Page 60 of The Academy
Doesn’t matter. They have a date for Saturday and Rhode is going all out.
Simone asks Rhode the dress code for Saturday night and he says,I’m wearing a jacket and tie.Simone dies inside and considers wearing jeans, but she reminds herself this date has a purpose. She tells the girls on her floor that she’s going out to dinner with Mr. Rivera and could they help her choose what to wear?
OMG.The girls shriek and raid their closets. Simone ends up borrowing an Out of Office original from Davi—a jade-green bias-cut slip dress, which Simone pairs with her nude stiletto sandals and a faux fur wrap that she borrows from Tilly. Madison J. does her makeup and Olivia H-T lends her a beaded clutch.
Simone offers to drive but Rhode says he has it covered (a relief, since Simone won’t make it through the date without drinking). She figures he’ll call an Uber—but instead she finds he’s rented a luxury SUV with heated leather seats and a new-car smell.Extravagant,Simone thinks,but nice and toasty.Rhode opens the passenger door for her (the car is already running, seat heated) and waits for her to arrange her dress, her feet, her purse on her lap.
“Have I mentioned?” Rhode says. “You look beautiful.”
She smiles. Rhode’s hair is spiky with product. She bows her head until he closes the door.
They head off into the dark country night, two teachers on a date. Simone longs to be back in the dorm, eating popcorn in the common room, watchingLove Island.“Where are we going?” she asks. He’d mentioned the Hobgoblin and the Wooden Duck; she hopes for the Wooden Duck because it’s closer. She’s been on this date for five minutes and can’t wait for it to be over.
Rhode has his phone synced with the car radio; he’s playing Billy Joel.Okay, Grandpa,Simone thinks.
“It’s a surprise,” Rhode says. “I wanted to do something special.”
Simone turns off her heated seat and unzips the faux fur; she’s suddenly roasting. The road in front of them is illuminated only by their headlights. Out here there are no homes, no streetlights, no gas stations or convenience stores. It’s woods, farmland, ponds, and creeks; they go over a little bridge and Simone thinks how easy it would be for Rhode to murder her. She pulls her cell phone from her clutch; she has no service.
“Everything okay?” Rhode says. “I’m sorry I’m not much of a conversationalist but I need to watch the road. The last thing I want to do is hit a deer.” The rental cost Rhode so much money that he decided to decline the collision insurance.
“No, I get it. It’s fine, I’m fine,” Simone says. They ride along insilence except for Billy Joel’s piano: He is the entertainer… waving Brenda and Eddie goodbye… while the lights go out on Broadway. Where the hell are they going? A sign in the distance readsVERMONTWELCOMESYOU!
We’ve crossed state lines?Simone thinks.
Rhode slows down, takes a right onto a gravel road. “Almost there.”
Up ahead, Simone sees a pair of headlights coming toward them, the first vehicle they’ve encountered since pulling out of the Tiffin gates. Rhode slows down as they pass; he waves to the driver of a crappy gold pickup. Simone watches the driver respond in kind. This will be the witness authorities call upon when Simone’s body is found.
They trundle down the road through dense woods until the landscape opens up and Simone sees a body of water before them—a big pond or small lake, it’s hard to tell—and a row of cottages. Rhode parks in front of the only cottage with lights on. “Made it,” he says. He feels like his tie is strangling him; he’s desperate to remove it.
“What is this?” she asks. The cottage has gingerbread trim, like something out of a fairy tale. There’s smoke coming out of the chimney.
Rhode opens Simone’s door. “You’ll see.”
Ten minutes later, Simone is sitting at a table for two by a roaring fire, Sinatra is playing on a bona fide turntable, and Rhode is wrangling the cage off a magnum of very cold Veuve Clicquot. The cottage—it’s the Wullys’ vacation home—is charming and cozy with big plate-glass windows that overlook Sweet Pond. The champagne improves Simone’s mood; the bottle is the size of a small child.
Rhode says, “I remembered that you like champagne. You know, from that night at the Alibi.”
“Oh god,” Simone says, and for the first time all night, she smiles. “The Pour Deux.”
Rhode raises his flute. “Here’s to us,” he says.
Simone drinks.
Rhode hasn’t stopped at champagne. There’s a tin of caviar on the table that they eat with crème fraîche and homemade potato chips.
“It’s royal osetra,” Rhode says, then worries it sounds like he’s flexing. The caviar was Chef’s idea; he shamed Rhode into adding it to the menu. Chef also upsold him with the champagne. Rhode had suggested prosecco (goodprosecco) and Chef had laughed.
“This is over the top!” Simone says. “You shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble.”
“I wanted to,” he says. “You’re worth it.”
The champagne goes straight to Simone’s head. Sheisworth it! She digs into the caviar. Rhode escapes to the kitchen, where he whips off his tie and pulls the appetizers from the toaster oven, burning his finger on the sheet pan.
Rhode presents Simone with asparagus wrapped in puff pastry and oozing nutty Gruyère.
“Incroyable!”she says. “Did youmakethese?”
