"What?"
"Tonight. Six-thirty. Pizza from Spirito"s. I forgot."
He checked his watch. "You"re already late. You should call."
"Would you do it for me?"
"It would be better if you did it yourself."
She called from a phone booth along the boardwalk, feeding coins into the box as fast as Henry handed them to her. When Rusty answered, Miri said, "It"s me. I forgot."
"We"ll do it tomorrow," Rusty said. "No excuses."
"Okay. Tomorrow."
She didn"t tell Henry until after they"d stopped at the hotel where the wedding would be, until after he"d shown her the garden where the chuppah would be draped with Grandpa Max"s tallis and a white lace tablecloth brought from the old country by Leah"s grandmother. Everything else would be decorated with peonies, Leah"s favorite flower, in shades ranging from pale blush to deep pink. She didn"t tell him until he asked, "Would you like to bring Mason to the wedding? I know we didn"t send him a proper invitation but-"
"We broke up," she managed to say, holding back tears. If only she could have a do-over she"d take a different route home from school, or she"d have gone to Pamel"s with her girlfriends, or maybe to the library. Then she wouldn"t have run into him or seen Polina and Stash.
"You broke up?" Henry said. "I"m so sorry."
She leaned against him and nestled her head against his chest. "He has another girlfriend. All this time he"s had another girlfriend."
Henry shook his head. "I can"t believe this. Are you sure?"
"She cooks at Janet. She has a little boy. He says he tried to end it with her..."
"But you don"t believe him?"
She shrugged. "Do you?"
"I don"t know Mason as well as you."
"Would you ever lie like that to Leah?"
"Never."
"I don"t see how he could have lied to me."
"Maybe he didn"t know how to tell you. He"s still a boy, Miri. He has a lot of stuff to figure out."
"I told him I never want to see him again."
"That"s a strong message."
"I mean it." Was this her punishment for her fantasy about Dr. O marrying her mother? To lose her boyfriend, the best boyfriend any girl could have? No wonder he"d never tried to get beyond first base with her. All the time he was doing it with Polina. How could she, a fifteen-year-old girl, compete with that?
"I don"t know how I can keep going," she told Henry.
"Miri, sweetheart-life is hard," Henry said, "but it"s worth the struggle."
"Are you sure?"
"Very, very sure."
- "I BROKE UP with Mason," she told Rusty that night, "and I don"t want to talk about it."
"Oh, honey," Rusty said. "I"m so sorry. Is it about Las Vegas?"
"I said I don"t want to talk about it, and no, it"s not about Las Vegas. End of conversation." Let Rusty tell Irene. Let Rusty tell the whole world.
Henry Leah said Miri would learn from this experience. She said it wasn"t realistic of them to think puppy love could last. But learn what? Not to trust? Not to believe? Not to love? He didn"t agree with Leah. He wished he could make Miri"s sadness go away. But there was nothing he could do except be there for her.
Christina Jack was beside himself. They were in his room at Mrs. O"Malley"s. He paced up and down, punching his fist into his open hand while she sat primly on the edge of the bed. "And now Mason won"t come to Las Vegas because of that little b.i.t.c.h."
"Do you know why Miri broke up with him?" Christina asked. "No. Do you?"
"Because he lied to her. Because he"s been..." She tried to put it delicately. "He"s been sleeping with Polina, the girl who cooks at Janet, the one Daisy took in after she lost everything in the Williamson Street crash."
"Mason?"
"Yes, Mason. Polina told Daisy and Daisy told me. She thought I should know because of our...closeness."
"My little brother?"
"Yes, your little brother. Polina said Mason broke up with her right after Miri found out he was cheating."
"This is crazy. We"re talking about kids."
"Polina"s not a kid. But she has one."
"Jesus, Mary and Joseph! How do we know this is really true?"
"Why would Daisy lie to me? She"s not a gossip. But you should ask Mason yourself."
"Jesus, Mary and Joseph!"
"I wish you"d stop saying that."
"What should I say?"
"I"m sorry, Jack." Christina softened. "It must be hard for you to hear this."
"What"s hard is that he thinks he can"t confide in me, that he thinks he can"t come with us."
"Give him time. Let him cool off. I"ll bet you anything he"ll change his mind. If not right away, then as soon as he finishes high school."
"But that"s another year. Who"s going to be around to watch over him, make sure he"s okay until then?"
