Chapter Seven
When they reached the inn, Daphne was standing at the front desk. She turned to greet Caroline. Her eyes were as big as saucers.
“Luke is upstairs in the room. The concierge was trying to reach a doctor, but he can’t find one.” Daphne bit her lip.
Her sweater was tied around her waist; her hair had slipped from its ponytail and fell in her face.
“How is he?” Caroline asked.
Luke had fallen and hit his head on the ice. He said he was fine, but he had a huge bump.
“You know what a head injury is like.” Daphne’s voice wobbled. “Luke might think he’s okay, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“I’m sure he’s fine,” Max piped in. He took out his phone. “I’ll call our family doctor and ask him to check him out.”
Half an hour later, a man strode into the lobby, carrying a doctor’s bag. Daphne went upstairs with him, and Caroline and Max waited in the lobby. Caroline was too nervous to make small talk. She had rarely seen Daphne so frightened.
“Luke is going to be fine,” Daphne said when she finally reappeared. “The doctor is with him, writing a list of instructions.” She smiled nervously. “Luke didn’t want me to miss out on bobsledding. I don’t care if we spend the next few days sitting in a dark room, as long as he’s okay.”
Max turned to Caroline. “I’m glad he’s okay. I should go and let you be together.”
After Max left, Caroline and Daphne sat in the lobby.
“Life is so fragile. One minute, Luke was teasing me that he was a faster skater, the next minute he was lying on his back on the ice,” Daphne said worriedly.
“He’s fine now,” Caroline reminded her.
“Thanks to Max.” Daphne nodded. “I shouldn’t have said anything to you about Max. He’s a good guy. And your love life is your own business.”
Caroline adored her sister. She didn’t want to argue anymore.
“And I should stop telling you when to get married.” Caroline recalled the times their mother had used Santa Claus to end Caroline and Daphne’s squabbles. “Santa Claus won’t bring us presents unless we make up.”
Daphne leaned forward and hugged her.
“I remember when I stopped believing in Santa Claus,” Daphne said with a laugh. “I thought Mom’s threat wouldn’t work anymore, but every year it did.”
Daphne went to her room to join Luke. Caroline debated calling Max. He really was perfect for her. He had just the right amount of sexiness, and he was kind at the same time.
But she didn’t want to seem eager. She’d wait for him to make the next move.
Instead of calling, she went to her room and took a bath.
Afterward, she put on a robe and sat up in bed. It was still early, and she wasn’t ready to go to sleep. She took the next letter from the stack and started reading.
Dear Anne,
I hope you are having a wonderful December. I went to the Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center. I’ve missed it, I felt like such a New Yorker again.
I always marvel at the things that writers notice. The television camera operator who kept checking his watch, as if he was late for a date. The children eating cinnamon buns and placing their sticky fingers all over their mothers’ winter coats.
I can almost hear you say that I’m procrastinating. I should be working on my novel. But one can’t be a writer without experiencing life. In some ways, that’s every writer’s tragedy. If she’s successful, she’s chained to her desk and doesn’t go anywhere. If she’s a failure, it doesn’t matter what she experiences, no one will ever read her words.
And so, I return to my story. I realized after my last letter, I can’t tell you why I broke off my engagement to Teddy without saying how it happened in the first place. It would be like starting a novel with the epilogue and then going back to the beginning. I suppose a clever writer might manage it, but I believe in straight storytelling. It’s not the story that’s important. It’s the characters. We have to care about them from the beginning.
Teddy took me to dinner eight times before I let him see my apartment. My roommate, Joan, counted, because every time we went to dinner, I put a dollar in our cookie jar. We agreed to use the money I saved on food to buy things for our apartment.
When Teddy did come over, it was only because I was late coming home from work and he didn’t wait downstairs while I changed.
“My roommate isn’t home,” I said when we entered. I did a quick check for embarrassing objects. A box of tampons, the diet powder Joan stirred into her morning coffee even though she was thin as a rake.
“Women in Manhattan must have some kind of telepathy with their roommates,” Teddy said, sinking into the sofa.
