“Tonight, maybe. Or tomorrow. They’re insisting that it has to be the whole company, or it will pit different departments against each other, but I’ll see what I can do, okay? I know this is bad timing for you.”
“Okay,” I said quietly.
“I’ll have more updates soon,” he said. “I’m going to have a meeting with them today.”
I nodded. “I’m sorry if you may have to miss the wedding.”
“I’m sorry if you have to cut your trip short,” he said.
The word stung. That’s what I was doing in Kedar’s mind: a trip. A fun sojourn, a bit of casual travel. I nodded.
“So this is definite?”
“If I make any headway with them, I’ll let you know. Maybe I can push it back at least a week or two, but I have to see. I’ll call you soon, I promise.”
I felt like my heart was breaking. This was exactly what Paul had been worried about, and my job had proved him right. I was always supposed to go back to Brooklyn, anyway. I was supposed to arrive home right when Laura’s life with Nick was falling apart, and that might be happening exactly on schedule.
I took out my phone and prepared a text for Paul, tears forming in my eyes as I looked for the right words. Should I call him? Break the news gently in writing? I hesitated. I didn’t want to act like I expected Paul to be as heartbroken as I was. And Kedar had said maybe, right? It might be pushed off a week or two, or maybe even forever. There was no point in being sad if I didn’t have a definite answer yet. I was going to see Paul on Wednesday night, and we could talk then. I would level with him about where things stood, and by that time I might know more myself.
Jasmine called me that evening.
“Hey, Chica,” she said in her musical voice. “When are you back, babe? We’re deciding about concert tickets and need to know if you’ll be home by October and want to go see a sad gay pop band.”
“Is that the name of the band?”
“It might as well be.” She named a band I’d never heard of, but apparently, they were playing at Madison Square Garden, which officially meant I was not cool anymore.
I took a breath. “I should be back by October, yeah.”
“Amazing. I couldn’t handle it without you. Lucas wants to do theme dressing. It’s me and three of his other friends, and he’s insisting our outfits match. But you and I can cross that Lycra bridge when we come to it. By the way, I looked up pictures of Newfoundland and it is gorgeous.”
“Yeah.”
“Like, stunning. I mean, what the hell? Why does nobody tell me this stuff?”
“To be fair, I did.”
Jasmine started to laugh. “You know what I love about this? You are so far ahead of the curve. In five years, everyone’s gonnabe like, Oh my God, I have to go to St. John’s, and you’ll be like, ‘I already summered there.’”
“I don’t think you get to use summer as a verb unless you make at least a million dollars a year.”
“Babe, I’m appropriating ‘summer’ from the rich folks. It’s mine now. I’m summering in Crown Heights.”
“Yeah.” I was silent for a moment.
“You okay?” she asked.
“I have to come back, and I’m not ready,” I said. “The work from home policy may be going away.”
“Oh, honey,” she said, quietly. “I’m sorry. I’ll take care of you. We’ll go for drinks, and you can tell me all about your adventures in fairyland. Not that I’m not having my own version of that.”
“Thanks, babe.” I thought about telling her that I was in the process of getting my heart broken, but what was the point? She would just tell me that I would find someone else. That was what we were always telling each other in New York. Maybe that was part of our problem.
Paul textedme a few hours before we were supposed to meet on Wednesday.Hey, I have an urgent family thing that’s come up and my mother needs to stay at my place for a few days, so I can’t go out tonight. Any chance you’d be willing to host the improv practice tomorrow night at your place?
Sure,I replied.I hope your mother is ok.
I’m so sorry about our date tonight, he wrote back.I will make it up to you.
