Chapter Ten
After Nick left, Caroline went up to her room. The maid had left a plate of gingerbread cookies. There was a box wrapped in silver foil with a note from the concierge, wishing Caroline a happy Christmas. Inside the box was an ornament of the Aspen Inn.
She had that bubbly feeling she used to experience after a long day at the office. Too tired to go running or to the gym, but too energized to sit and watch Netflix. She debated sending a text to Max. It would be nice to sit by the fireplace in the lobby and drink eggnog. But he hadn’t responded to her previous text and she wasn’t going to disturb him on Christmas Day.
Daphne and Luke wouldn’t be back for a few hours. She curled up in an armchair and picked up the next letter from Nina.
Dear Anne,
I’m sitting at the writing desk in my apartment. I can see you letting out a cheer, I’m finally going to work on the novel. I promise I will, I even made a deal with myself. If I meet my word count, I’m going to read one of the novels I bought at the Strand bookstore.
But it isn’t my discipline that put me in my chair, it’s today’s snowstorm. I love snowstorms in New York. The streets turn white and the whole city goes to sleep. Snowstorms are the best thing for a writer. I can sit for hours without feeling I’m missing out on something: a reading at the New York Public Library, or a sale at Macy’s.
Snow is different outside the city. That was the only thing that pleased me about Margaret’s insistence that Teddy accompany me to Vermont. Teddy had gone to college at Cornell in Ithaca, he was used to snow. He could dig the car out, or fix the boiler if it broke.
I went home from my meeting with Margaret and called him. He was living in an apartment a few blocks away from me, in the West Village.
He answered on the second ring.
“If you’re calling to tell me that you found more of my clothes and they’re sitting in front of your building, you could have saved yourself the effort,” Teddy said. “I visited my tailor last week. I used my bonus and bought a new wardrobe.”
I deserved that. I felt terribly guilty. Not for calling off the engagement. That was the right thing to do. But for the way I behaved. It wasn’t right to toss Teddy’s suits out the window.
“I’m inviting you over for dinner,” I offered.
Teddy’s voice was cautious. “Why would you do that? Unless you’ve added food poisoning to the ways you want to get back at me.”
I tried to think of a way to entice him.
“On the contrary, Joan is taking a cordon bleu cooking course. She brought home a coq au vin, dauphinoise potatoes, and apricot crème br?lée. She’s out of town for three days. If it sits here, it’s going to go bad.”
“Wrap it up and take it to work for lunch,” Teddy suggested.
I was getting angry again. Teddy could be so infuriating.
“All right. The truth is I want to discuss something with you.”
“You should have said so,” Teddy remarked. I could hear the triumph in his voice. He probably thought I was going to beg him to get back together.
“I’ll be there at seven,” he said before I could answer. “And I’ll bring a chardonnay. The food sounds delicious, and you’re too cheap to spring for a good wine.”
I spent the next hour cleaning the apartment. Joan and I had moved from the apartment we occupied when Teddy and I met. We were still in the West Village, but I had my own bedroom.
Teddy looked handsome in a tan turtleneck and brown slacks. Since we broke up, his good looks irritated me. Everything would have been easier if he was ordinary-looking.
“Things haven’t changed around here.” He picked up a bag of books that I had left on the counter. “You’re still spending too much of your salary on books, and Joan is still dating Saul.”
“Authors have to support each other, and how do you know Joan is dating Saul?”
“You have a bottle of Manischewitz wine.” He pointed to the kitchen counter. “I guess Joan finally converted.”
Teddy was right, Joan and Saul were engaged. Saul wanted to raise their children to be Jewish and Joan had agreed. She had spent the last year studying Judaism and had decided to convert after all.
“Why should anything change? It’s only been a few weeks since we broke up,” I said through gritted teeth.
Teddy glanced at me with an innocent expression.
“Is that all? It feels like a lifetime. I guess that happens, when one is released from prison. I’ve attended so many dinner parties, I’m afraid I’ll get fat. And I’m going to the Saint Kitts after New Year’s Day.” His voice was level. “Gwendolyn’s parents have a villa there. They invited my mother and me. Dolly wants me to go and I need the suntan. A good tan takes pounds off one’s figure, that’s why they shoot models on the beach.”
“You just said you’re going to stop attending dinner parties, why do you need a suntan too?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
I turned away so Teddy couldn’t see my expression. Gwendolyn Arthur was the cause of our breakup. But our troubles didn’t start with Gwendolyn. They started with Dolly Chandler, Teddy’s mother.
The first few months after Teddy proposed were the happiest I’d ever experienced. Teddy moved into his own apartment and I slept over almost every night. We didn’t have sex right away. After he gave me the engagement ring, there were still a few weeks of petting on his couch. But when he finally took my virginity, we couldn’t stop. It’s the oldest cliché and the truest. Every new couple thinks they invented sex.
I’d be sitting at my desk, typing an article, and recall how he whispered in my ear. I never felt so alive! We rarely went out to dinner. We ordered takeout but we were so eager to go to bed, even that didn’t get eaten. Instead, we consumed big breakfasts: eggs and bacon and buttered toast.
