I Was Told It Would Get Easier(39)

Emily said, “She dated some real losers.”

“Thanks, Em.”

“Tell me about them,” said David, reaching for his glass.

“No, don’t,” I said, meaning it.

Miraculously, she dropped it and pushed her chair back. “I’m going to run to the ladies’ room.”





EMILY


I was so steamed right then. I called Ruby from the bathroom.

“Hey, bitch,” she said. “What’s up?”

“Hey,” I said, half whispering. “I’m stuck in a bar with a friend of my mom’s and he’s totally trying to get into her pants.”

“Ew, that’s gross,” she said. “Like, how?”

“Telling her she’s hot and staring at her, it’s repulsive.”

“Is she into it?” She laughed. “Maybe you’re cockblocking her and should leave them to it.”

“No,” I said, “that is not happening.”

“I’m sure your mom can handle herself. Isn’t she, like, fifty?”

“She’s forty-five.”

“Same difference. Besides, Jessica Burnstein is a bad MF, right? My dad said she’s a ballbuster.”

“Ew, also gross. But true story.”

I hung up and peed, and washed my hands, because I’ve been properly raised. Then I took a deep breath and headed back to the table.

As I got closer, I saw the guy was holding Mom’s hands, but then she pulled them away. He reached out for them again, and that time he didn’t let go, and that, I’m afraid to say, is when things got a bit awkward.





JESSICA


After Emily left the table, I leaned across and frowned at David.

“Hey, what’s the big deal? Stop talking about me like that. How would you like it if I told your kids how good you were in bed? You’d be pissed, right?”

David looked for the waiter again. “We were both good in bed. I miss you, that was the best sex I ever had.”

“You’re drunk. We were nineteen years old, of course it was good. What’s wrong with you?”

“Nothing,” he said. “I got divorced, I got lonely, and then you emailed me and I can’t stop thinking about you.” He gazed at me and, for a second, just for a second, I met his eyes and remembered how they clouded when he was deep inside me. He took my hands and ran his finger across my palm. “I’ll get a room at the hotel, and when she’s asleep you can come find me. Just one night, Jess, I promise it’ll be worth it.” He kissed my wrist.

Oh, for crying out loud. I pulled my hands away. “David, this is all very flattering, and even tempting because, sure, great sex is a fantastic thing, but on the other hand, are you out of your freaking mind? I’m with my daughter, and there is no sex on earth worth doing the walk of shame in front of a sixteen-year-old. I barely hold her respect as it is.”

“You’re forgetting how good it was between us.” He reached out and caught my hands again. “We spent days in bed, finding out new ways to make each . . .”

“Let go of her hands, asshole, before I call security.”

Emily was back.

David let go. “It’s fine, we were only catching up.”

She frowned at him. “She pulled her hands away and you grabbed them again. Consent isn’t an ephemeral concept, you know?”

I looked at my daughter and tried not to get distracted by her excellent vocabulary. “Em, chill out. Everything’s cool.”

She sat but glowered at David across the table. In an ideal world, or even in the world most of us live in, we would have simmered down and struggled through the remaining ten minutes or so until we left. Maybe David and I would have attempted to make conversation about something neutral, like old friends we’d lost touch with, or things to do in Philadelphia. We would pretend she hadn’t called him an asshole, or implied he was a sexual predator. But this wasn’t that world. To be fair, it wasn’t Emily’s fault; it was David’s.

“Emily.” His voice was firm but sugarcoated, not that it made any difference. “Your mother is her own person, you know. I expect you feel the world revolves around you, but it really doesn’t. When you get older, you’ll understand.”

There was a brief pause. In the back of my head I imagined the sound of a bowstring being stretched and braced myself.

Then Emily said, “When I get older?”

David nodded. “Yes. In many ways you’re still a child. Maybe it’s time you grew up a little bit.” He paused. “Maybe if you spent less time on your cell phone and did something useful instead . . .”

I reached up my hand and waved furiously at the waiter.

“In fact,” said David, reaching across the table. “Why don’t you give me your phone now and I’ll put it away?”

I stood up and yelled across the bar. “Check, please!”





EMILY


In the cab on the way to the restaurant, I suddenly had a terrible thought. What if my mom had wanted to sleep with that guy? What if Ruby was right and I had cockblocked her? I mean, he was a total idiot, but he was good looking, and adults can be so superficial. She’d seemed as keen to leave as I was, but maybe she was trying to avoid a scene. She hates a public spectacle.