Page 15 of Diamond Ring
“We’ll start small and work our way up.” The first pendant he offers is the size of a dime, small enough that Alex has to squint to make out its detailing. Jake shakes his head. “I’d lose that in about two seconds.” Given that he loses his headphones every other week, Alex doesn’t disagree.
The second pendant is larger, with a thickly railed star set into a circle. “White gold,” Avi says. “It will show scratches, so will need to be polished regularly.” At Jake’s nod, he drops it onto the chain, laying it out in the viewing box.
The pendant is heavy enough that it pulls the chain taut. Jake studies it for a second. He has that expression when he doesn’t like something but doesn’t want to let other people know. He turns to Alex. “What do you think?”
“Seems kinda bulky for games.”
Avi tips the pendant back into a fabric pouch. “Let’s try this one.”
The last pendant is larger than the previous one, though thinner, studded with small diamonds so that it looks textured. It’s kind of tacky and incredibly Jake.
“It’s pretty big.” Though Jake has thatconvince metone like he wants to be talked into it.
Avi doesn’t bother with the viewing box, instead hanging the pendant and handing it to Jake. Jake slides it over his neck, fingers working the clasp, then looks at the pendant thoughtfully. “Should I get it?”
“It looks good,” Alex says. Because it does, less ostentatious with Jake’s shoulders for scale, with his careful expression like he doesn’t want to give away how much he likes it, hung on the necklace Alex bought for him. And Alex shouldn’t get a rush from seeing him wear it, any more than he would for any otherfriend. But he does, a pleasantly heavy feeling he’s in no more hurry to shed than Jake is the necklace.
“Let’s talk price,” Avi says, and Jake smiles.
“Why haven’t they come to games?” Alex asks when they’re driving back to the ballpark, the necklace secured in its black box that Jake hasn’t let go of since they left.
“Avi’s my third cousin, or my second cousin once removed, I don’t know. And I sent tickets when I moved out here.” He fiddles with the objects in Alex’s center console, a roll of quarters, the hanging decal for the players’ lot. “I don’t know why I didn’t tell you they were my cousins before. It just feels personal.”
“That your family has money? I knew that.”
“That my family works with people who have money. My parents are both government contractors. But my cousins are all jewelers and furniture makers and whatever. Old country stuff.”
“Which country?”
Something about that makes Jake smile. “Kinda everywhere in Eastern Europe. Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Litvak—Lithuanian Jewish. Avi’s from the Litvak side—we’re the ones with red hair. The borders kept changing.” He drums his hand on the passenger door. “Or we got expelled or pogromed out.”
A word Alex is vaguely familiar with, though not as a verb. “Sounds complicated.”
“All this history is hard to explain. I guess that’s why I was nervous.”
“About me meeting them?”
Jake inclines his head, a movement that isn’t quite ano. One that Avi did several times, and Alex wonders if Jake’s aware of it, the same as Alex’s accent deepening when he’s around his family.
“My mom is very...” Jake says. “You know,the past is the past. Growing up where I did, it seemed like everyone’s had money forever. My grandparents owned a dish store and my great-grandparents had pushcarts.” Another rattle of the quarters against the truck’s plastic tray. “Like street vendors,” he adds at Alex’s questioning look.
“Avi seems cool.”
“I don’t really know him that well. But it’s sort of, the minute someone finds out I’m Jewish, of course I gotta have a cousin named Avital. Who’s ajeweler. Like of course.” He waits as if he’s expecting Alex to argue with him.
“Have other guys said stuff?”
“Just the usual. You know, if I eat certain things or if I’ll go to chapel, because they think it’s their job to convert me. Probably’ll have something to say about me wearing this.”
All of which they did out of Alex’s earshot, apparently. “You could have told me.”
“You would have punched them.”
“Yeah, and?”
“That’s why I didn’t. But”—Jake chews his lip—“there’s some of theI didn’t know you were Jewishstuff too. From them and the press. Like, my name’sJacob Fischer, kinda hard to miss?”
“So you bought a necklace the size of a dinner plate?”
