“You’re my favorite, anyway. The other two are just the side pieces.” Alice took another sip, winking. “But you don’t suffer from too much free time, either, which leads me to believe this is not only a social call. How can I help you?”
She saw through my bullshit from fifty yards away. It surprised me I didn’t see Alice more often. And angered me too. Because during my Andrew Dexter years and then my Harvard years, I used to spend as much time with her as possible. She’d been my lifeline, providing me with direction and advice, explaining to me the ins and outs of high society. Helping me blend in with the rest of them.
“I intend to change that and make sure there will be a lot of social calls in the future for us,” I informed her, waving for the waitress to come and take our order.
Alice shook her head, laughing. “Oh, silly boy. I’ve already placed the order for us. You really think I’m going to let some Manhattan punk tell me what the catch of the day is?”
“You’ve been in Palm Beach for less than two years,” I pointed out.
“Nevertheless.” She patted her coiffed hair. “At any rate, where were we? Oh yes. You’re in trouble. Is it Traurig or Cromwell? I bet it’s Cromwell, that old sod. He is suffering from some serious youth envy.”
Alice’s late husband was a corporate lawyer, so she knew a thing or two about firm politics.
The food arrived. More specifically—half the goddamn ocean’s creatures. Alice had a healthy appetite for a woman of her physique.
“It’s not about work.” I speared a scallop swimming in olive oil, butter, and oregano with my fork and brought it to my mouth.
“Your investment portfolio?”
“No.”
“Are you finally selling and moving to DUMBO? You could get more bang for your buck there.”
I shook my head.
“Well, what is it, then?”
“Arya,” I said. “Arya Roth.”
Forty minutes and five entrées later, Alice was up to speed with my Arya situation. She’d known about Arya from when I was seventeen, but not about the recent development in our story.
Alice sat back, nursing a fruity cocktail, nodding gravely.
“First of all, let me just say I can’t believe it has taken you so long to find her.” Her eyes glittered happily.
I scowled. Had she not heard anything I’d said? “I didn’t find her. It was a coincidence.”
“There is no such thing as coincidence. Only divine intervention. And it was clear from when you were seventeen that your heart belonged to that girl, along with the rest of your body. You wandered around aimlessly for long enough, but unfortunately, people—especially young people—really do need to experience things in the flesh for the thought to finally sink in.”
Ignoring the fact she’d known all along something I had just found out this month, my love for Arya, I skipped to the bottom line. “What do I do?”
“Well,” Alice laughed, “you did mess up.”
“I know,” I bit out, losing patience.
“Spectacularly so.”
“If I wanted to hear how incredibly inept I am as a boyfriend, I could go to Arsène, Riggs, or—even better—to Arya herself. I came here because I need advice. How do I make her see nothing else matters? Just her?”
Alice smiled a closemouthed smile that told me that the answer was inside the question. She seemed to be having a jolly good time watching me squirm.
“What? What?” I barked.
“Repeat your words again, please, Christian.”
I frowned. “How do I make her see nothing else matters?”
“Yes.” She clapped her hands together excitedly. “Exactly.”
“That’s not an answer,” I groaned. “How drunk are you, woman?”
She sucked the cherry on her swizzle stick into her mouth. “The answer is yes again.”
I was about to take her back home and nurse her back into sobriety until I got my answer, when it struck me. The meaning of her suggestion. My eyebrows shot up. Alice shimmied her shoulders, excited that I finally got it.
“After all this time?” I groaned.
“After all this time.”
“You sure there’s no other way?”
“You just took everything this girl had. The father she adored and considered to be both her parents.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but she cut me off. “Please don’t tell me he deserved it. I know that. But she didn’t, until you dragged the truth into light. Now she is forced to look at the smudged picture of her life. Because of you. Not only that, but you lied to her. Lied to her even after you slept with her. Even when she mustered the courage to ask you not to lie to her. So yes, sacrifices will have to be made, and they’ll have to mean something to you. If you don’t lose anything, you can’t gain anything, honey.”
I dropped my head forward, raising my hand with my credit card for the waitress when she brought us the check.