The Hopefuls(70)

—

Matt arranged for Jimmy to be gone the weekend of February 14—first at a gumbo festival just outside of Austin on Friday night, and then at four different events in the city on Saturday. When Matt scheduled this, he hadn’t realized (I assume) that February 14 was, of course, Viv’s first birthday, and so when Ash saw the schedule she had a minor meltdown.

“You can’t be gone for her birthday!” she said. She was standing in the office in front of the large whiteboard calendar that hung on the wall and kept track of Jimmy’s schedule. She and I had been on our way out to lunch and had stopped in to tell the guys we were going—it was just a coincidence that she looked up at the calendar.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t even think about it,” Matt said. He glanced over at Jimmy, who I knew had approved the trip. It was one thing for Matt to forget his goddaughter’s first birthday, but Jimmy should’ve seen this coming.

“It’s a weekend trip,” Jimmy said. “I just figured we’d all be going.” He didn’t sound concerned.

“Can’t you go down there on Saturday?” Ash asked. She was looking at Matt, who was staring at papers on his desk. “I wanted to have all the grandparents over for dinner on Friday. I figured we wouldn’t be able to have a real party for her, but I at least wanted to do that.”

“We’ll do it when we get back,” Jimmy said. “She won’t know the difference. She doesn’t know what day it is—she doesn’t even know where her nose is.”

Ash opened her mouth as if she were going to say something more, but then just turned and walked out of the room. I followed her and we went to lunch, where she said to me, “There’s no point in fighting it. He’s going to get his way anyway.”

But that night at dinner, Ash got up when we were just about halfway through, claiming that she had a headache and needed to lie down. A few minutes later, Matt excused himself to go down to the basement to answer some e-mails. He seemed so distracted, so focused on work, that I’m not even sure he noticed the tension at dinner.

“And then there were two,” I said to Jimmy, raising my eyebrows at him across the table. He stood up and went to the refrigerator, pulled out two beers, and held one toward me. “Sure,” I said. “Why not?”

I got up and started carrying the dishes to the sink and rinsing them off. “You don’t have to do that,” Jimmy said, carrying his plate over. “Or at least let me help.”

“We’re not guests anymore,” I said. “You can’t keep treating us like we are.”

“Fair enough,” Jimmy said, grinning at me. He sat back down at the table.

“I’d do this more if Ash let me, you know. Last week, she took our dirty towels from Matt’s hands as he was going to put them in the wash. She insisted she do them herself.”

“Yeah, she’s a little anal with everything in the new house,” he said.

We didn’t talk for a few minutes as I loaded the dishwasher and wiped the counter. Finally, when I sat back down at the table, I said, “It’s so quiet.”

“Yeah,” Jimmy said. “But if you listen closely you can hear the sounds of fracking statistics and angry birthday party planning coming from all around us.”

“Don’t be mean,” I said, but I laughed.

Jimmy grinned and clinked the top of his bottle against mine. “We don’t have to tell anyone, but let’s just admit that we’re the best ones.”

—

Later that week, I was in the basement on my computer wasting time, which I was becoming an expert at—it was amazing how long I could spend on Twitter and Facebook, going from one random article to the next. I’d just gone down a rabbit hole that involved articles about what the members of the Baby-Sitters Club would be doing as adults, when I heard Jimmy call my name from the top of the stairs. I walked over and looked up.

“I have to make a Costco run to get some stuff for Viv’s party,” he said. “Want to join?”

“Sure,” I said. “Give me two minutes.” Ash was at her mom’s and Matt and Katie were in the office, but we were pulling out of the driveway before I realized that Jimmy hadn’t told Matt where we were going. “He’s working on my talking points for the radio interview next week, and all three suggestions I made were shot down quickly. So I figured I’d let him handle it. I mean, what do I know? I’m just the actual candidate.”

—

Jimmy whistled in Costco as he pushed the giant cart through the aisles. He stopped at a display of televisions, and I said, “I thought we were getting stuff for Viv’s party.”

He sighed. “We are, but Costco is about the experience.” He put his arm around my shoulders as if he were a wise man trying to teach me something important, and he kept wheeling the cart along with his free hand. “You need to be open to new things, ready to be so dazzled by a Vitamix blender that you buy it on the spot.”

I laughed. “So you’re responsible for that blender?”

“They made smoothies in the store and gave samples to everyone. I was hooked.”

“Have you used it?” I asked.

“All in good time, Beth.” Jimmy stopped to put a large container of cheese puffs into the cart and I asked him if Ash had given him a list, since I was pretty sure she’d sooner die than set out a bowl of cheese puffs for guests. “Not exactly,” he said. “It’s more of a surprise.”