The sofa was the most expensive piece in our apartment. It was gold with velvet tassels. Joan’s mother bought it because she was horrified by the secondhand sofa Joan and I found at a thrift shop. Men would never stay for coffee if they were forced to sit on a worn sofa.
I stepped behind the curtain I used to change clothes, and took off my blouse.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Whenever a guy shows up at a woman’s apartment, the roommate isn’t home. You send each other smoke signals saying the coast is clear.”
I poked my head out from behind the curtain. Teddy was walking around, inspecting the place.
“If you think I told Joan to leave because I wanted us to be alone, you’re wrong,” I snapped. “Joan goes to dinner at her boyfriend’s parents’ house every Friday. They’re Jewish and he wants her to convert.”
Joan had nothing against Judaism. But she didn’t want to give up her own faith because she happened to be in love.
Teddy’s face broke into a dazzling smile. “You should have told me that sooner. I could have saved a few dollars and we could have ordered Chinese to eat here.”
“I’m not asking you to dinner.” I yanked back the curtain. I had changed into a navy knit dress.
“Why not?” His voice became slightly peevish. “Just because I can afford to take you to dinner doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a home-cooked meal.”
I pretended to be looking for something in my purse but I was stalling. I hadn’t told Teddy that I was a virgin. I wasn’t opposed to sex before marriage. Women’s magazines were full of articles about women claiming their orgasms. I hadn’t had the opportunity. But Teddy prided himself on being a gentleman. If he knew, he’d stop seeing me. He didn’t want to be my first lover.
“I don’t have men over, and I don’t know how to cook.”
Teddy glanced at the pull-out bed in the wall.
“I suppose that’s wise. That contraption doesn’t look very romantic. You’re better off at men’s apartments.”
Teddy was between apartments so he hadn’t asked me over. At the moment he was staying with a friend on the Upper West Side.
“I don’t go to men’s apartments either.”
“Then how do you…” He stopped.
He looked at me curiously. Then his expression turned to horror. I could tell what he was thinking.
“I don’t.” I sat on the sofa. “I mean I haven’t.” For a writer, my tongue was tied in knots. “I want to, I just haven’t had the chance.”
“You’re a working woman in New York.” His voice rose as if I were some kind of criminal. “Unless you’re holding out for something. Jewelry or a mink coat.”
I was getting angry. “Sex isn’t something to be bartered, like a basket of strawberries at the fruit stand,” I retorted. “There’ve been a few men, but it never got that far.”
He sank on the sofa. “No wonder the women at the office call you an ice queen. I bet you deprive yourself of everything. I thought they were jealous, but they’re right.”
I jumped up and strode to the refrigerator.
“I don’t deprive myself.” I opened the freezer. “Look, I’ve got chocolate ice cream and frozen éclairs and even a bottle of tequila because it lasts longer in the freezer. I like sweet things and I quite like to get tipsy. But I’m not going to climb in bed with just anyone.”
Teddy rubbed his forehead.
“We’ll talk about this later. I just remembered I have a dentist appointment.”
“A dentist appointment at six p.m. on a Friday?”
“Dr. Fineman is booked up for months. I convinced him to see me tonight.”
I didn’t believe him. A Jewish dentist would never see patients on Shabbat.
“I’ll go with you,” I said sweetly. “We’ll have dinner afterward.”
“I’ll be numb for hours.” Teddy stood up and kissed me. “I’m flying to Detroit tomorrow on business, we’ll have dinner when I return.”
I didn’t see him for a month. He stopped coming by the office. He called a few times, but it was always from an airport or from a pay phone. I knew from a few people at work that editors still took him to lunch. He met them at the restaurant instead.
I was willing to wait, it gave me time to work on my novel. Then the novel was finally in the hands of my agent, and my nights were free.
I came up with a plan. I accepted a dinner invitation from a guy named Miles Burbank. Miles was the creative director at Women’s World Monthly and a notorious womanizer. He kept a little black book on his desk of the women he’d slept with. Models and fashion designers. He never hid it, he was proud of it.
