Page 43 of April Flowers

“Good manners,” Lillian said. She stepped past Vic and headed for his car.

“Where is the card game?” Margot asked.

“It’s at the Sutton Book Club,” he said. “Do you know it?”

I was raised here. Of course, I know it.

“Yes,” she said, maintaining a smile. “I won’t be far from there. I can pick her up when you’re done.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Vic said.

“It’s just that she shouldn’t be alone,” Margot said under her breath, grateful her mother was already near his fancy car and unable to hear.

“I know that very well,” Vic said. “I’ve spent a great deal of time with her.”

Implied in what he said was,I’ve been a better son than you’ve been a daughter, and I’m not even related by blood.

Margot stiffened. “Okay. Do you know what time you’ll be back?”

“Take your time,” Vic said. “I’ll be here when you get back from wherever it is you’ll be.”

“I’ll be home around eight or so?” Margot said.

“Whenever, darling!” Vic winked and turned back to help Lillian into the passenger seat.

Margot watched from the front stoop, coat-less, with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. Vic drove slowly down the driveway and out of sight.

Why did Margot have the feeling he was up to no good?

She had to believe there were good people in the world. Maybe he was one of them.

But he’s no Noah,she thought.

With her mother out of the house, Margot hurried to prepare for her date, or whatever it was. Her and Noah’s “catch up.” Their chance to—what? Talk about everything that had gone wrong in their lives. Or it was Noah’s chance to tell her how magical his life had been and Margot’s chance to lie about how great hers was. Yes, she would agree.It’s so great we broke up when we did.She supposed she had a few facts to back up the goodness of her life. She’d been voted best business of Boston. She’d had a few okay boyfriends. Gabby—her employee—was probably her best friend. Ugh!

Idling in the car, she added lipstick, then immediately regretted it, thinking that it made her look like she was trying too hard. Had she worn lipstick in high school? She suddenly couldn’t remember. She certainly hadn’t needed it.

She regretted every moment she’d spent thinking of the cosmetic industry as a younger woman. Now, she needed it desperately.

Margot drove to Ralph’s with the radio off. She wanted to concentrate. Terror gripped her at a red light when it looked asthough the vehicle behind her was about to slam into the back of her car. But the driver braked just in the nick of time.

It would have been terrible to call Noah and tell him she couldn’t make it for something as stupid as a fender-bender. But she knew Noah would have understood. He would have said,How can I help?And maybe, if he’d said that, Margot would have melted into his arms and begged him not to let go.

I’m pathetic, she thought. But when she parked behind the truck that Noah was getting out of, her heart filled with gladness. Here we go.

Now that they didn’t have Lillian distracting them, Margot and Noah walked right up to one another and hugged. It happened so swiftly, like two magnets springing together, that Margot didn’t have a chance to second-guess it. When their hug broke, her eyes were filled with tears, and she promptly blinked them away.

“Let’s go in,” Noah said with a laugh. “I’m freezing.”

Margot followed Noah to Ralph's front door. Entering was like going through a time warp. With its dark wooden walls, taxidermy deer heads, and mahogany bar counters, Ralph’s was entrenched back in time. Because Ralph himself had always hated television, he’d refused to hang TVs in his bar. “My bar is for talking, not for watching,” he’d said. He wanted people to relate to each other.

It was a surprise—and a blessing—that it was the same as it always had been. Margot and Noah grabbed stools at the bar because that was where they’d always sat in the past, and they ordered a white wine for Margot and a beer for Noah. From the speakers, a Bruce Springsteen song played, one they’d previously spent late summer nights scream-singing in the car. Noah raised his beer, and Margot clinked her wine against it. Suddenly, she was consumed with anxiety. From here on the stool, she could smell his cologne, his sweat, and his soap, andhis smell was slightly different from what it once had been, proof of how much of a man he was now.

But suddenly, the door that led to Ralph’s office opened, and Ralph poked his head out to talk to the bartender. “Ron? Can I steal you for a sec?” But before Ron could respond, Ralph spotted Margot and Noah and careened out of the office. He was far quicker than he should have been, given his age.

“My goodness, look what the cat dragged in!” he said, shaking his head. “What year is it?”

His smile yanked Margot back through time. She matched his.

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