Chapter Twenty-Three
Bachelor/bachelorette party weekend
Wedding minus five days
The bachelorette party Liv had planned was the perfect getaway; of course, Charlotte had supplied cake after teaching the group how to make one of Judith’s favorite pastries.
There was wine, which Naomi did her best not to drink too much of, and gossip.
But of course, Saturday night, while Naomi was still raw from the events the day before, was game time.
The truth or dare game was turned into advice or dare, where each of the attendees had to either take a dare, or take the opportunity to give Judith advice on relationships, life, and love.
Which was a nice twist on the traditional concept.
But when it became Naomi’s turn at the end of the first round, she made an alcohol-fueled mistake. “Advice,” she said.
Judith nodded. “Ready.”
“Don’t sleep with your best friend. And especially don’t intertwine your personal and professional lives with one person.”
The silence that followed reminded Naomi of a few different things.
First, how horrible a choice it had been to play this game, fueled by alcohol along with her cousins, her sister, and a few of her cousin’s friends.
Second, how awful it had been to choose advice instead of a dare when her lips were loose anyway.
Because even though Leah had promised to be quiet, the words out of her mouth had intrigued everybody.
And the last thing Naomi wanted to do was to be the object of intrigue in the middle of a bachelorette party.
“What?!” Liv asked.
“What the hell is going on?” Judith asked. “Someone tell me in very clear syllables, before I charter a plane to Michigan myself, so I can get some answers.”
“I don’t need the cavalry rushing to my rescue,” she said, not even bothering to correct Judith’s assumption as to where the source of her problem was at the moment. She was done hiding the former situationship as it was. “Please. I’m okay.”
Liv was the one who laughed. “Anybody with eyes can see you’re not.”
Naomi then turned to her sister. “Can you respect my wishes and not turn this into a circus?”
Liv nodded, and Leah came over from the other side of the room. “We’re here for you,” Liv said.
“Ixnay on the alcohol and the drunken confessions, hm?” Leah whispered. “But yes. I think this game is over.”
And in the care of her sister and her cousins, Naomi went to bed and tried not to dream of horrible choices.
*
Jason found standing in front of a grill near Lake Michigan in the early morning calming. He wasn’t in charge of food, but when all he had to do was turn a few things, he could let his brain just go.
He didn’t have to think; he’d barbecued and cooked for so long that he could do it in his sleep.
“So, what the hell is going on with you?”
Lev. Of course.
“Really?”
“Occupational hazard,” Lev said with a laugh. “But did you want Ash or Samuel or Artur out here with you, nudging?”
He focused on the grill and the breakfast he was making.
“I thought not,” he replied. “Best of all your options is me. Your brother is sleeping, and you’ve been glued to his side all weekend. It’s time for someone to ask questions before someone else demands the answers.”
Of course.
He was stuck for this wedding, and he’d suck it up somehow.
Lev said, “What seems to be the trouble?”
“You know how, when you think you know someone and then in a split second, something happens, and you realize you never knew them at all?”
Lev nodded. “Interesting,” he said. “Very interesting. And by someone you mean…”
“Hypotheticals, Rabbi Lev,” Jason replied. “Hypotheticals over grilled breakfast, unless you want me to burn the food, and then I get in trouble, and then my already crappy reputation gets ruined worse.”
Lev, the man with a face of stone, nodded again.
“I see. Although because you’re giving me hypotheticals before coffee, you run the risk of me forgetting that I’m supposed to just listen and instead start asking you weird questions about what you say.
Like you think someone ruined your reputation, and that’s why you’ve been walking around like a hurt, angry puppy for the last few days? ”
He didn’t say anything. Not a word. He didn’t want to encourage the man.
“I’m reminding you,” Lev continued, “that I’m the first line of defense against anybody you might think would want to…shall we say, cause trouble as a result of what you’re telling me?”
“Look,” Jason said. “I’m fulfilling my obligations. Doing what I need to. Then it seems I need to replan some of my life choices.”
“Replanning your life choices?”
He nodded. “I need to talk to my brother about business.”
“Fair enough,” Lev said. “Although weren’t you all excited about a business opportunity?”
“Here’s a tip,” Jason said. “And it comes for free, because I know you’re looking for information. Don’t tie yourself to someone too tightly until you’re sure. Because if a relationship or anything, really, seems too easy, then it most likely probably is.”
Lev shuddered. “Well,” he said. “When you’re ready, we should talk before anybody else gets the idea that conversations need to be had.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I’ll think about what needs to be discussed when the time comes.”
“Or someone else comes knocking.”
Which, he knew, was an inevitability. All he had to do was hope he could get ahead of the storm.
*
Naomi thought she’d avoided the conversation she’d stopped the night before by passing out in bed after a long day.
But the next morning, she’d left the room where she was staying, heading over to the coffee maker. The first sign of trouble was the fact that there was coffee, already made in the pot.
But she needed coffee, so she poured herself a cup, added a sufficient amount of creamer and headed to the living room…
Only to find Leah, Judith, and Liv sitting on chairs, waiting for her. Their faces were the pictures of innocence, but none of this—not the coffee, not the waiting, was innocent.
“What happened?”
Of course it was Judith who was asking. She thought better of Leah, at least, who’d taken a degree of responsibility for keeping Judith from information.
