Chapter Eighteen
David and Claire were down to the last questions in Hanukkah trivia and full-on killing it. Team Shamashing It was holding steady at number two on the leaderboard, right after a team of rabbinical students called The Halachic Heroes.
The host of the event, a young man in a Hanukkah sweater named Randy, brought everyone’s attention to the stage. Claire apparently knew him from her trips to What the Heart Kneads.
“All right,” Randy said, speaking into a microphone while staring down at a sheet of paper.
“We’re getting down to the wire here. Two teams are in the lead, but with five questions still left .
. . this is anybody’s game. Remember, you are not only playing for this incredible box of kosher baked goods from the one and only Josh Cohen of Best Babka in Brooklyn .
. . but also for the honor and pride of being called a true Hanukkah Chacham. ”
The host held up a felt crown in the shape of a menorah. On the front, in bright white letters, were the words Hanukkah Smartie.
“Oh my God,” Claire squealed and turned to David. “We have to win that.”
David laughed. He liked this side of Claire. “Don’t worry,” he said, meeting her intensity. “We got this. You are going home with the crown tonight.” Her eyes crinkled at the edges, and she touched his hand, letting it linger there.
“Question five,” Randy said, drawing their attention away. “What is the actual name of the nine-branched object Jews light on Hanukkah?”
“Oh my God.” Claire nearly jumped out of her seat. “I know this one. I know it!” She leaned in to whisper. “A hanukkiah.”
He smiled and let her take the win. “Well, write it down,” he said, pushing the paper and pen they were recording answers with her way. She scribbled her answer on a page before another staff member began circling the room to gather up answers, handing them off to Randy on the stage.
“Point for The Halachic Heroes,” Randy said, and the table erupted into cheers. “Point for The Luminaries. Point for Team Shamashing It! Unfortunately, this means that the Maccabean Megastars drop down to last place.”
“Four more to go,” Claire said eagerly.
David beamed. “The crown is yours.”
“And I’m going to look amazing in it.”
“Question number four,” Randy said. “Louis Ginzberg, a twentieth-century Jewish scholar, hypothesized that Hanukkah may have been originally celebrated as this holiday, after it was delayed during the Seleucid period.”
“Well,” Claire asked, “do you know?”
David had to admit he was a little bit stumped. “I’m not sure. Maybe Sukkot?”
Just then, his cell phone started ringing.
“Sukkot?” Claire winced. “Really.”
David shrugged. “They’re both eight days,” he said, venturing a guess. “At least, they are in the States.” David dug his phone out of his pocket. He was surprised to see Evelyn calling. A dual instinct rose up inside him. He hesitated on picking it up.
On one hand, he was mid-date, locked in a viciously competitive game of trivia.
On the other hand, he was currently employed as chief of medical for A Christmas Carol.
His ex-wife was executive producing, and technically, his boss.
Considering that several of the cast and crew had just come down with the flu, there was a strong chance she was calling about a work-related emergency.
“Everything okay?” Claire asked.
“Yeah.” He shifted nervously. “It’s just my . . . ex-wife.”
Claire raised both eyebrows in his direction. “Does she . . . often call you?”
“No,” David said honestly. “Never.”
Claire grimaced, and David, seeing that she wasn’t happy . . . quickly made a choice. “You know what,” he said, putting his phone away. “I’ll call her back later.” He returned to the game. “Did you write down—”
The phone started ringing again.
Now David was the one who wasn’t happy.
“Guess she really wants to talk to you.” Claire smirked.
“Seems so.”
The phone kept ringing. David stared down at it, impotent. When Evelyn called back for a third time, he made his decision.
“I’m sorry,” David said finally. “I should probably take this.”
Claire pressed her lips together tightly. “No problem.”
“Just write down Sukkot,” he said, rising to leave. “I promise, I’ll be back in thirty seconds.”
David retreated to a hallway down by the restrooms. Pressed up against a wall, he covered one ear with his hand to drown out the noise of revelry from beyond. It was hard to hear her.
“David,” Evelyn said briskly. “I need you.”
“Right now?”
“Yes, right now,” she spat back.
The room where he had been playing trivia with Claire erupted into cheers once more. David turned away from the sound.
“Wait,” Evelyn said. “Are you out?”
“Huh?”
For some reason, David hesitated on telling her the truth.
“It sounds like you’re at a bar,” Evelyn said.
“What?” he said again.
“A bar.” She said it louder.
He twisted toward the wall. From the room where he had left Claire, he could hear Randy asking the third Hanukkah trivia question. “How many times,” Randy said, his voice echoing from the microphone he was using, “is Hanukkah mentioned in the Torah?”
Zero. He knew the answer. He also knew that Claire likely wouldn’t.
God, she really wanted that crown. And David really wanted to win it for her.
