”
“YOU LEFT!” Jesse shouted. He looked around the table at everyone, who seemed genuinely surprised by his outburst, except for his mother, who was never one for grand romantic gestures of this sort and seemed put out to have witnessed it. “Oh my god. That’s what this whole dinner was about?”
“I thought since we had those closest to us here…”
“Oh, you mean the conspiracy theorist from across the street and the private detective that was hired to find you?”
Harlan cleared his throat. “That seems a little rude.”
“I agree with Impala,” Randall echoed.
Jesse glared. “I’m sorry. Friendly fire.”
Gail finally interjected. “Just take him back so we can have puttanesca.” She looked at her watch as if she had someplace better to be. “You know you’re going to.”
Jesse threw his napkin onto the table. “No. No, I don’t know that. And neither do you!”
Gail for once backed down. “Well, I suppose that’s true.”
“Are we allowed to drink this?” Luisa asked Brian, lifting her champagne.
Norman scrambled to find an ally or convert someone to his cause. “Gail, if Jesse’s father were here, you’d take him back.” As Norman spoke, he realized he was still down on one knee.
Jesse’s mother gestured at the motley assortment of guests seated around the table. “I’m surprised he isn’t!”
“Mom, that’s enough.”
Gail made a sour face and turned to Norman to answer his question. “No, of course I would not take him back. He’d be so old.”
“YOU’RE OLD!” Jesse gripped the side of the table so hard Norman worried he might break it.
Randall and Lally, meanwhile, shifted in their seats like they did not appreciate hearing a mother spoken to like that, Lally looking particularly aghast. It was always uncomfortable to witness another family’s complicated dynamic. Lally reached for her champagne.
“I got old over time. Slowly, like a normal person. Your father would be old all at once. That’s a totally different situation. Besides. We only knew each other for two years, and he was overseas for most of that. What would we have in common?”
“ME!” Jesse clenched his teeth like his headache was now overwhelming.
Gail threw her hands up, absolving herself from this tantrum. Lally managed a sip of champagne before Harlan gently relieved her of the glass.
“Oh, let her have some,” Gail said, observing this interaction. “Alcohol won’t harm the child. Vaccines, maybe.”
“Mother.”
“What? He’s being an overprotective father. She doesn’t need that. And both of you should do your own research.”
Harlan interjected. “Oh, I’m not the father.”
“I’m sorry. I thought you were together.” Gail scrutinized him, perhaps wondering why he was here if they weren’t together.
Lally made a gesture to indicate they were together-ish.
“Then who is the father?” Gail looked around the table, while Lally shot a panicked look in Jesse’s direction. When Gail clocked this, she turned to Jesse, then to Lally, then back to Jesse again. “Jesse?”
Jesse pressed his palms hard against his eyes.
“My Jesse?”
Jesse mumbled, “I can explain.”
Luisa turned to Brian, who likewise seemed to be playing catch-up. “Is this why they’re divorced?”
Gail was incensed. “I’M GOING TO BE A GRANDMOTHER?” Instead of excitement, there was pure rage.
“Didn’t you own a toy store?” Lally asked, uncertain how anyone could welcome this as bad news.
“Norman, get up.” Gail instructed him to stand with a wild gesture. He was still down on one knee. “You’re making us all uncomfortable.”
Norman clutched his chest. “I’m making you uncomfortable?” But he did as he was told and slipped back into his seat.
Randall, who was used to peace and quiet, did not know what to make of the situation. “So. When did you decide to put in a pool?”
“Oh, yes,” Luisa said, looking out the glass wall. The pool lights had come on and the shimmering blue was calming. “The pool is lovely.”
“When?” Jesse retorted, his ire moving across the table. “When you told me to dig up the yard!”
“I told you to dig up your yard?” Randall was clearly confused.
“Yes, when we were at Joshua Tree looking at the Milky Way.” Norman looked at Jesse.
When did they do that? “You were going on and on about the survival of humankind. The second suggestion. The second option. Something like that. I came home and started digging. And there’s no refilling a hole of that size, so I had to put in a pool! ”
“The second alternative?”
“Yes!”
Norman looked back and forth between Jesse and Randall, waiting for someone to explain.
“Friend, I was looking to help you with your relationship.”