I get why Goldie hangs out with three old ladies instead of any of her acquaintances closer to her own age.
They’re fucking hilarious sages of wisdom.
During dominoes, I learn that Sheila married the love of her life five days after she met him, was widowed young, dates the least of the three older women, and is a recent breast cancer survivor, which I’d already half guessed based on her hair.
I’ve decided she’s my new grandma, but I keep that to myself.
Evelyn hits on me at every opportunity to the point that I start to worry she’s serious until Odette assures me that they only date men likely to kick the bucket before they do, and I’m unfortunately too healthy-looking for my age.
I also find out that she has more ex-husbands than I have ex-wives, will drop anything on a moment’s notice to reach her kids and grandkids for any reason, and she spent forty years workingher way up to a board of directors position at the largest environmental engineering firm in Copper Valley.
Odette is a former teacher who was also widowed relatively young, but unlike Sheila, she remarried.
But only once.
And never again.
She says the divorce was more pleasant than the marriage itself.
She hired Goldie not long after her divorce, when a fourth member of their group passed unexpectedly from a massive heart attack.Gonna make the most of what time I have left, she says. And when Goldie had her own heartbreak, Odette pulled her into the friend group as the start of the next generation of theirOutlive Our Ex-Boyfriends Club.
Goldie wasn’t kidding about the cupcakes and liquor either.
The three older ladies go through a bottle and a half before we’re done with dominoes, and I count at least eight cupcake wrappers as I’m putting the dominoes back in their box.
Sweet Pea has decided Odette is her new favorite person, and since the dog must be obeyed and is demanding a lap to sit in, they pull upPride and Prejudiceon the TV that’s almost as large as mine.
“Is this the point when you bail?” Goldie asks me. She’s been nursing the same glass of wine all evening so far.
I assume because of the pain meds.
“Which version are they watching?” I ask with a nod at the TV.
“There is no other version except the Colin Firth version,” Evelyn calls.
“And that’s one more test your friends have passed,” I say to Goldie.
She studies me, waiting for a punchline. “You’ve watched this before?”
“Yep.”
“Lately?”
“Couple years ago.”
“By yourself or on a date?”
“With my sister.”
“Your idea or hers?”
“Don’t remember.” It was my idea.
Bink came to visit me in the UK. Left her family at home, and she got a call that her oldest had come down with the flu. Knowing that her wife was handling it solo and her baby was sick made for a shitty day that I couldn’t fix for her, but I knew watching one of her favorite shows would make her feel better.
Plus, we’ve seen it enough that it was easy to pause when she wanted to call home and check in on things.
Goldie’s watching me like she can see straight through to my brain.