He shook off whatever trepidation he had about telling Evelyn the truth.
He was being ridiculous. He had left Evelyn, after all.
Divorced her. Clearly, he was allowed to see other women.
“Actually,” he said, puffing out his chest in confidence, “I’m on a date.”
“Oh,” Evelyn said, and he could hear the snark in her voice. “A second one?”
He couldn’t win with her. “Yes, a second one,” he admitted, and then, hearing another round of cheers coming from Hanukkah trivia, got to the point. “Can I help you, Evelyn? I’m sort of in the middle of something here.”
It seemed a fair question. After all, this was the first time that Evelyn had called him directly in two years. Whatever anger she’d had on hearing about him dating quickly dissipated. She returned to rambling frantically.
“I’m sick,” she said.
“A migraine or—”
“The flu,” she cried into the phone.
“Okay,” he said, understanding fully what that meant for her.
He put on his most professional demeanor, attempting to be cool and collected about the whole thing.
One needed to be calm, and unemotional, to be a medical professional.
One needed to help patients find clarity—to make sense of their options, the data, the numbers—even in the wake of terrible news.
He had tried to do that when they learned that April wasn’t viable.
Tried to help Evelyn through the termination by pointing out the reason and the logic.
He knew how to be a good doctor. Perhaps where he had failed was simply in being a good husband.
“Tell me why you think you have the flu?” he asked.
“I have a fever,” she said, returning to rambling, but this time, she fumbled over her own words and thoughts. “And a migraine, and everything hurts . . . my legs, and my breasts, and my tongue. That has to be the flu, right?”
“Not necessarily.”
“I can’t get the flu, David.”
“We don’t know it’s the flu.”
He tried to press himself into the wall to hear her when he realized that was ridiculous. The wall wasn’t soundproof. He could hear the Hanukkah trivia game count down to question two, and he knew that Claire was likely sitting there, waiting for him to return.
“And I’ve been seeing things,” Evelyn said abruptly.
“Wait—” David blinked. Hallucinations were more concerning. “What?”
“I mean . . . not things. Ghosts. Technically, heartbreaks. But they’ve been visiting me, one for every night of Hanukkah.”
“Evelyn—”
“Or dreams. I suppose they could be dreams, too.”
“I need you to slow down here,” he said, trying to use his doctor voice. “Tell me everything, to the best of your ability.”
The rest he could only get in bits and pieces. She was experiencing chills, a fever and headaches, but what concerned him the most were the hallucinations. The flu shouldn’t be causing delusions.
“My father,” she said suddenly.
“You had a dream about your father?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “About us.”
“Us?” He didn’t understand.
“David, please—” her voice came out in a whine “—I need you.”
He thought back to Claire, patiently waiting for him to return to the other room.
His Ghost of Christmas Future. He thought about Evelyn, what it would be like to return to their home after two years away.
His Ghost of Christmas Past. And here he was, the Ghost of Christmas Present, stuck between them both.
He didn’t know what the right thing to do was.
But he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he had loved Evelyn once.
He had stood beneath a huppah and promised her forever.
And he felt it deep within himself, down to his core values.
If he had loved Evelyn enough to marry her . . . then he owed her something.
“I’ll be there in an hour, okay?”
“Really?”
“Yes,” he said. He wanted to see Claire off safely first, and also pick up some medical supplies before heading over. “Just please, in the meantime, drink some water and get into bed. You never take care of yourself.”
“David,” she said quietly. “Thank you.”
By the time David returned to Claire, Hanukkah trivia was over. Team Shamashing It had officially arrived at third place. The Hanukkah Smartie crown had gone to the table full of future clergy.
“I’m sorry,” he said, deeply apologetic. “I didn’t think it would take that long.”
“No worries.” She smiled before adding curiously, “Everything okay?”
“Not really.”
He tried to explain the situation. The flu. The headaches. The fact that Evelyn had called, desperately needing him. Claire angled her head curiously. “So, you’re leaving your date . . . for your ex-wife?”
“I realize it sounds a little bad.”
“More than a little,” she admitted.
He nodded and went to pay the bill. When he returned, Claire was already pulling on her coat, though she waited till they were both outside, and a cab had appeared to take her home, before finally delivering her terms.
“Listen.” Claire cast her eyes upward from the back seat.
“I like you, David. You’re a really nice guy.
And I think . . . we actually do have a lot in common.
I think we could make this work. But sometimes, no matter how nice someone is, the timing just isn’t right.
So, I guess what I’m saying is . . . if you want a third date, I’d love one.
I’d love to see where this thing between us might go.
But I only want you to ask me on that third date if you’re certain that you’re ready to move on. ”
It was a fair request. David agreed, and then, after watching Claire depart, he headed toward Evelyn and the home that they once shared.