The Hopefuls(80)

A couple walked by our booth, and I saw the girl do a double take when she spotted Jimmy. She backed up and waited for him to notice her before saying, “Jimmy, hi!” She kept looking over at me, quickly, like she was trying to be sneaky. Jimmy took a sip of his beer and said, “Hey, Alexis. How’s it going,” but made no move to introduce us. Finally she put out her hand to me and said, “Hi, I’m Alexis.”

“Beth,” I said.

Jimmy smiled as we shook hands, and I could tell he hadn’t introduced us on purpose. “You haven’t met Beth yet?” he asked her. “She’s Ash’s best friend from DC and the wife of my campaign manager.”

“No, we’ve never met,” Alexis said. She looked slightly disappointed that I wasn’t some secret girlfriend, but she managed to shake my hand and then turned to the guy standing next to her. “This is my husband, Fletcher.” Fletcher gave us a small nod and stood off to the side, making it clear he had no interest in joining our conversation. Alexis stood at our table awkwardly for a few more seconds and then said good-bye.

After they walked away, I looked at Jimmy, who had an amused expression on his face. “What was that about?” I asked him.

“She was in Ash’s class in high school,” he said. “She’s the worst.”

I laughed and looked past him to make sure Alexis was out of earshot. “Really,” he went on. “She’s even worse than the coven that Ash is always with now. She would have loved nothing more than to be able to report to the whole town that I was eating dinner with an unidentified attractive woman.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Really. She’s nothing but awful. In high school, she once fed so much beer to someone’s pet bird at a party that it died.”

“Oh, God,” I said.

“I know. She had all the makings of a serial killer. Poor Fletcher better watch his back.”

The waitress brought our food over then, and we didn’t talk as we arranged the onions and tomatoes on our burgers, poured just the right amount of ketchup on them. I’d just taken a huge bite when Jimmy said, “So the question is, do you think my dad will legally adopt Matt as his son by the time dinner’s over?”

I laughed because I knew that’s what he wanted me to do and then managed to swallow and ask, “What do you think they talk about all the time anyway?”

“You know, how smart they both are, stuff like that.”

“Ha,” I said. And then because I felt like I couldn’t ignore it, “I’m sorry if it’s weird for you, them going out to dinner. I feel like I’d be annoyed if I were you.”

Jimmy shrugged. “Nah,” he said and then laughed a little bit. “It’s fine. Plus, I’d much rather eat dinner with you than with my dad.”

I thought then how happy I was that Jimmy was still himself, that while Matt and Ash were morphing into weird personalities, Jimmy stayed the same. Ridiculous sometimes, sure. Self-centered, maybe. But that’s who he’d always been and I felt the most relaxed when he was around.

I put my cheeseburger down on my plate, wiped my hands on my napkin. “You know,” I said, “I bet we had more fun than anyone tonight.” And Jimmy looked up with a serious expression before winking and saying, “Obviously,” then shoving the last large bite of his burger into his mouth.

—

Later that week, Matt and I watched Viv while Jimmy and Ash went to a birthday dinner for her friend Ainsley. All of the Dozens were attending with their husbands, and Ash had reminded Jimmy of the dinner no fewer than twenty times. We were sitting on the floor with Viv in the TV room when they came to say they were leaving, both dressed up.

“Have a good night,” I said, and Jimmy said, “Oh, I’m sure we won’t.”

Ash decided to pretend he was joking and she swatted him on the arm. “Very funny, Jimmy.”

After they left, Viv wrinkled her brow and cried a little, but she recovered quickly and soon seemed delighted that she had our undivided attention. It felt a little odd to be alone with Matt—since we’d moved to Texas, it had rarely been just the two of us. But I tried to ignore any weirdness and be happy that we were spending the night together now, even if it was just because we were babysitting.

Viv had a koala bear that she was very attached to (Ash sometimes worried that her obsession with it wasn’t normal) and she kept handing it to Matt and then taking it back, shoving its arms and legs into her mouth.

“Koala is going to need a bath soon,” I said to her, and she smiled and whipped him on the ground.

“Are you mad at Koala?” Matt asked, and Viv looked up at him as if she were considering the question. “Maybe you’re just bored with him. You probably want another baby to play with. You should ask your aunt Beth to help you out. Maybe she will. You just have to ask her.” Matt said all of this in a singsong voice while looking at Viv, but it was clear he was waiting for me to respond.

I didn’t say anything at first, just stared at Matt. It felt like this was coming out of nowhere—we hadn’t talked about having a baby in months, not in any serious way. In fact, we hadn’t even mentioned it casually, and I couldn’t tell if Matt was joking now. Finally, I just said, “Funny, funny.”

“I’m not trying to be funny,” Matt said. He was looking at me strangely then, and I had the feeling that he wanted to start a fight, to make the night unpleasant.