Same Beach, Next Year

  We got out of our cars and went inside.

  “I’m glad you’re back,” Adam said.

  “Only until Monday, then I’m going back to Greece.”

  “I know, but how long will you be away?”

  “A week, maybe two. I’m not sure.”

  “Eliza! You can’t just leave me like this and expect everything to be the same when you get home, you know.”

  “Adam? That’s the point, isn’t it? I don’t want everything to be the same when I return. Got it? You’ve got a whole lot of soul-searching to do before there’s a chance to make things right between us again.”

  “I’ve already done that. I want things right between us.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I saw Eve. And I know now that I’m just not interested in her like that.”

  “Really? Where’d you see her?”

  “Well, Cookie probably already put it on the front page of the Post and Courier, so I may as well tell you first. Eve called me after Carl left her. She was almost hysterical and she said she needed to see me. I felt bad for her, you know? I told her to make a reservation and I’d meet her somewhere for dinner. So she booked a table at Charleston Grill, and I—”

  “Charleston Grill? You’re kidding me, right? You couldn’t meet her at Home Team Barbecue?” He took her to Charleston Grill? Was he insane?

  “Anyway, I walked into the bar and there she was. It was very obvious to me that she thought you and I were finished and now was her time. It was like the biggest turnoff ever. Suddenly, I knew she was the last person I’d ever be interested in. Besides, she can’t hold a candle to you, Eliza, and I think we both know that.”

  “Telling me the truth is not scoring you any points with me. You know, sometimes you are so incredibly egotistical and stupid at the same time that it simply takes my breath away.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “First of all, this isn’t a contest between me and Eve. Second, the last time you felt so badly for her you slept with her on her sofa and I went to Greece. I’m glad you’ve come to a decision about Eve and I’m sorry for her, I really am. She sounds like a rudderless boat. But what really galls me is that you say she turns you off.”

  “What’s galling about that? I came to realize that I don’t want her.”

  “Because it was too messy? Too complicated? Or was it just because the fantasy of her being unattainable died?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “People want what they can’t have. When they can have it they don’t want it anymore.”

  “Oh.”

  “Adam, until Carl and I caught you two red-handed, I was blissfully unaware that you had a serious history with Eve. And just because you don’t want her anymore doesn’t mean that everything between us is okay. You slept with her, Adam. I don’t care if you say something happened or it didn’t. You slept with her. So I’m going back to Greece on Monday. I’m giving you time to think.”

  He looked at me as though he didn’t know what else there was to consider.

  I poured myself a glass of water and drank it all at once. He was exasperating. I refilled the glass and turned to him. “I’m going to bed, Adam. Please wait up for the boys and lock up the house.”

  “Okay,” he said.

  I brushed my teeth and washed my face and fell into bed. If he tried to so much as touch me I’d kick him right into next week.

  It must have been around three in the morning when I felt him slip under the covers. Very quietly, he turned out the light, and soon he was snoring lightly. He didn’t even attempt to spoon. I guess he was getting the message. I couldn’t believe he didn’t understand that what he had done had an impact on how I felt about him. The more I learned about his secret longing for Eve, the less I liked him as my husband. He had reframed himself in my mind as a thickheaded man who couldn’t conceive that his words and actions hurt me deeply, benign as he may have thought they were. The consequences were that what he had done changed the way I felt about him. And a halfhearted apology wouldn’t restore my love for him.

  The time difference between Greece and Charleston of seven hours was working against me. I felt like it was time to get up. I rolled over and looked at our digital alarm. Four forty-five. Too early to rise. I’d had about six hours of sleep, which was enough to keep me awake. I tried to drift off again, but my mind was racing as though the day had already begun. I’d come home because Adam said the funeral was Friday, but there was to be no funeral. Another lie. Another manipulation. Or Adam was just being sloppy.

