28. Tiffin Talks Blame It on Daddy D’s #2
Olivia H-T’s Harbour plans have been messy.
She isn’t invited to join the group in At Ease, which is fine because she has another option. Tilly Benbow is finishing her senior year at Greenwich Country Day, a school that also spends spring break in Harbour. And so, Olivia thinks, she’ll join Tilly and her GCD friends.
But at the last minute, the Benbows change their minds about letting Tilly go anywhere alone. They book a trip to Lyford Cay as a family instead.
Olivia is left stranded… until she finds out that Pippa is skipping a week of classes at Haydensboro High in order to go to Harbour with her Brearley friends.
They’re renting a villa called Java House right in the center of Dunmore Town.
Olivia looks it up online: It’s a compound of white clapboard cottages surrounding a courtyard and pool.
The interior is decorated like a Bahamian museum with a gallery wall of botanical prints, elegant sculptures, a selection of curated antiques.
There’s an outdoor bar with artfully weathered stools and a mounted blue marlin, and a hangout lounge with a pool table.
Olivia texts Pippa. Ur villa is gorg. Is it okay if I stay with u? I can sleep on sofa. (If pictures on the website are to be believed, there are eight sofas.)
It takes Pippa almost a full day to respond (Olivia supposes Pippa is checking with the other girls, telling them Olivia is normal, maybe seeing if anyone wants to swap for a room with two beds so Pippa and Olivia can stay together).
Finally, Pippa texts: Sorry, sorry, my friend Syndelyn’s parents paid for the whole thing and apparently they’re being dicks about non-Brearley people staying.
She sends a second text: For insurance reasons.
Then a third text: But you should def come to one of our afters!
Olivia is crushed, though if she’s being honest, not surprised. It tracks that she, Olivia Hudezech-Tottingknaffer, would be left with no alternative but to spend her spring break staying at the Doll House with the fourth-formers.
She tells herself it doesn’t matter. At least she’s going.
And it turns out to be sort of amazing. Olivia and Grady Tish hard launch in front of everyone by dancing together in front of the DJ stand at Valentines. People cheer, and Olivia pretends not to care when Davi gives her blessing, calling out, “Senior Spring has officially begun!”
The fourth-formers treat Olivia like a queen: Cassie Lee and Imogen fight over who will sit up front with Olivia in the golf cart, who will lend her sunscreen, who will take the hundred-dollar bill that Olivia brandishes (her mother sent her with twenty-five hundred dollars in cash for “walking-around money”) to buy the next round of cocktails.
The fourth-formers like her. They think she’s normal. They don’t seem to care that she’s a girl who has been so thoroughly shunned by her own grade that she has to hang with sophomores.
One morning, Olivia gets a text from Madison J: Her mother and Mrs. Wilson are hosting a cocktail party at the Briland Club.
It’s sixth-formers only, Madison says. Dress code is Bahama blues.
Olivia’s excitement about the event is further fueled by the envy of the people in the Doll House.
Grady says, “You’re sure I can’t come as your plus-one?”
“I’m sure,” Olivia says. She hasn’t brought anything blue, but Cassie is only too happy to lend her a baby-blue dress with a blue tulle skirt; it’s giving more ballerina than Bahamas, but oh well.
Olivia heads north in the golf cart, following signs to the Briland Club, where she sees the kids in her class wearing blue.
She nearly turns around. Does she want to walk into this party alone?
As she’s parking the golf cart, she spies East, who is also by himself.
He has gotten deeply tan in just five days; he’s wearing a light-blue linen button-down with white shorts and looks hotter than ever.
Olivia hasn’t seen him since the plane ride—he hasn’t come to Valentines or Gusty’s or Daddy D’s.
She supposes he’s been chilling at the Dunmore, seducing the rich moms.
When he notices her, he nods. “Hey, Olivia.”
“Hey, East!” Olivia slows her pace so he can catch up. It would be so great if it seemed like they were walking in together.
He notices her outfit. “Auditioning for Swan Lake?”
As she’s trying to come up with a witty comeback, a voice calls out, “Andy!”
East and Olivia turn around to see a pack of girls dressed in pink. One of the girls peels off and comes running over, waving a cigarette.
It’s Pippa! Olivia thinks. She’s been tempted to text Pippa but has managed to refrain; she doesn’t want to chase. Now, the universe has brought them together.
“Hey!” Pippa wraps her arms around East’s neck, and the three of them are instantly enveloped in a miasma of smoke. Then Pippa turns to Olivia. “Hey, girl, you came after all.”
“I did!” Olivia says as if it’s new information, though she’d already told Pippa she was coming and staying at the Doll House with “friends.”
