To Sir, with Love

I thought there was something special, but maybe…

Maybe what made it feel so special was the illusion of it all. To Robyn’s point at girls’ night, maybe I really am just clinging to the fantasy of him so I won’t have to deal with the fact that life is disappointing more often than not.

But none of this makes his rejection easier to take.

A little after eight, a week after my Starbucks meeting with Alec, he opens the front door to his and Lily’s apartment to let me in. “Hey,” he says, pecking my cheek. “Come on in. Lil’s just putting some snacks together.”

“Hey, Gracie!” she calls from the kitchen.

“Where’s May?” I ask, shrugging out of my coat and handing it over to Alec.

“She had to bail,” Lily replies. “Has a stomach bug that she described in way more detail than I needed, but insists we record the entire family chat and send it to her after so she doesn’t miss the deets. Her word.”

“Something to drink, G?” Alec asks, going to the fridge.

“Water—bubbly if you’ve got it.”

“Lemon or plain?”

“Lemon.”

“Lily?” Alec asks, not looking at his wife as he pulls out a can of sparkling water for me.

“I’ll have some of that merlot from last night, thanks.”

They don’t look at each other during the exchange, and I stifle a sigh. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m about to have a lot of time on my hands—helping these two fix their marriage could be a full-time job.

I help myself to a slice of baguette and some sort of garlicky mushroomy concoction that I recognize from girls’ night—Lily had asked Keva for the recipe.

Alec hands Lily a glass of wine and me a tall glass with sparkling water and a lemon spiral twist draped artfully over the side. “Fancy!”

“Only the best at Chez Wyndman,” he says, giving a formal butler bow before helping himself to the appetizers.

Lily’s focused on wrestling open the plastic wrapping on cocktail napkins she picked up at Bubbles when she’d stopped by on Sunday after brunch with a friend. The napkins are cute. Two girls walking arm in arm through Central Park surrounded by fall foliage. I’m glad I ordered some for the store, but the artist in me couldn’t help but think about what I would have done differently had it been my design. Added a cute scarf for one of the girls, boots for the other. Maybe a leashed puppy pouncing on a leaf…

Alec glances at his wife a moment, then lifts his crostini and nods toward the other room. “I’ll be in my office if you need me. Tell Caleb I say hey.”

Lily’s head snaps up, and she seems to see—really see—her husband for the first time since I’ve been here. “You’re not staying for the call?”

Alec’s got the crostini halfway to his mouth, but he pauses in the doorway and looks back at her. “I thought it was a family call.”

Her head snaps back just slightly. “You’re family.” Unless you don’t want to be.

“Not Cooper family,” he replies quietly. Unless you want me to be.

I chew my mushrooms and refrain from rolling my eyes. If this were a cartoon, I’d smile pleasantly and bonk their heads together just hard enough to knock some sense into their stubborn married asses.

“Get over here,” I say to Alec as I lean forward and open Lily’s laptop. “You’re a huge part of Bubbles and this family. You should be here for this discussion.”

I’m sitting in the middle of the sofa, but when I see them walking toward either side of me, I quickly scoot to my left so they have to sit next to each other. Lily narrows her eyes slightly, as though trying to figure out if I’m manipulating the situation, but I feign preoccupation with getting the call set up.

Lily sits in the middle, Alec joining her on the other side just as the video chat connects and Caleb’s smiling face appears.

“Oh, thank God,” Caleb says when he sees Alec. “Another male presence.”

“Um, I believe the thank God should be reserved for the fact that you got rid of that facial hair,” Lily says.

He rubs his bare chin. “You think? I’m sort of missing it.”

“It looked like a weed,” I say, backing up my sister. “Or pubes.”

“And they wonder why I moved out of state,” Caleb mutters before looking back at Alec. “How are you, man? It’s been a while.”

“Good, good,” Alec replies. “You?”

“Same. Got a new client who’s sort of a pain in the ass, but the pay’s good. Got a new girlfriend too.”

“What?” Lily and I say at the same time.

“How did I not know about this?” I demand. “She better be a brand-new girlfriend, because I just talked to you two days ago, and you made no mention of this development.”

He scratches his ear. “It’s been a few weeks. I didn’t mention it because you’d start doing that thing.”