Locust Lane(12)

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Papillon was still mostly empty when she arrived, a few minutes early. Michel would already be in the kitchen, working his wizardry. He’d emerge at some point in his white smock to take a tour of the dining room. It was Sofia, the hostess, a raven-haired, liquid-eyed beauty, who emerged from the kitchen, carrying a stack of menus like a warrior princess’s shield. She was some sort of relative of Michel’s. She was also on to Alice—there’d been the tiniest trace of a knowing smile the last time she’d come alone. Which had spelled the end of those solo lunches.

“You’re our first,” she said, a seemingly benign greeting that she managed to infuse with quasi-pornographic insinuation.

Alice felt like giving her waterfall of black hair a quick yank. Instead, she silently followed her to a booth, thinking what she wouldn’t give for a caboose like that. She positioned herself so she could keep an eye on the kitchen. It didn’t take long until the door swung open and there he was, bent over a tray like a surgeon. She tried to catch his eye but he was totally absorbed in his work. Look up, she willed him. See me. Toss your head slightly toward the office and let’s sort this out the good old-fashioned way, with some panting and friction. But he continued to work, creating delicious things for others to eat.

Water arrived, reminding her that she was actually about to have lunch. Despite all the tension and drama, she was looking forward to seeing Celia, the one and only true friend she’d made since moving to Emerson. They’d bonded immediately at their first meeting. This was early last autumn, not long after Hannah and Jack had started dating. Alice was thrilled for her stepdaughter, who hadn’t exactly moonwalked through puberty. To bag a guy from one of the town’s dynastic clans was quite a turnaround. She’d started combing her hair instead of using it as a veil; she began wearing clothes that actually fit. The bingeing and purging and cutting appeared to be a thing of the past. She even managed a smile every once in a while.

And then Celia had called, professing a similar delight that the kids were together. She suggested they meet the next day so they could get to know each other. She proposed the Emerson Country Club, a place Alice had passed a thousand times but never entered. It was every bit as neo-puritanical as she’d expected. The dining room was saturated with the impossibility of audible laughter. She briefly suspected Celia’s choice of venue was to gain home field advantage for some sort of attack, perhaps her opinion that Hannah was not good enough for her princeling. Well, if the woman wanted a scrap, she’d get one. Hannah might not be a show pony, but she was sweet and constant and had a heart of gold. Jack was lucky to have her.

But she couldn’t have been more wrong. The first words out of Celia’s mouth expressed the obviously sincere opinion that Hannah was a fine young woman.

“I wish I could take more credit,” Alice said. “You know I’m not her actual mother.”

“Yes, she told me. Terrible thing for a girl to experience.”

“I don’t know. Sometimes I wish my mom had abandoned me.”

Celia scrutinized her for a moment, and Alice thought she may have blown it before the raspberry iced tea even arrived.

“But then who would we have had to belittle us?” Celia asked with a smile.

And what have we here? Alice thought. After that it turned into a regular lovefest. At one point, Celia asked what it was like to be a stepmother. Alice gave a potted version of her history with Hannah. She was ten when they met; Alice was twenty-six. They hit it off from the first. They shared secrets, they did things together. They talked and often laughed. They shopped, they rated guys, they snuck wine, like a couple of naughty teens. She left out the stuff about Hannah’s weeklong speechless sulks and her capacity for self-harm, which shocked even Alice, who’d been around some crazy bitches in her day. Razors, she got. But pliers?

“She sounds like a very lucky kid,” Celia said. “It’s just so gratifying for Jack to be with a nice girl after…”

She caught herself.

“After…?” Alice prompted.

“Oh, he just had an unfortunate experience with a girlfriend last year. Bad breakup.”

“I’ve had my share of those,” Alice said.

“Well, I imagine you were never as hurtful as the girl in question.”

“That’s what you think,” Alice said with a jolly little laugh.

But Celia clammed up after that. Alice wanted to press her for more, but it was too early in their relationship. That night, Alice plied Hannah with Pinot Grigio and asked her to spill the beans, which she did only after making Alice swear never to tell a living soul. It turned out there’d been an incident the previous spring between Jack and his erstwhile girlfriend, a senior named Alexa Liriano.

“Lexi? She’s a hottie.”

“Not that hot,” Hannah said.

“No, right,” Alice said.

They’d dated for a few weeks and it had ended badly. There’d been a big argument, followed by Lexi accusing Jack of inappropriate conduct.

“Inappropriate as in…”

“Nothing happened. Lexi made the whole thing up. She was just butt-hurt because he dumped her. Typical female bullshit.”

Typical female bullshit? Alice thought.

“But what did Lexi say happened?” she asked.