And I made sure Teddy knew about my date. Miles’s secretary sent me flowers with Miles’s name on the card, and I displayed them prominently on my desk in case Teddy stopped by the office. And I told all the women and even my boss, Gus, where we were going. Thank God for the Women’s World Monthly gossip mill! It never failed.
Miles took me to a nightclub called the Gallery. I was overdressed in a knockoff Pucci dress, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t there to impress Miles or anyone in the club. I wanted to see Teddy’s face when he walked in the door.
Teddy showed up as Miles and I were finishing our third round of Singapore Slings. I didn’t want to drink too much but Miles was a fast drinker. I had no choice but to keep up with him.
Teddy marched over to our table. He looked furious.
I picked up my glass. “Teddy, what a surprise. This is Miles Burbank. He’s the creative genius at Women’s World Monthly. ”
“I know who he is.” Teddy nodded at Miles. He looked at me. “Now get your coat.”
I ignored his demand. “Miles just finished writing a novel. It’s so nice to be with another writer. Miles is the only person I know who’s read everything by Faulkner.”
I knew that would get to Teddy. I’d read everything; Teddy’s knowledge of American literature didn’t extend beyond Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.
“Then you can start a book club,” Teddy said. “We’re late. We have dinner reservations at the Four Seasons.”
Teddy never took me to expensive restaurants. He didn’t make that much money, and he was frugal.
“We already ate.”
He glanced contemptuously at the other diners, who were eating burgers and chili.
“This place doesn’t serve anything that doesn’t need to be washed down with a cocktail.” He took my arm. “Thank Miles for the drinks and come with me.”
I didn’t like the way Teddy bossed me around, but I’d talk about that with him later. For now, my plan had worked.
Teddy hailed a taxi and we drove in silence to the Four Seasons. It really was glamorous. Waiters pushed around silver bread carts, and the chef made Baked Alaska right at the table.
We ordered oysters on the half shell, and prime rib.
Teddy waited until the waiter left and then he reached into his pocket.
“When I heard you were out with Miles, I stopped by my mother’s and got this.” He presented me with a small velvet box.
I opened it. Inside was an emerald ring, flanked by two diamonds.
“What is it?”
“It’s my grandmother’s engagement ring. I’ve been working on a design for your engagement ring with my dentist’s brother, Ken, but it won’t be ready for days. Their father died and the family is sitting shiva.”
“You’re asking me to marry you!” I said, shocked. I only wanted to keep dating, I hadn’t considered marriage.
“We can’t stop seeing each other, and we can’t have sex without a plan for the future.”
“I don’t need a plan,” I said stiffly. “I’m quite happy to go to bed with you.”
“If you think I’m going to pave the way for some future…” He stopped.
I almost laughed. But Teddy looked so serious and he had gone to so much effort.
I tried again. “I don’t even know if I want to get married. My agent thinks my book will sell, and I have an idea for the next one.”
“I’m not expecting you to turn into a housewife.” He took a sip of his wine. “I’ve had time to think, and I’ve discovered that I’m in love with you.”
“You’re in love with me,” I repeated. My heart started to hammer, and my throat was dry.
“It’s the emotion that usually precedes a marriage proposal.” His voice became brisk. “Now, why don’t you do the normal thing and accept, so the waiter can replace this wine with the expensive champagne that I ordered.”
I had so many thoughts. Teddy was so sure of himself that he had already ordered the champagne. He really did have a Jewish dentist named Dr. Fineman. But I kept those to myself.
I held out my hand.
“Yes, I’ll marry you. And I’m in love with you too.”
I’ll stop there for now, I don’t want to miss the department store sales. I hope you don’t mind if I buy presents for your daughters. That’s one thing I miss about never having children, there’s no one to spoil at Christmas.
Regards,
Nina
Caroline set the letter on the stack. She wondered whether she’d ever met Nina. Dozens of authors visited her mother’s apartment over the years. She couldn’t remember.