Page 35 of Ten Years and Then…
But that was probably just because they were right down the hall. That had to be it, right?. Tomorrow was New Year’s Eve—maybe they could get together, and then he’d tell her whatever it was.
That would be perfect. They could go down to Times Square and watch the ball drop. She was certain he’d never done that despite living in New York his whole life. And then maybe …
The phone was in her hand and ringing and she hadn’t even realized she’d picked it up. And then Rachel was on the other end of the line.
“Nora? Is everything all right?”
“Uh—yeah. I—I just wanted to call you.” This was ridiculous. Rachel probably already knew why she was calling.
“You never ‘just’ do anything, Nora. You want to have Daniel up to the apartment tomorrow night, don’t you?”
There was no point pretending otherwise. “Yes. I really—God, Rachel, I need to see him. Away from his family, away from everybody. Just us together, somewhere safe and quiet and—please?” She was clutching Mr. Fuzzles; how had that happened? She didn’t even remember picking the bear up.
There was silence for a moment from Rachel. “And if I say no, are you going to do it anyway?”
No! As much as she was aching—burning!—to see him, to be with him properly, she couldn’t do that to Rachel. “You know I never lie to you, Rachel. Anybody else, yeah, I’ll say whatever. But you, never. You and—and Daniel. If you say ‘no,’ then it’s no.”
More silence, and when Rachel finally spoke it was in a careful, hesitant tone. “Fine. Bring him over for New Year’s Eve, but that’s it. And after that, you say goodbye to him and you fly back to Providence. You should spend at least a little bit of your break with your father. And with Karen, too. I know she’s not great at showing it, but deep down she loves you, Nora. You owe it to her.”
Very deep down. Like one of those mineshafts where it took twenty minutes for the elevator to get to the bottom.
Chapter 11
New Year’s Eve—Bronx, NY/Manhattan, NY
Daniel, early afternoon
“It’s one night, Dad!”
His father was not budging on letting him meet Nora for New Year’s Eve in Times Square.
“I’m not stupid, Daniel. It’s not about the night. It’s about the morning. We let you go and watch the ball drop with her, and then it’ll be an hour before you can get through the crowds to take her back to that apartment, and by then it’ll be two o’clock in the morning and wouldn’t we rather you stayed over there? So you don’t have to go back to Grand Central to catch the last train and then walk back here in the cold at three or four in the morning.”
“It’s not like that!” It was exactly like that, and they both knew it.
Dad had been nineteen once. He’d probably had this same argument with grandma and grandpa—or not. His father had already had a job and his own apartment by then. There was nobody to tell him where he could or couldn’t spend New Year’s Eve.
The whole family was in the living room for this horrible conversation. Mom was—if Daniel was reading her expression correctly—silently pleading with Dad to give in and let him go. And Lisa, who was here for the day to “get away from my roommate’s neurotic friends for a few hours,” was completely unreadable.
She spoke up now. “Dad, it’s not like he hasn’t spent the night with her before. You know he hasn’t had a roommate all semester. What do you think they’ve been doing?”
“Lisa, please!” He and his mother said it in unison. Mom was horrified, and he wanted to—he wasn’t sure. Either kill her, or himself. Or maybe both. How could she say that?
His father stared at Lisa, his face going red. But it was Mom who spoke up first. “She shouldn’t have said that. But Daniel is an adult, Tony. He’s nineteen years old. You remember what you got up to when you were nineteen. Your brother told me some stories over the years. We should be grateful he’s asking permission, and telling us exactly where he’ll be. That’s what we taught him, isn’t it?”
Daniel was both intensely curious, and also thoroughly grossed out, at the prospect of hearing details about his father’s activities back then. Thankfully it didn’t come to that. Between them, Mom and Lisa talked his father into giving in and letting him go; Dad’s shoulders gradually slumped as they beat down his resistance.
Later, when he was dressed and ready to head out, he knocked on Lisa’s bedroom door.
“Come in, Danny.”
“I owe you one, Lisa.” What else was there to say?
“We’re even. I remember what you did after I came home from Jack’s birthday. Besides, I saw at Christmas how you are with her. I’m just glad somebody in this family isn’t embarrassed to show some affection in public.”
He hugged her, holding her close. She wasn’t expecting it, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d done it. It felt really good to hold his sister. “Let’s talk tomorrow. You come over here, or I’ll come to you, or we go out for lunch. Whatever. We don’t do it often enough. Okay?”
“Okay, Danny.” And she kissed him on the cheek. When was the last time she’d done that? Or smiled at him without anything sarcastic or guarded or whatever else behind it? Much too long. But that was the past, and it didn’t have to be that way anymore.
