Page 48 of The Last Book Party

Jeremy hesitated. “He’s been busy this summer… with writing and… with other things.” He looked up at me. I could sense his anger like a physical force, as if my affair with Henry had been a betrayal of him as much as of Tillie. In a tight, menacing voice, he said, “From what I’ve heard, Henry’s been rather busy fucking his assistant.”

My heart pounded. I couldn’t move. I locked eyes with Jeremy, afraid to look at Franny.

“Henry’s having an affair with his assistant?” Lil said. She looked toward the side of the house and the guests dancing on the porch to “Chain of Fools.” “Who is she? Is she here? Is it the redhead?”

Franny turned to me and in a quiet voice that hit me like a slap said, “Oh, she’s here all right.”

“It’s not like you still cared,” I hissed, but not too quietly for Lil to hear.

“What do you mean ‘still cared’?” she asked.

When I didn’t answer, she turned toward Franny, who had thrown his head back and was looking up at the sky. Lil collapsed onto her knees. With her dress pooling around her, she pounded her tiny fists against her thighs. She looked at Franny, and at me, and then back at Franny. “Tell me you didn’t.”

Franny sank to the ground next to her and grabbed her hands in his. She pulled them away.

“It was nothing, Lil-bear,” Franny said. “Seriously. It just happened. I didn’t mean it. It was… a hiccup.”

“A hiccup?” I said.

Even if Franny had always intended that I would be a one-night indiscretion, to hear him describe it that way hurt me more than his lack of communication all summer.

Franny glared at me. “Don’t kid yourself that you mean anything to my father. It’s happened before and it’s insignificant. My parents have an understanding. They’re solid. Someone like you could never come between them.”

Jeremy and I caught each other’s eyes. I shook my head, trying to signal to him not to say anything. The night was shocking enough already. But Jeremy was determined to keep the focus off himself. He crouched down on the grass opposite Franny and Lil, who was hugging her body and looking as if she might cry. I picked up the novella, which Franny had dropped on the grass.

“There’s been a… development,” Jeremy said. “Involving Lane.”

Franny looked bewildered.

“My father was sleeping with Lane too?”

Jeremy shook his head.

“What is happening?” Lil said, covering her face with her hands.

Franny wrapped his arms around her.

“Nothing is happening. We’re good, we’re good. I love you.”

“Not Henry,” Jeremy said. “Lane and Tillie… a romance.”

“I don’t understand,” Franny said.

“I think it’s serious,” I whispered.

Before Jeremy or I could explain, the sound of Henry’s booming, drunken voice made us all turn. “Where is he? The lying piece of shit…”

Henry stormed across the lawn, his jacket unbuttoned, his tie askew, and his shirt untucked. His face was red. He wasn’t dapper anymore; he was drunk. He marched toward us, looking at Jeremy as if all his anger at what he’d seen on the dance floor was now being funneled furiously toward this new target.

Jeremy stood up and with his hands in front of him said, “Hey, hey, let me explain.”

I tapped Henry’s shoulder, but he ignored me. He pulled his arm back as if he were going to take a swing at Jeremy, but then lurched forward and fell into him. Stepping backward, Jeremy lost his balance and tumbled onto the grass. Henry managed to stay standing.

Behind me, I heard a man say, “Ouch, man down. Any idea who he is?”

“Neil Klugman, I think,” a woman answered. “At least that’s what I heard someone say.”

“Klugman? Is he local?”

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