“You wanted him here for the gossip,” Naomi returned, letting the feelings she’d held back from conversation rumble up inside of her.“You don’t care about me.You don’t even care about Jason.You care about bagels, which you’re not getting, and gossip.You care about telling the second family group chat, the one that doesn’t include me, whatever you’ve learned before everybody else.”
“If I didn’t care about you,” Leah replied, standing, glaring at her, arms folded, “I wouldn’t be writing you contracts and not telling my sister that the business responsible for planning her wedding has gone kaput.And with it the contracts she signed to the wedding vendors.And if you don’t give me bagels, you don’t get coffee.”
Naomi sighed, really not in the mood to deal with this from her cousin right now.
“Look,” she said, standing up from the couch, gathering the bag of bagels and finally succumbing to the emotions she’d been feeling over the last few days.“In the end, either Judith finds out or she doesn’t.I’d rather not have her find out from the maid of honor in a way that will make the date impossible to pull together.Which isn’t a threat or anything, just simple facts.I’d rather not have to go to a website that creates legal documents when I have a cousin who’s licensed in New York State to do that.But I can.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying,” Naomi replied, clear as to what was really bothering her, “if you really have no interest in helping me, tell me now so that I can arrange for other ways of getting things done.I am so sick of how projects, events, whatever…things I’m working on get held up because I’m not important enough to someone.”
“Oh…I’ll come back later.”
Samuel.
She’d almost forgotten he was in the apartment; it was as if he’d fallen off a cliff.“It’s fine,” Naomi said, moving past her cousin and toward the door.“I’m leaving.”
“No,” Samuel replied.“Don’t.”He turned to Leah.“Jason’s not going to leave her alone unless something’s going on.Your cousin looks exhausted, and there’s a ton of food on the table.”
“I don’t feel like eating anyway,” Naomi said.“Just email me.Let me know if you’re going to give me the contracts.”
“I have to sign another contract,” Samuel said.“At least wait until I’ve done that before you go.”
“Do I have contracts, or will I have to tell him that I’m going to need a few days?”
Leah sighed.“Fine.”She reached for an old-school envelope, brown and tied tightly with a string.“Here are the contracts.”She paused and then reached for a blue binder Naomi recognized.“I also have this, from the initial wedding expo with some of Judith’s choices.For the benefit of the wedding, here’s the binder.”
“I’ll leave the bagels,” she said.“I don’t feel like eating.”
Samuel raised an eyebrow.“Should I take a year in signing so that…?”
Naomi shook her head, understanding the kindness behind Samuel’s attempts.“I’m not good company right now.”
“Not even for coffee?”
Once again, Naomi shook her head; it was a good offer from Leah especially because the air was filled with the strong scent of the coffee that Leah brought out for special occasions.But her stomach was too much of a mess to drink it.“No,” she said.“I can’t.”
“Cup of tea before you go?He does have to sign the contract.”
That was an offer she could take.“I can do a cup of tea.”
And once she’d had her tea, Samuel signed the contract.
“You might want to try the photographer first,” Samuel said as she headed to the door.“I think he’s got a show in Hollowville in the next few days.He’s a good guy.”
“Thanks,” she said.“I appreciate it.”
And as she headed back to Queens, she did her best to try and process what the hell had happened.She desperately hoped that Jason’s summons to his brother’s house went better than the disastrous visit she’d had with her cousin.
*
Per tradition, Greenblatt’sdidn’t open on Saturdays; it was a big part of the business and how important that was.They were open on Sundays butneverduring the day on Saturday.Sometimes, during the summers, they’d open for a brief period on a Saturday night.
Which meant that to answer this summons, Jason found himself heading downtown, getting off the subway, picking up his car and driving up to Briarwood, where his brother had moved recently.The weather was nice, there wasn’t much traffic, and there was an open space near Steven’s townhouse.
Seconds after he’d walked in the door, he found out why the summons had been so urgent.
“The short of it,” Steven said as he poured coffee, “is that for this set of Greenblatt’s issues, I need you, Jason.”
