Eliza Starts a Rumor(25)
She stood there now wondering how she could have become so jaded. How could she have been so foolish as to think this wouldn’t be enough for her? But of course, hindsight is everything, and who wouldn’t make different choices if they were given a crystal ball? Eliza probably wouldn’t, she thought. Good for her. She hoped it were true.
Though Eliza lived in the house she had grown up in, Mandy knew it was now a very different home. Eliza and her mother had been like oil and water for most of their lives, until later, when they were like gasoline and a match. But still, when her mom moved to Florida and offered Eliza and Luke the house, they grabbed it. It was a beautiful Colonial near some of the best schools in the state, plus there was a natural warmth to the place that even Eliza’s frosty mother hadn’t been able to extinguish. Birdie Reinhart was ice-cold to almost everyone except, oddly, Amanda. Actually, it wasn’t that odd. Even a stranger could figure out why Birdie seemed to care more for Amanda than for her own child. In fact, upon meeting Eliza and Amanda in the presence of Birdie, the tactless ones often pointed it right out:
“Oh, how funny that your own daughter (with her frizzy black curls, broken-out skin, and extra pounds) looks nothing like you, and her (fit, tan, blond) best friend (with the wide-set blue eyes and fine features) could be your clone?”
The only thing wrong with that sentence was “how funny.”
Eliza was always generous about it to Mandy, making faces and snide comments to defuse the situation.
“Do you want her?” she would ask, referring to her mother. A baited question, since Amanda’s own mother had walked out on them when she was seven. Amanda’s answer would be no. She didn’t want Birdie Reinhart to be her mother, but she did let her spoil her. She was happy to take her hand-me-downs or a gift of coral lipstick when Birdie would buy two because, “It goes perfectly with our coloring.”
Eliza always felt like the ugly duckling when the three of them were together, but feigned indifference. She would make self-deprecating jokes and laugh everything off until that one day in high school, when out of nowhere she refused to leave the house. It was as if her entire personality changed overnight and no one, not even Amanda, knew why.
Amanda pulled herself away from the window and opened up her suitcase. She would visit Eliza tomorrow when her company was gone. It would be too much to walk into her house today. She pictured the Hollywood-style announcement:
Amanda Cole, Hudson Valley’s D-list actress, is back for a return engagement with her tail between her legs.
It was not the big comeback she had hoped for.
CHAPTER 15
Jackie & Alison
Jackie made a special trip to the Video Room on Saturday to pick out a movie for him and Jana to watch. He was old-fashioned that way. Perusing the aisles of the last standing DVD store in Hudson Valley gave him a satisfaction he didn’t get from streaming at home. The alternative was spending an eternity doing it the Netflix way, and not a happy eternity. Every suggestion by one of them led to the other saying, “Maybe. Let’s see what else there is.” The delayed start significantly upped the chance of Jackie dozing off halfway through. It had been years since he’d carried Jana upstairs to sleep; lately it was more likely to be the other way around.
He walked in around five o’clock with a bag of groceries, including the newest flavor from Ben & Jerry’s, and the DVD of Drop Dead Fred. A classic, he told Jana as she came down the stairs to gingerly burst his bubble.
“I’m sorry, Daddy. Lauren Adwar is having people over, and I really want to go.”
He made a sad face, but Jana didn’t waver. She reminded him that the last time she acquiesced to guilt she missed the party of the year, which fueled a few hundred inside jokes that she was not inside for.
It never seemed to enter her mind that Jackie might also have other things to do. Not that he could even remember having such desires. Jackie’s friends used to invite him to join them on Saturday nights, but he would usually turn them down, choosing to spend more time with Jana. Even his mother would push him to put himself out there. He always made excuses. Jackie had no interest in ever being as broken as he was when his wife died. He had his daughter and loving her was enough for him.
“Will her parents be home?” he asked.
“Yup. Call them if you want,” she challenged.
“Don’t think I won’t.”
“Oh, believe me, Daddy, I don’t think you won’t!”
They both laughed. They knew each other too well.
Within an hour of her leaving, loneliness set in. Jackie looked at his DVD choice and bemoaned the fact that he’d had Die Hard and Die Hard 2 in his hands and had put them back. Even the lovely Phoebe Cates couldn’t entice him to go this one alone. Jana would be going to college in a few years, and he hadn’t bothered to build a personal life for himself. He poured a bowl of cereal, not exactly the dinner of champions, and opened up his computer to throw himself into his work. This was a common defense of his when discontent set in—don’t think, just work. He remembered his new mom bulletin board friend and reached out to her instead of delving into a trade index summary report.
Hi! Did you make it to the Karma Sutra? Were there any meditation classes posted?
She answered pretty quickly, leading Jackie to assume that she was just as bored as he was. In truth, she was happy for the distraction.