“So you’re due in the city tonight?”
“Fort Lee, New Jersey actually. Jaz’s cousin is putting us – well, me – up.”
She was just about to close the book when Avi clocked a name in bold. “Who’s Doctor Ackerman?”
“Who’s S?” She lobbed back, seemingly startling herself. “I didn’t read your text, just saw the screen. New message, by the way.”
She held up her phone so he could see the unopened message.
Fuck, he had left Eli’s number in her phone. And here he thought breaking his bus rule was a bad one.
Eli Gold literally had seven people on speed-dial on that line. Avi had had to quickly explain why he was texting from an unknown number in order to establish contact and relay that he was okay. He could count on Eli not to ask many questions, and he wanted at least one person in his Jew Crew to be aware of his situation.
“Um, maybe the better question is why your friend Jaz is sending you dick emojis?” He laughed as she snatched the phone back. “Maybe something to do with the good doctor?”
“A friend is setting us up,” she said primly. “On a Hanukkah harbor cruise Friday night. And I have no idea why Jaz does many things. Why she married my nerd of a brother for one.” She looked back at the phone and shook her head. “I’m chalking those up to pregnancy hormones.”
“Lucas is married with a kid on the way? That’s cool. Well,mazel tovon the Jewish doctor lottery ticket. I hope he checks all your boxes. And no, there’s no emoji for that. Yet.”
She didn’t react to his eyebrow lift, so he added, “Oh, and I’ll be on the Matzo Baller too. Once I make it to New York, that is.”
Like a high stakes gambler, she called him on it with a raise of her own.
“Guess we’re in the same boat.”
Literally.
She stacked their tiny four-course meal cups and headed to the trashcan with them. “I know you’re probably not ready to give up your new fashion statement, but Mrs. Horowitz’s sisterawaits. The original first bucket item on my trip, beforeyoucame along.”
Chapter Nine
Leah mentally kicked herself all the way to Erie. Why on earth had she let Avi Wolfson, of all people, look at the bucket list? She chalked it up to some sort of boba tea-induced bonding moment hallucination.
Of course he was going to make fun. And think she had no life beyond the walls of the retirement community. It had hit a little too close to home – perhaps that’s why when she opened her mouth, she let the fib about Mrs. Ackerman’s grandson fly.
A friend is setting us up.On the Matzo Baller.
Jaz could send all the dick emojis in the world and not come close to manifesting that. And now, to learn Avi himself would be on said boat?Good times.
At least he’d be out of her latke-scented hair as soon as this errand was over and she could drop him at the bus terminal.
Avi took the box of Mrs. Horowitz’s belongings from Leah. “I’ll carry it in.”
Leah appreciated the offer, as she had been growing more apprehensive the closer they got to Hattie’s address. Stories of the two sisters’ rivalry were legendary and frankly, the elder Hattie made Linda Horowitz sound like even more of a saint.
“Welcome, welcome.” The octogenarian held the door just wide enough for them to slip past. Introductions were made, but Hattie’s eyes were on the cardboard box. They widened.
She pushed aside her sister’s urn; even ignored the antique jewelry box in search of something else. Her dentures flashed and she gasped as if she were removing the Ark of the Covenant from deep within. “There it is, finally.”
She held a battered recipe box aloft, decoupaged with what looked like the fronts of old greeting cards. Flowers and Victorian women graced the top.
“Saul’s a coward. Couldn’t bring himself to visit? He wasmybeau first, you know. We flirted at the school dance. I drank too much Schnapps that night, he drove me home. Next thing I know, I wake up in my bed still in my dress shoes and wham blam, Linda’s got a date with him the next night. All she wrote! Linda got her own wedding china, her own silver. I never married.Igot my mother’sdreck. What I really wanted were her recipes, but she left them toLinda. But now…now I’ll finally be able to make her brisket! Her latkes this year, for Hanukkah!”
She greedily flipped through the box, tossing other handwritten cards onto the dining room table.
“That spiteful bitch! Where are they?” She sucked on her dentures in disbelief before looking the messengers straight in the eye. “I knew it was too good to be true. Linda always said she would take them to her grave. Unlessyoutook them?”
Hattie threw a mistrustful eye at the young couple before her. Then she flipped open the jewelry box, rummaging to the bottom in case what she sought had been stashed there. Letting necklaces drip through her splayed fingers. “Mostly costume.”