  Eve, Carl, and Daphne would be arriving tonight. This should be the most magnificently awkward meeting in the entire canon of life gone awry, I thought. They had to come. They had known Clarabeth nearly as long as we had. And they loved Ted. And it wasn’t like Ted would be swarmed by the families of Clarabeth’s ex-husbands and old friends showing up for the first time in decades. We were a small tribe, and their absence would be conspicuous and hurtful to Ted. But it would be awkward. There was no doubt about it. I assumed they would all stay at Cookie’s, but maybe I was wrong. It didn’t matter to me where they slept, but boy, who slept where was becoming a popular topic for discussion.

  I got out of bed as quietly as I could. I headed for the shower, where I would stand under the water for as long as I could take it and rinse away all the germs from the long flight from Corfu to Athens to New York to Charleston. I was probably carrying a hundred different viruses. Then I would blow out my hair, dress, and make breakfast for my boys. After I had looked at them from head to toe and decided they were all right, I’d go get some groceries, because I knew without looking that Adam had not been to the store. He probably didn’t even know where a grocery store was.

  By seven thirty, I was in the kitchen frying sausage patties from the freezer and scrambling eggs when Luke appeared.

  “Hi, sweetheart!” I said. “How are you?”

  He threw his arms around me and hugged me hard.

  “God, I love my mom! We got any coffee?”

  “In the pot,” I said. “Help yourself. What time did you get in? There’s some milk in the fridge.”

  He took a mug from the cabinet and filled it with milk and coffee.

  “Right at midnight. Dad was snoring his guts out in his recliner. Max rolled in around one.”

  “So, how are you? You doing okay?”

  “Oh, yeah. I’m doing great. Too bad about Miss Clarabeth, huh?”

  “Terrible. But at least it was quick. And she was eighty-seven. Although I suspect the closer you get to eighty-seven, the younger eighty-seven seems.”

  “That sounds right. So, what’s the drill? When’s the funeral?”

  I gave him the plans and he said, “I skipped two days of classes and I could’ve just come down on Saturday?”

  “That’s true, but your grandfather is pretty torn up. Having you around will be a great source of comfort for him.”

  I scrambled two eggs in a bowl for him and melted a pat of butter in my skillet. Just as I was about to empty the bowl into the pan, Max came strolling into the kitchen and hugged me.

  “Hey, baby!” I said. “You hungry?”

  “Starving!”

  I cracked two more eggs into the bowl, added a little more milk, and whipped them around. Just as I was about to pour them into the sizzling butter, Adam showed his face.

  “Family breakfast? Just like the old days! Good morning, gentlemen. Eliza.” He came around the stove and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I let him, as the boys were right there watching.

  I got a bigger bowl and deposited the contents of the small bowl and two more eggs into it. Then I reached into the freezer and pulled out the emergency English muffins I kept there, as there was not a crust of bread to be found in the pantry. I opened the whole package, broke them apart, and put them into the microwave to defrost. I added more sausage to the other pan and opened a new jar of my strawberry jam, placing it on the counter. I should’ve
known I’d be hosting a kitchen party this morning. Men are just like houseplants. They flourish when tended to and become dull and lackluster when you ignore them.

  “So, how’s Pop handling this?” Max asked.

  “He’s devastated,” Adam said. “Worse yet, he blames himself.”

  “Let’s go over there after breakfast,” Luke said.

  “Absolutely,” Max said.

  “And I think part of the reason for the Saturday night dinner is he couldn’t get the ashes until then,” I said.

  “Cremation is weird,” Luke said.

  “I don’t know,” Max said. “Considering the world population? Pretty soon there won’t be any room left for cemetery plots. Cremation reduces carbon footprint.”

  “What?” Luke started laughing. “Reduces carbon footprint? That’s some bull, brother.”

  “Okay,” Max said, “maybe it’s a bit of a stretch.”

  Adam said, “Clarabeth might have left us unexpectedly, but she sure did it with style.”

  He told the boys the details of her plans for her own small memorial service and they were impressed.

  “Cool. She was always a very classy lady,” Max said.

  “Yeah, she was,” Luke said. “But, man, she sure liked to work her jaw.”

