Eliza Starts a Rumor(45)
“I think you feigned interest just to appease me—but I had some significant fantasizing going on.”
“Apparently so, since you’re still swooning over him.”
“You’re the one who insisted girls should be able to take shop. Mr. DeLuca was not too happy about that progressive move, if I remember.”
Eliza had petitioned to take shop in the fall of their senior year instead of home economics, citing Title IX. Everyone thought she was a feminist trailblazer, but Mandy knew she just wanted to come home and regale her with stories of Mr. DeLuca. As she remembered it, Eliza wasn’t really there yet when it came to boys, like she was. It felt like she did it just to keep in step with her best friend.
“I don’t know how you remember all of this stuff, Mandy.”
“Well, maybe because I’m still swooning over my high school drama teacher, two kids and all these years later.”
Eliza raised her glass again. “To your new gig.”
Amanda lifted her own and added, “May it be so fulfilling that I will want to stay forever!”
Eliza couldn’t help but laugh. “You couldn’t get out of here fast enough, and now you want to bring up your kids here?”
“This is the best place I know. I don’t know what I was running away from. Plus, my dad is getting older and could use the help.”
“Your dad is fine, Mandy. I check in on him all the time. Well, at least I used to. He’s doing great.” Eliza’s tone got more serious, and she looked at her friend—if she could shake Carson Cole by the shoulders, she would. “I hate to think of you giving up on the life you dreamed of because of that jerk husband of yours.”
“Believe me, I wasn’t living the life I dreamed of. I have to go. Thanks for the ‘protein shake.’ It hit the spot.”
Eliza grabbed her car keys from the foyer shelf.
“Now,” she said more brightly, “before you go, can you just pull my car out of the garage and put it in the driveway?”
“I’ve been drinking,” Mandy replied, not wanting to enable Eliza more than she already was.
“It’s just ten feet. Please, Mandy. It’s been inside all week and Luke knows I hate pulling into the garage. It’s suspect.”
“Fine.” She took the keys and they hugged goodbye—with a little extra squeeze on both sides.
CHAPTER 26
Jackie & Alison
Jackie was more nervous than usual when getting ready for his date, searching for the right words to explain his dual identity while getting dressed. Everything he came up with sounded wrong. Also, he disliked going out during the week. He had to rush home and jump in the shower after work, prepare something for dinner for Jana, and sit with her while she ate. He didn’t like breaking that promise for work or for a date. He knew that Jana would have been happy eating her dinner in front of reruns of The Office, but she always stuck to the rule that was so important to her dad. Dinner together. Tonight’s dinner was unusually interesting because she got to give her dad the third degree on his upcoming date.
“Where did you meet this lady again?”
“On the train,” he answered with a wave of nausea. Now he was lying to Jana, too. He couldn’t very well tell her that he met his lady friend on account of her lady friend.
“Where are you going?”
“That new Italian place on Main Street. I heard it was great. I’ll take you if it is.”
“Thanks. What are you going to wear?”
Jackie had already painstakingly dressed for the date in a striped oxford shirt, tan chinos, and loafers.
“This is what I’m wearing.”
“Oh.”
“Oh, that’s nice, or oh, that’s what you’re wearing?”
“Well, I don’t know, Daddy. You look so cute in your jeans and that dope T-shirt, you know that one we bought in Soho last month.”
“You think? I feel like that’s not dressy enough.”
“Well, this whole tucked-in look you have going on, I think it’s kinda out of style.”
She pushed her plate away and brought him upstairs to change. In the end, they agreed on the oxford shirt untucked over a pair of jeans.
“Nice, Dad! You’re slaying!”
“That’s a good thing, I presume?”
Jana was happy her dad was going out on a date. She’d been worrying about him ever since her grandma died. She was very aware that in a few years she would be going off to college and leaving him alone.
“You gotta go, Daddy.”
“OK, I’ll come in and check on you when I get home.”
He kissed her on the top of her head and was off.
* * *
—
Jackie arrived at Alison’s house a few minutes early. He stood at the door staring at his watch, not wanting to interrupt what he imagined was going on inside. He was right. Alison was trying to get the baby down before she left. Jackie waited patiently and rang the bell at exactly eight.
Alison answered the door looking very beautiful, except for a large wad of spit-up perched on her left shoulder. Its presence left Jackie in a bit of a conundrum—to tell or not to tell? He imagined from her glossed lips and pretty outfit that she had gone to some trouble to get ready for their date, so with that in mind, he thought, don’t tell. But he knew that, with one look in the mirror, she would wonder why he hadn’t chosen to mention that there was a sizable chunk of baby vomit on her shirt and peg him for the deceitful cad that he had recently become. He’d seen other women get angry about such things before, usually in reference to something between their teeth. He decided to say something.