Chapter Twenty-Four
The next day, the NOY team was all aflutter. Vanessa was thrilled with the prospect of partnering with the NYU faculty on the new award. Everything else came to a screeching halt as they were all roped in to working on a proposal for the board. The strategy was complicated, but the crux of it was that NOY would help support NYU research, and, in return, the NYU faculty would be part of the peer-review process for the award. Through their connections in academic circles, they would also put together a presentation for the gala on some of the most cutting-edge work currently being done in the field.
As far as Eliza was concerned, this couldn’t have turned out worse if she had scripted it. Ross would likely be deeply involved in this presentation, and as the gala was her baby, there’d be no avoiding him. How long could she let this go on before telling him who she really was? Did she want to tell him who she really was? If only this had happened a month earlier, Ross Sawyer would only be a slightly pompous professor she now had to work with. If only Jack hadn’t died.
If only. She looked at the family photo still propped up against her wilting African violet and was overcome with a desperate sense of loss. Loss of her mother, her father, and everything she’d ever believed about their family unit.
The therapist she’d seen shortly after Carol came onto the scene talked a lot about Eliza’s anger at her mother, but Eliza didn’t buy it. Sure, mothers weren’t supposed to abandon their children. Not when they were nowhere near done growing up. But it wasn’t like it was Laura’s choice to leave. So it wasn’t fair for Eliza to be angry at her. The therapist had peered at her, tapping her pencil against her lips, but Eliza just stared back. This woman Carol had recommended she talk to wasn’t going to tell her how she was feeling. What kind of daughter would be mad at her mother for dying?
Now, though, she was finding it harder and harder to deny that something that felt alarmingly close to anger was simmering in her blood. She didn’t know if it was because her mom had cheated on her dad, or because she had kept it secret, or because she had decided to reveal it after all...
She looked at the handful of fidget spinners she’d pulled out of her desk drawer that morning. They bore the NOY logo on one side and the logo of the educational-toy company that had provided them on the other. She wanted to hurl them against the wall.
At that moment, her phone lit up with a text. It was Mo, confirming their drink for that evening. Ugh. All she wanted to do was go home and curl up on the couch with her good friend Monk . But not only was she meeting Nik for the first time, she then had to celebrate Scott’s birthday.
She hadn’t seen Maren or Scott since her sister-in-law’s edict about keeping Scott out of the debacle with Carol. When Maren had invited her to join their group of friends at a bar, Eliza was sorely tempted to ask why she wanted her to come.
I’m sure he’d like you there , Maren had written.
Why? So I can remind him how fucked up our family is?
When Eliza arrived at the bar Mo had selected, it was surprisingly quiet, despite it being Friday evening. It was decorated in the style of a traditional Irish pub, with a heavy oak bar, behind which were displayed rows and rows of whiskey, alongside a blackboard listing all the beers and ciders on tap. Old-school Tiffany-style lamps hung from the hammered-tin ceiling, and the redheaded, fair-skinned bartender looked like he was straight from central casting.
Mo waved at her from a high-top table near the back and jumped off her seat to give her a hug. “Eliza, this is Nik. Nik, this is Eliza.”
Eliza extricated herself from the hug and turned to the attractive man who had risen from his own seat. She noted the thick dark hair and well-cut suit.
“Eliza. So nice to meet you. I feel like I know you already.” He bent to touch his cheek to hers, and she caught a whiff of not-unpleasant aftershave.
“So good to meet you, too.”
“I was just going to get some drinks. What can I get you?”
Eliza thought about her day and the evening ahead of her and wondered if she could order a scotch and make it a triple. She’d never actually done that, but it might be fun to try. But she restrained herself. “I’ll have a Magners.”
“Ooh, me, too!” Mo reached out and squeezed Nik’s arm before he walked away.
Eliza slipped off her jacket and hung it on the back of the chair before sitting.
Mo’s eyes sparkled. “So what do you think?”
“Well, based on thirty seconds in his presence, I’m not getting any warning flags.”
“I know, I know. You just met him. I’m just excited.”
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” Eliza smiled to soften her deadpan delivery.
Nik returned, impressively holding three pint glasses and managing to set them down on the table with only a little sloshing.
“Sláinte!” he exclaimed as he lifted his own drink for them to toast. They all clinked and sipped.
“So, Nik, tell me about yourself,” Eliza asked, putting her glass down.
He smiled widely. His teeth were very straight. “Wow. Tall order. Let’s see. I live in Battery Park City. I work in finance. I went to college in Boston...”
He went on, and Eliza asked questions where appropriate. And Mo jumped in to fill in blanks. They already had some well-coordinated couple-speak going.
“And you? I know you and Mo go way back. I bet you could tell me some stories!”
Eliza lifted her glass. “I’d need to get more of this in me if I’m going to give away any of her secrets.”
He grinned. “Fair enough.”
Mo smacked Eliza playfully. “Girl code. No matter how much you drink, you don’t spill your girlfriend’s secrets.” She took a sip of her own cider. “So, anything new with Ross?”
Eliza glanced at Nik, who looked openly curious. Apparently, girl code didn’t apply to Mo telling her new boyfriend about Eliza’s family drama. With a sinking feeling, she described the meeting the day before in as few words as possible.
Mo’s eyes widened. “Wow. That’s wild!”
Wild. That was one word for it, but not the one Eliza would have chosen.
“So what are you going to do next?”
Both Mo and Nik seemed mesmerized. All they needed was some popcorn.
“I don’t know. It’s actually getting really complicated and stressful.” Eliza drank deeply from her glass.
“I can only imagine.” Mo touched her arm, but somehow Eliza drew no comfort from it. She wanted to talk to her friend about how she was really feeling?—not only about Ross but about Scott?—but this wasn’t the time or place. And while she didn’t begrudge Mo being in the throes of her new romance, she wasn’t sure when that time or place might be at this point. She decided to change the subject instead.
“Anyway. What do you guys have planned for the rest of the evening?”
“One of Nik’s friends plays in a band. We’re going out to Brooklyn to hear them.”
“Cool. What kind of music?”
Nik tried to describe it, and Mo laughed at him, and before she knew it, it was time for Eliza to head to her next stop for the evening.
“We have to do dinner next time,” Mo said, giving her a hug.
“Definitely.”
Nik kissed her on the cheek. “It was great meeting you.”
“You, too.”
But as she walked away from them, she felt drained. It had taken everything she had to converse like a normal person, and now she was going to have to do it all over again, at another bar across town.