  “Yep, she could go on and on about nothing forever,” I said. “I loved her. And I’m going to miss her.”

  “Me too,” all three men said.

  And men they were. It was hard to reconcile the near adults my boys had become with the way I felt about them in my heart. To me they were still little boys with skinned knees, full of the devil, my ever-reliable source of endless happiness and laughter. It seemed like I turned my back on my sweet little fellows one day and on the next they were strapping young men, boys no more. I looked at them and marveled at how they resembled the best of Adam and me.

  Adam and the boys moved everything from the counter to the table and actually set it without being asked, another sign of their approaching maturity. I put a platter of scrambled eggs and sausage in front of them with a basket of hot English muffins, butter and homemade jam to go with it. My boys descended on it like locusts, but Adam didn’t seem to have much of an appetite.

  “Remember how Rufus used to sit under the table, hoping we’d feed him something?” Max said.

  “What’s life without hope?” Adam said and looked my way.

  “Cue the violins,” I said.

  Ignoring us, Luke said with a sigh, “He was a great dog.”

  After breakfast was cleared away, the balance of the day was spent with Ted. Televisions were on wherever there was one, because we needed white noise. We took walks around the property. Mountains of sandwiches were consumed. Later in the afternoon, Cookie’s caterer dropped off a rib roast and a potato casserole with a container of roasted root vegetables. The fragrance of all the onions, garlic, and red meat made our mouths water. I took the task of setting the dining room table with Clarabeth’s best. That’s what she would’ve wanted.

  Her formal china was white with cobalt blue bands edged in gold. I liked that kind of china because a simple design worked with the food. Busy plates loaded with food seemed to detract from the overall look of the table. And I found a chest of dinner-sized sterling silver flatware. To my surprise and relief, it was untarnished. In the buffet drawer was a beautiful white linen tablecloth with matching napkins. By the time I was finished playing house with Clarabeth’s gorgeous things, I had set a table worthy of royalty.

  At around six, when the cocktail hour was nigh, Carl, Eve, Cookie, and Daphne arrived. I watched them get out of the car from the dining room window. Their faces were serious, as was appropriate for the occasion. Cookie was wearing Chanel from head to toe with a triple strand of pearls. They didn’t know, and neither did I, that Adam intended to get everyone through the evening together in an alcoholic haze. He was already pulling corks and shaking martinis.

  The doorbell rang, and I saw Ted go toward it to open the door. I could hear them offering Ted their condolences. Of course, Cookie sailed past them and into the dining room to assess the progress.

  “Well!” she said, smiling like a cat that had swallowed the proverbial canary. “The table looks lovely, Eliza! Very nicely done!”

  Cookie had just paid me a compliment, which was highly suspect. When Cookie was nice in one situation, it always meant she had just dropped a giant stink bomb in another. In an instant I knew that she’d told Carl about seeing Eve with Adam at Charleston Grill. This woman could not control her tongue. There was no filter.

  “Thanks, Cookie. It reminds me of a table at Charleston Grill. They have the most beautiful dining room, don’t you think?”

  Put that in your bong and smoke it, I thought.

  That stopped Cookie in her tracks for a moment. Then I watched as all the good humor in her expression drained, just like I’d pulled the stopper.

  “I’m not the troublemaker, Eliza.”

  We stared at each other for a moment. I wasn’t going to answer her. Cookie turned and left the room without another word.

  How we were going to get through the weekend was anybody’s guess. I was determined to be polite to Eve and Adam because this was not the time or place to duke it out. I went to the kitchen to warm the container of jus that came with the roast and to reheat the vegetables. I was looking inside the refrigerator for ingredients to make another sauce.

  “Hey, Eliza. How was Greece?”

  I looked around the door and there stood Carl, handsome as ever, with the kindest eyes.

  “Well, you know . . .”

  I put a container of sour cream and a bottle of horseradish on the counter. We hugged and then he held me back to examine my face.

  I said, “Greeks hate change as much as Charlestonians do! So it’s about the same as it was in the days of Plato except it’s wireless. How are you?”