East pulls away. “What are you doing here, Pippa?”
“I’m here with Brearley people. You remember Syndelyn? You should come by our villa. We’ve been hosting some pretty crazy afters.” Pippa takes a drag of her cigarette, and her eyes skip over to Olivia. “You can come too, Olivia, if you want.”
The offer sounds tacked on and half-hearted, but it’s the invite Olivia has been waiting for. “Are you having one tonight, because I could—”
“Pippa, come on!” a girl in a rose-splashed Hill House dress calls out. “The boat’s gonna leave without us.”
“We’re going on a booze cruise.” Pippa fingers the tulle of Olivia’s skirt. “I’d ask you to join us, but you guys have a thing, I guess?”
Olivia would love to ditch the awkward Tiffin party in favor of going out on a boat with Pippa and her friends.
It would be so delicious if everyone saw Olivia gliding away with Pippa and Syndelyn.
She opens her mouth to say, I can totally join you—but Pippa starts backing away.
“You’re wearing the wrong color, anyway.
I’ll see you guys later. Call me, Andy! Or just come by, we’re usually up until four.
” With that, Pippa lopes off—like a gazelle across the savannah that she never actually visited, Olivia thinks.
Olivia watches Pippa and her friends saunter down the dock, slip off their shoes, and step onto a Hinckley picnic boat. When Olivia turns back around, she realizes she missed her chance: East has entered the party without her.
At that moment, it’s crystal clear why Pippa didn’t invite Olivia to stay at Java House or go on the boat. Olivia has done nothing about getting revenge on anyone at Tiffin.
But she will, she decides then. She’ll get Pippa’s approval if it kills her.
Hakeem feels like an adult—dressed up, Goombay Smash in hand, chatting with the handful of parents who came to Harbour. I plan on double-majoring in political science and economics, then I’ll decide on law school or business school. After I win a couple Ivy League championships, I hope.
As the sun sets, Hakeem leads Taylor out of the tented area where the party is happening and down a sloping lawn to the lip of the harbor. Boats bob on their moorings, the club’s burgee and the Bahamian flag rumble and snap in the breeze above them.
“I know you’re worried about next year,” Hakeem says.
“I’m willing to let you make the decision.
If you want to stay together, we’ll stay together—visits, FaceTimes, vacations.
If you think we should split up, I’ll respect that as well.
But just know, Taylor Wilson, that I will never love another girl the way that I love you. ”
Taylor takes a sip of her drink. “Okay.”
Okay? Hakeem thinks. They’ve been on Harbour for five days.
Hakeem expected it to be Taylor and Hakeem’s Sexcellent Adventure, but their time alone has been limited to cuddling and two (reluctant) blow jobs.
They’ve been out late every night drinking, and because they’re living with all their friends, there’s always someone yelling from downstairs, which is distracting.
Hakeem texted Dub in Colorado to ask for advice (because Dub seems to understand Taylor in a way Hakeem doesn’t), and Dub said, “Just give her space, man, and tell her you love her.”
He means to follow Dub’s advice, but the Mount Gay hijacks his common sense. “Did Dub buy you sweatpants back in January?”
Taylor eyes him warily. “Why do you ask?”
“I saw it on your Venmo, it was an accident, I wasn’t spying. When I asked Dub, he denied it.”
Taylor sighs. “I’m sure he did. He’s a good friend.”
“Want to tell me what’s going on?” Hakeem says. “Are you still in love with him?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Taylor starts to cry. Hakeem hands her the damp cocktail napkin wrapped under his drink. As she blots her eyes, Hakeem quickly checks behind them, but nobody is looking their way. Everyone is enjoying the free drinks at the party.
“Last term,” she says. “I got pregnant.”
Hakeem’s drink slips in his hand and he just barely avoids a spill. “What?” He sucks in his breath, thinking, How? They have always used condoms. Except… “From that one time?”
Taylor nods, more tears fall. “I found out during finals.”
Hakeem puts his hand on the back of Taylor’s blond head and pulls her close, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Why didn’t you tell me, Tay?” He’s suddenly on the verge of tears himself, which is a strange feeling. He hasn’t cried in years.
“I didn’t want to burden you with it,” she says. “I didn’t want you to feel trapped.”
“I wouldn’t…” Hakeem checks what he’s about to say, because he suspects she’s right: He might have felt trapped. “So instead you confided in Dub?”
“I did,” Taylor says. “He was wonderful. He made me an appointment at a clinic…”
Hakeem is about to lose his shit: He did my part, like he was the father? But he doesn’t want to call attention to himself by yelling. All the parents at the party just finished telling Hakeem what an impressive young man he was.
He can’t believe this is happening. Is this real?