Page 66 of Roommate Wars
“You did!”
He seemed to be smiling despite himself. “We had a chef, and he had a crew of helpers. Of course there was a person who washed the dishes.”
“Did they sort the dishwasher perfectly?” Soph asked.
“I wouldn’t know,” Max said. “I never washed dishes growing up.”
Soph looked pityingly at her boyfriend. “Amazing. It’s like you grew up in a foreign land, only you were two miles from where me and Elise lived.”
“That’s city life,” Lizzie said, and fell backward in slow motion onto one of the couch cushions we’d thrown on the floor after they arrived. We’d decided to move the party to the living room, but our place was so small we’d ditched the couch in favor of the floor and pushed the coffee table aside. “Lord save me from my parents,” she added. “They’re going to give me a brain aneurysm if I don’t find my own place soon.”
“You’re living with them?” Max asked.
“Unfortunately,” Lizzie said, sleepily. “It was supposed to be temporary, but the law firm has had me on one out-of-town project after another. Also, my mom has an excellent chef who caters to my dairy issues.”
“Why don’t you rent my studio?” Max suggested.
Lizzie lifted her head. “Don’t kid, Max. You know I love your building. Is the studio really available?”
“My tenant moved out weeks ago, and I haven’t had a chance to get it painted. I should get my assistant on that,” he said to himself. “In any case, I was planning on renting it soon.”
“Sold!” Lizzie said. “It’s mine. Don’t rent it to anyone else.”
“It’s small. You sure?”
“Small works. Do you allow cats?”
Max chuckled. “It’s your furniture Archibald will ruin, not mine.”
“Arch is a gentleman cat. He would never ruin furniture. He only shreds my favorite slippers—a habit any decent Persian would approve of, because my slippers rock and are an irresistible plaything.”
Lizzie rolled onto her side and faced me. Her hair was held back by a chip clip she’d stolen off Jack’s cheese crackers. Keeping those crackers fresh was one thing Jack obsessed about, so I was waiting for him to steal the clip back. “Speaking of parents and moving out of their homes, what were yours like? Did you decorate the Christmas tree growing up like Jack?”
I supposed to the uber-rich, things like personally decorating Christmas trees was an anomaly.
“We didn’t have a tree,” Soph said, answering for me.
Lizzie half sat up and looked at my sister. “Jewish?”
“Nope. Just no room for a tree.”
“In our defense,” I said, “we had Christmas trees when we were younger, just not after our dad died.”
Lizzie propped her head on her hand, her expression serious. “I’m sorry. It must have been hard losing your dad. And I heard your mom was recently sick? I spoke to Jack after she was hospitalized for the stroke, and it sounded terrifying. Is she doing better?”
I smiled, because this was a topic that I was happy to talk about. “She’s fantastic. And she’s very chummy with Max’s mom these days. Can you picture it? We come from a low-income family, and Max’s parents are, well, the opposite. It’s wild.”
Lizzie considered that a moment. “Kitty is warm once you get to know her. And she’s gotten more so since they lost a huge chunk of money that pushed them back to normal rich people standards. What do you think, Max?”
Max nodded. “My parents were dumped by lifelong friends and supported by people they barely knew. It was eye-opening. Meanwhile, during all that, my mom reconnected with Sophia’s mom, Brenda, whom she went to grade school with. The scandal was hard on my parents, and Brenda’s situation put things in perspective. Health is king, and what they were going through was minor in comparison. Plus, my mom has hoarder tendencies like Brenda, just in a rich-lady way. I think they secretly talk about ‘collecting.’”
Soph rested her head on Max’s shoulder. “My mom’s been really good about going to therapy and not reverting to old habits. I think having Max’s mom in her life has helped because she has a good friend now. She’d been isolated for so long, and for whatever reason, Kitty broke through, and now they’re scary close.”
Max winced. “I hate it when they whisper to each other. Makes me nervous.”
“Tell me about it.” Soph shivered. “You never know what they’re up to.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing them together,” Lizzie said cheerily.