  “About the same. Adam and Eve can’t seem to help themselves,” he said.

  “Adam says he’s over Eve, but why should I believe him?”

  “True. I wouldn’t. Well, Daphne is clueless about all this. Do your boys know anything?”

  “No. Unless Adam has told them, but I doubt that he has. And why would he? He still doesn’t think that he did anything wrong.”

  “Incredible. Well, I think the best plan is to keep our differences quiet for now. This weekend is about Clarabeth and for Ted. Of course, Cookie is just waiting to stir up trouble.”

  “She’s truly one dreadful woman.”

  “Yes, she sure is. Would you like me to carve the roast?” he said.

  “I’d love it. Thanks.”

  I dropped two heaping tablespoons of horseradish into a small bowl that held the contents of the container of sour cream and finished it with a little lemon zest and a good pinch of salt.

  “Instant sauce,” I said and began opening cabinets looking for a bowl nice enough for the dining room.

  There was a small crystal bowl in the butler’s pantry and a serving spoon in the silver chest. I put it down on the dining table and brought the empty gravy boat from the china closet back to the kitchen. Carl was doing an expert job on the roast.

  “You should’ve been a surgeon!” I said and we laughed.

  “Right. So, are you going back to Corfu?”

  “Yes, I am. Monday.”

  “What exactly are you doing over there? Did you dump Adam?”

  “Good grief! No!”

  “Too bad,” he said and smiled at me.

  “Your flirting has the worst possible timing,” I said, teasing him back.

  “Just tell me there’s a chance,” Carl said.

  “Okay, Romeo, that’s enough.” I was laughing then.

  I told him about my cousin Kiki and my aunt and the restaurant and all about how beautiful the island was and that I was so fascinated by the history that was literally at your fingertips.

  “It’s a simpler life, but it’s so gorgeous. I mean, Carl, everywhere you look
it’s like a movie set. I love it there, and not just a little bit.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “Well, I’m not sure how, but I’m definitely going to spend time there every year.”

  “With Adam?”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. We’ll see.”

  “You’re really furious, aren’t you?”

  “Furious? No. It’s more like this. I thought I knew what was in his heart, and I didn’t. And for some asinine reason he doesn’t understand why what he’s done changes the way I feel about him. And now he says he’s not interested in Eve because he’d rather have me. Well, excuse me, is that really supposed to make me feel good about our marriage?”

  “I hear you. Eve’s very busy swearing her love to me too. I don’t know. It all seems like too much work. And Cookie is on the sidelines, stoking the fires. Where’s that damn shark when I could use him again?”

  “You said it.”

  I pulled the container of vegetables from the oven. If we didn’t eat very soon it would all be cold. We lined all the food up on the counter to serve it buffet style.

  “I’ll call everyone to come fix their plates,” I said.

  Remarkably, everyone moved quickly to the kitchen to serve themselves and then to the table. And Eve, of course, swanned into the room.

  “Hi, Eve,” I said. “How are you?”

  “Fine,” she said, fighting back tears I wasn’t the least bit interested in seeing. “Isn’t it just terrible about Clarabeth?”

  And did she expect me to believe the tears were caused by Clarabeth’s untimely death?

  “Yes. But as you know, life goes on, right?” I said.

  “That’s kind of cold, Eliza,” Adam said, having overheard.

  I didn’t answer him. I didn’t take my directions from him anymore. I could decide what to say all on my own.

  I kept myself very busy on Friday when Adam was at work and on Saturday I did errands, got my hair done and my nails too. Cookie’s date had gone fine the night before. So fine, in fact, that she wanted to bring him Saturday night. There was no objection, so she brought Reginald Finley IV to Cypress for all of us to ogle and interview. He looked harmless with his white hair and wire-rimmed glasses. Reggie, as he liked to be called, sat on Cookie’s left and Ted sat on her right. He simply smiled and nodded all through dinner until Cookie started picking at Eve and it looked like a fight might break out.