Then the first flush of romance eased and real life intruded. By “real life” I mean Dolly. It’s not that Dolly didn’t like me. She thought I was pretty, and she admired my career. But Teddy was her only child, and she insisted we have a large society wedding. I refused. My first book had come out the previous winter, followed by the second novel during the summer. I was one of the voices of the women’s lib movement. Being photographed in a white, pouffy dress for the New York Times society pages would be terrible for my image.
Besides, I didn’t like big weddings and I wasn’t comfortable around Teddy’s friends. Hardly any of the women worked, and the men said crass things about women when they thought no one was listening.
Teddy wanted me to be happy but he wanted to please his mother too. We remained at an impasse for months, then six weeks before Margaret cast me as Laura Carter, it broke.
Dolly was giving a dinner party. I had an author event in Philadelphia and couldn’t go. I encouraged Teddy to attend. Between working at Women’s World Monthly and writing, I rarely had time to socialize and Teddy didn’t like to go alone.
By the time I returned from Philadelphia the night of the dinner party, Teddy was in bed. I didn’t think about it again until I read the Sunday New York Times. Teddy and Gwendolyn’s photo was splashed in the society column with the caption Is Gwendolyn Arthur the reason that Teddy Chandler III hasn’t tied the knot with his fiancée? It went on to say that Gwendolyn was new on the New York social scene. Her father owned a shoe empire and she worked for Ralph Lauren.
I threw down the paper, furious. I was angry at Dolly for inviting Gwendolyn when she knew I couldn’t come. And I was mad at Teddy, of course. Even if it had been innocent, he should have warned me that the photo would be in the newspaper.
Teddy had every excuse. He didn’t have anything to do with the seating arrangements. The photographer snapped photos of everyone.
The next day, a dozen red roses waited for me at the office. I decided to forgive Teddy. But a few days later, I was at his apartment and there was a delivery from Cartier. I assumed it was for me. Teddy thought I was still angry and wanted to make me happy.
Teddy wasn’t home and I opened it. Inside was a sapphire bracelet. Immediately I was suspicious. I didn’t wear bracelets, they got in the way of the typewriter. And I didn’t like expensive jewelry. I could barely make myself wear my engagement ring.
When Teddy got home, I showed him the bracelet. He said it was Gwendolyn’s bracelet. The clasp broke and Dolly discovered it under the dining table. She took it to Cartier to get repaired and asked Teddy to pick it up and return it to Gwendolyn. Teddy didn’t want to see Gwendolyn. So, he asked Cartier to deliver it to her. The delivery man must have mixed up the addresses and sent it to him instead.
I listened to his story. Even if Teddy was telling the truth, I didn’t want to spend my life stuck between Teddy and Dolly, like layers in a sponge cake.
I took off my engagement ring and handed it to Teddy.
Teddy begged me to reconsider. But I was too wound up. I stormed out the door and went home. I wasn’t satisfied until I had dumped his suits out the window.
You can see why Teddy hadn’t wanted to come to my apartment for dinner. And why I didn’t look forward to telling him about Vermont.
“I had the most interesting conversation with Margaret this afternoon,” I said as I served the crème br?lée. “It’s about Laura Carter’s column.”
“If she wants Palmolive to advertise, she could have asked me herself,” Teddy said. “The column has terrific numbers, I’d be happy to do it.”
“It’s not that.” I explained Margaret’s request.
“Let me get this straight. Laura Carter is a Jewish grandmother living in Florida, and you’re going to impersonate her for a week.”
“Not impersonate exactly.”
“Pretending to be Laura Carter to some Midwest matron who wins the contest sounds like impersonating to me.”
“There is no Laura Carter,” I said impatiently. “I’m taking over the role for a week. What harm am I doing? The contest winner gets a free vacation.”
“Thank you for the invitation, but I decline. I’d much rather spend New Year’s Eve at the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center.”
“The plan doesn’t work unless you’re at the farm too. I can’t say no to Margaret.” I played with my fork. “Besides, I need the money.”
Teddy’s voice was quiet. “You could have kept the engagement ring.”
“An engagement ring is part of a commitment,” I snapped.
Teddy’s eyes found mine. “I’m willing to keep the commitment.”
For one moment, I was as soft and pliable as the dessert in front of me. Then I thought of Gwendolyn and her parents’ villa in Saint Kitts.
“Well, I’m not.” I glowered. “Will you do it?”
Teddy made a point of scraping up every crumb before he answered.
“I’m only doing it because of the bears.”
“Bears?” I repeated, puzzled.
“Black bears. I’m not worried about you. You can take care of yourself,” he said. “It’s the bears I’m concerned about. If they rummage through your garbage, you’ll shoot them.”
I’ll stop there. A good writer ends the chapter with a cliffhanger.
Regards,
Nina
Caroline set the letter back on the stack. Somehow, she felt closer to her mother when she was reading them. She still wished she knew why her mother had kept them in a box, and whether Nina ever finished her novel.
Her phone pinged. It was a text from Daphne.
“Luke and I are on our way back from the dogsled ride. Meet you in the lobby for Christmas dinner after we get showered and changed?”
Caroline went into the bathroom to get ready.