Page 16 of Nantucket Longing

“What!No.Of course not,” she said, her heart pounding.She gazed into his perfect blue eyes and wondered if this guy was for real.She swallowed.Should she tell him she hadn’t been out on a date in like six years?“Um.I was born in Poland?”she began, then laughed at herself.It sounded so silly and small.

Adam bobbed his head.“I heard the accent and wondered.It’s really cute.”

“Oh, gosh.I’m so embarrassed about it.I fought so hard to get rid of it when I was a kid.But when I moved here, I didn’t know a word of English.”

Adam looked rapt.“That sounds incredibly hard.No wonder your daughter is a genius!She gets it from you.”

Diana winced.“Oh, no.Not me.My mother was a genius.Or, she is, I mean.”

It looked like Adam wanted to probe deeper into that topic.But at that moment, they reached the restaurant and were seated on the terrace, where they ordered glasses of rosé and bathed in sunshine, raising their glasses to clink.The rest of the date went more or less wonderfully.They exchanged easy banter; they talked about Madeline’s piano teacher, whom Adam approved of; they talked about Adam’s current commitment to music—how he wanted to help children advance and appreciate music, now that he hardly played himself.

“Never?”Diana asked, brimming with adoration for him.“I find that hard to believe!After all those years of practicing?”

“I think I might be burned out,” Adam admitted.“Music was the only thing I knew for years.I think it’s good that I got out of the practice room and started living, you know?”He took a sip of wine.“Did you ever play an instrument?”

Diana remembered long afternoons at the piano.She remembered how her soul had opened up like a window.But she said, “No, I never did.”

“When did you figure out that Madeline was a prodigy?”

“She was three,” Diana said.“It was a total fluke.”She told the story of cleaning the Hamiltons’ house, of Madeline’s bravery, of how it had changed everything.

“That girl is going somewhere,” Adam said.“But she’s lucky to have you as a mother.You’re going to get her there.”

“I’m going to try,” Diana said.

Diana and Adam finished their date at eight fifteen, just in time for Diana to float off and pick Madeline up.Just before she did, Adam planted a kiss on her cheek and whispered, “See me again soon?”

Diana picked Madeline up and drove them to the grocery store, where she and Madeline skipped through the aisles to buy ice cream and diet soda—a rarity in their house—and paid at the cash register with a credit card that Diana would pay off later when she could.It was nearly nine when they got home, and Madeline was supposed to be in bed by then, but Diana let her stay up till ten, eating ice cream and watching television.Madeline looked surprised but very pleased.Diana felt as though she was levitating.

The following day, Diana worked at the bar at three in the afternoon.She left Madeline at the piano, telling her to come over to the bar as soon as she finished her four-hour practice.Diana knew that other five-year-olds could hardly sit still for thirty minutes, let alone four hours, but Madeline was a different sort of child, a genius.Diana could see the outline of her daughter through the window as she practiced arpeggio after arpeggio and memorized her next contest pieces.Diana poured beers and made afternoon cocktails and thought about Adam and what he might be up to.

To her surprise, when Diana got home from work at eight o’clock that night, Adam called to ask her out on another date.They arranged to meet the following Friday.This time, Diana hired a babysitter to pick Madeline up from her piano teacher’s and put her to bed.This time, Diana and Adam would go out a little bit later and maybe grab a drink afterward.This time, Diana would set the stage for something more intimate.

Diana and Adam went to a little French restaurant off the river.Adam drove, Diana wore her best dress, and Adam wore a pair of slacks and a black turtleneck that made him look much more like a classical musician.Diana thought she was going to swoon, but she kept it in check, ordering the cheapest food on the menu and the cheapest glass of red wine.Adam didn’t say anything about it, but Diana guessed he noticed and didn’t respect it.They clinked their glasses and immediately launched into another discussion—this time about what had gone wrong in Adam’s marriage.Adam wasn’t nervous to say.

“We were both so disappointed in how our careers had gone,” Adam explained, tearing at a piece of baguette.“We met each other and fell in love because we were commiserating, helping each other through our classical music trauma.But when we both moved on to our real careers, we didn’t really have anything else to talk about.”

Diana understood.“It was built on the bad times.”

“Exactly!We didn’t know how to have good times,” Adam said.

Diana had already drunk her first glass of wine, and Adam poured her another from his carafe—a far better red than she’d first ordered.All day, she’d been too nervous to eat, and her vision felt blurry, but she knew that Adam would drive later, so she decided to let herself ease into the night.

“Come on,” Adam said, “what about your ex?Madeline’s father?”

Diana’s cheeks were inflamed.When was the last time she’d talked about Allen?

“We never got married, thank goodness,” she said.

“That bad?”

Diana giggled and took a big gulp of wine.

“How did you meet?Give me something!”Adam said.

“He came into where I was working,” Diana said.

“Where was that?”

---