"Any boy who can run into a burning plane, not once, not twice, but how many times?"
"I lost count," Jack said.
"Well, any boy who can keep his head straight through all of that is going to be okay."
"But you can"t be sure, can you?"
"If you want to stay..."
"I didn"t say that."
"Because if you don"t want to leave him..."
"I didn"t say that, either."
"All I mean is, I"d understand. And my parents would be over the moon."
"Until you tell them about us." Jack took a couple of practice swings with an imaginary baseball bat. "When are you going to tell them, Mrs. McKittrick?"
"When the time is right."
Fortunately, he didn"t question her about when that would be. Because she hadn"t the faintest idea. "Are we having our first fight?" she asked.
"We"re never going to fight." He fell back on the bed and took her in his arms.
Miri Miri found out from Dr. O that Mason refused to go to Las Vegas with Christina and Jack. He"s not going because I"m going, she thought. Well, guess what? She"d decided to stay home with Irene and Henry. Henry and Leah could have Rusty"s upstairs apartment and she"d move in with Irene, downstairs. So Mason could go with Jack and she"d never have to see him again. Until Henry broke the news that he"d accepted a job with The Washington Post and he and Leah were moving to D.C. after the wedding. Just like that. He promised that when she visited, he"d take her to see the White House and all the other sites.
Okay, then she"d stay with Irene, and Ben could move in upstairs. When she announced her plan, Rusty said, "But Irene and Ben are coming with us."
"I don"t believe you!" Miri ran downstairs to find Irene.
Irene said, "I should let my girls go without me? Are you crazy? Never!"
Ben said, "There"s plenty of real estate opportunities in Las Vegas. Not that I need the money, but I like the idea."
- LATER, at the twice-postponed pizza supper, once because of Miri, once because Dr. O couldn"t make it, Dr. O said, "I can promise you this, Mirabelle. I"ll love your mother and take care of her, and you, as long as I live. And I"ll never give either one of you a b.u.m steer."
"What about Natalie? Would you give her a b.u.m steer?"
"Miri," Rusty warned.
"It"s okay," Dr. O said to Rusty. "Mirabelle doesn"t trust me yet. But I"m hoping, in time, I"ll earn it."
"Stop calling me that," she said to Dr. O.
He looked hurt. "What would you like me to call you?"
"Miri."
"Okay," Dr. O said. "From now on it"s Miri."
- RUSTY CAME to her room and knocked on the door before she opened it. "I wish it could have been different," she said. "I know people are saying I stole him away from Corinne but I didn"t. You have to believe that, honey. Please."
"Did you fall in love in an instant, like a flash of lightning?"
"I wouldn"t describe it that way. I was volunteering with the Red Cross. I"d bring him coffee and Danish at the morgue," Rusty said, "sometimes late at night. He needed to talk, to unwind. It was gruesome work, identifying burned and broken bodies."
"I don"t want to hear about that."
"Okay."
"And I don"t want to hear about the other stuff, either."
"I understand. But you should know that when Natalie got sick we decided to end it before it had even begun."
"So then, what...you changed your minds?"
"Staying apart didn"t work out."
Miri could have laughed but she didn"t.
Rusty tried to give her a hug. Miri stood stiffly at first, then relented. She knew she had the power to refuse but she was losing her will.
"It"s going to be a great adventure," Rusty whispered.
Miri never thought about her mother being adventurous. If she was so adventurous how come she never went anywhere or did anything except get up and go to work every day, five days a week, and on weekends clean the house and do the laundry? When Miri put that to her, Rusty said, "Because I took my responsibilities seriously. I still do."
"Would you marry him if he were staying in Elizabeth? Would that be enough of an adventure for you?"
"I love him, Miri. Our lives together will be all the adventure I need. I"d stand by his side no matter what."
That was a powerful message for Miri. She loved Mason. But she wasn"t standing by his side no matter what. And neither would Rusty, she bet, if the no-matter-what was Polina, or someone like Polina. If the no-matter-what was a pack of lies.
"Would you have gone without me?" Miri asked. That was really all she wanted to know.
"I could never leave you, Miri. How could you doubt my love?"
Even if she could doubt it, why would she? Why make life harder than it had to be? She was so tired from all of it. Too tired to fight it anymore. Too tired to run every time someone she loved disappointed her.
So, that was that. She was going. Mason wasn"t.
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