"Maybe I will," he said. "Why shouldn't she understand the financial world?"
"She'll have more important things to do."
"More important? Like what, Ami?"
"Oh, please," Ami said, and pushed her plate away. She had eaten barely half of her dinner. "I'll be right back," she said. "I have to powder my nose. Actually," she said after she stood, leaning toward Wade, "I have to pee."
She giggled and started away, deliberately pausing at a table to speak with a man who had been smiling at her, to the displeasure of the woman he was with. Wade watched her and then turned back to me.
"I'll give you a wake-up call tomorrow," he told me as he continued to eat. "Ami will say she'll do it and you shouldn't worry, but she won't."
"Thank you."
"I'll admit that taking you in was all her idea, but once I agree to do something, I do it right," he continued. Then he leaned toward me to whisper, "This food is good, but it's just as good at Billy's Hideaway and half the price. You'll learn. You'll see what's really important," he promised.
Everyone's trying to teach me something, I thought. Everyone wants to be right about what is most important in life. I just hoped I wouldn't come between Ami and Wade or cause some new troubles. Then Mrs. Cukor would be the one who was really right about me. I would have brought the evil eye into the Emerson home after all. I did have some dark curse attached to my very being.
After Ami returned, and our souffle was served, she wanted us to go into the bar and listen to the trio, but Wade told her she should take me home to get a good night's rest.
"She's starting a new school. It's not easy, And."
"Oh, it's not hard either. An hour or so longer won't matter."
"The bar's no place for her," he emphasized.
She raised her eyes to the ceiling and then stood up abruptly.
"Come along, Cinderella. Wade thinks my car will turn into a pumpkin any moment."
She started away, miffed. I looked at Wade, who was staring down at the table.
What had brought these two people together? I wondered. What did they like about each other? For Wade, beauty was apparently not enough, and as far as Ami was concerned, Wade was uninteresting. Were they different once? Had something changed them? Perhaps this was the way most married people behaved after a while. What did I really know about husbands and wives, families?
"I'll be right home, myself," Wade said as I came around the table.
Ami was already waiting at the restaurant entrance, pouting. I hurried after her. Most of the patrons were already gone, but the bar was filled and the music was loud. People were laughing and drinking. Ami looked at the scene longingly. I almost thought I should suggest Wade take me home and she stay, but she stepped out of the restaurant quickly and ordered her car.
"I really enjoyed everything. Thank you," I said, hoping to help her to feel better.
"What did I tell you?" she asked, spinning on me. "He didn't even comment about my hair."
She raised her anus.
That's right. That was odd, I thought. Why didn't he?
"Maybe he's seen you in the wig before."
"Of course he's seen me in it before, many times before, but that's not the point. Men," she said, and started for the car when it was brought up to us. She tipped the valet, and we got in and drove off.
Suddenly, she laughed.
"It's all right," she said. "I'm really not upset. I just wanted him to think I was."
"Why?"
"That way he'll be nicer to me. Always let them think you're mad at them, even if you have no reason to be. It puts them on the defensive, and there is no better place for a man to be put than on the defensive," she lectured. "By the way, that goes for boys your age as well. It makes no difference. As I told you, all men are boys," she said. Then, under her breath, she added, "In one way or the other."
When we arrived at the house, she insisted we go into the living room and have what she called an after-dinner cordial.