And yes, it wasn’t all Leah’s responsibility; it was Livvy’s as well. So, she too got a glare.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Naomi finally said, sitting down in the empty chair, coffee cup in tow. “This is your wedding, Judith. We’re here to celebrate the fact that you’re getting married. Preparing for it and celebrating you are far more important things than delving into my issues.”
“And seeing my wedding planner an absolute mess is good for my psyche? Come on, Naomi. Let’s go beyond the thankful fall of Ida and the amazing work you must have put on behind the scenes to get this happening.
I’ll thank you for all of that later,” Judith said.
“And don’t ask me how I know, but I know that our wedding bank account had a whole bunch of zeroes neither Ash nor I accounted for, and yet not one word from any of you. ”
Naomi wasn’t in the mood to be quaking in fear over her cousin’s emotions. Or her information-gathering capabilities. “So now it’s time to analyze my issues?”
Leah made a swiping motion with her hand like the universal symbol for chopping things off, but Naomi wasn’t in the mood.
Leah said, “Look, you’re not in a condition to deal with any of this. Suffice to say that Naomi is going through some things, which she will discuss with you after the wedding.”
Naomi loved her cousin, but she knew if she didn’t stop this out-of-control freight train now, it would continue. “Look. Jason and I are done, and honestly, I’m glad about it. I’ve had enough…attempting to be around someone who doesn’t listen to my suggestions and definitely doesn’t understand me.”
“Naomi,” Livvy said. “That man understands you more than anybody I’ve ever seen. Who isn’t me, of course.”
And that was it, that was the bursting of the dam; the tears fell like rain. “Then why didn’t he understand I had no way out. Why didn’t he understand I…”
Naomi found herself surrounded by family, by her cousins and her sister. And she knew that when she stopped crying, she’d have to tell the whole story. But then and there, she relaxed into the safety of her family and their embrace.
*
When Jason brought the food into the main part of the cabin, the only two people that were there, were Ash and Artur.
“I guess he took first line of defense too literally, hm?”
The humor that usually intrigued Ash was shut down. “Who’s destroyed your reputation and why are you acting like someone kicked your puppy?”
“Kicked my puppy or was I the puppy?” Jason asked. “Which do you mean?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Artur said. “You think someone destroyed your reputation because why?”
“Do I have to spell it out?” Jason asked. “Bleeding my veins on the ground would be much more pleasant, thank you.”
“Your brother led a group of the guys down to the lake, so they’ll be there for a while.”
Jason nodded, the unspoken question about where everybody else had gone answered without a pause.
“Fine,” he said. “A meeting was called to address my fitness as an individual, as a chef. And the person who knew how important it was to me, helped me through the preparations for that meeting, basically managed to confirm, in two words, that the purpose of the meeting had been correct, that in fact, I not only required, but also had, a keeper. And I told that person they were no longer welcome in my life. Happy? Or do you want me to cut my chest open and bleed out the rest of the way?”
And of course, neither Ash nor Artur had words; that was typical of both of them.
“Just so I understand,” Artur said. “Someone spent a crap ton of their time prepping you for a meeting that was important to you, took time away from whatever they were supposed to be doing, and then you cut them completely out of your life because they…”
“They spoke in a way that made it clear they knew what they were doing, which was undermining the purpose of the meeting.”
“Undermining the purpose of the meeting and destroying your reputation.”
“In one fell swoop.”
“You sound like a conspiracy theorist.”
Jason sighed, staring in between Ash and Artur.
“What I’ve learned,” Artur interjected, “is that people don’t spend time helping someone they want to fail, especially if they’ve got a shit ton of stuff on their plate they’re taking time from in order to provide said help.”
“You,” Ash said, as if this had left the interrogation portion of the morning to become an intervention, “have to remember that not everybody is out to get you. It’s why you’re sounding like a conspiracy theorist.”
“Enlighten me,” Jason said as he sat back on the couch. If he was going to get the interrogation from Ash and Artur, he might as well be comfortable while he was doing it.
“Simple,” said Artur. “Conspiracy theorists spend way too much time not listening and not learning and not studying. And not paying attention to things that people are telling them, in favor of making their own giant theories to explain things. Some conspiracies are silly, some are ridiculous, and some are dangerous. I suspect you’re engaging in the silly kind that’s dangerous to you and someone who I will forget I know. ”
“You’re forgetting you’ve figured out who this person is?”
Artur nodded at Ash’s statement.
“Enlighten me,” Ash said, “because I am absolutely confused and would like to know why.”
Artur shrugged, and Jason understood exactly what Artur was going to say.
“Simply because if I remember who the person we’re talking about is, and how I know them, I’ll have to share information I don’t feel should be shared.
And maybe do things I’d rather not. Not using at best, forgetting at worst, that I know the people involved is easier to get the information across. Less violence.”
Ash nodded, and Jason could see the thoughts running through his friend’s head.
“Well,” he said. “The information has been passed. There will be about three days to the wedding when we get back to New York. You need to figure out what to do to fix the situation by the time I’m ready to meet my bride at the end of the aisle. ”
Jason nodded. He was lucky. He had time.
Time to decide what fixing meant, and whether he was ready to act.
Could he forgive Naomi?
Did he want to?
Or could he see through his own mistakes to try and find a way to forgive hers?