“Excuse me,” I say. “I need to run to the restroom before dessert.”
I stand.
“I need the little girls’ room, too,” Miriam says. “Mind if I walk with you?”
I wait for her and then hold out my arm for her to take.
“Such a gentleman,” she adds, clasping her hands around my arm.
“Smile, you two!”
We turn, and Leo snaps our photo.
“That’s a keeper, isn’t it, Dad?” he asks, showing his father.
“It is!”
“I can’t wait to see it,” Miriam says. “Back in a sec!”
I escort her off the patio.
As soon as we round the corner and are out of sight, Miriam jerks her arm away. She grabs me, hard.
“What do you think you are doing?” she asks.
“Going to the bathroom?”
“Did you think I’d just be the compliant mother and simply go along with this?” Miriam hisses, her grip tightening on myarm. People stare. She releases my arm, smooths her hair and composes herself. She leans toward me and whispers, “I donotapprove of you being in a relationship with my son.” She studies my face. “It’s just sick.”
I feel as though the floor below me has been removed, and I am falling.
“I don’t understand,” I stammer.
“Don’t play me for a fool,” Miriam spits. “I will not allow you to take advantage of my son. Is this some sort of fetish? You only like men who could be your son?”
She manages to smile at Louis as he passes with our desserts.
“Leo pursuedme,” I say. “I thought his initial interest was purely professional.”
“You’re eighty-one, Sid. You know how this is going to end!”
“Excuse me?”
“What does your future together look like?” she asks, shaking her head. “Are you even alive in a decade? If so, what do you envision? Romantic dinners in Paris, a cruise down the Rhine? I bet you don’t envision my son feeding you, bathing you, filling prescriptions, wheeling you to doctor’s appointments and navigating rather nasty legal decisions with your children, do you?”
The trees whir before me as I think of Teddy’s reluctance to tell us of his medical issues.
“He cannot take care of you. He should nothave totake care of you.” Miriam shakes my arm. “Hewill nottake care of you, Sid. Leo has his own family to care for already.”
“But I think I’m in love with your son,” I say, talking slowly to keep my voice from trembling and making me sound like the old man she sees. “And I think he’s in love with me.”
“How could he love you?” she asks. “What can you possibly offer him?”
Tears well in my eyes. I will them to stop, but I am too weak.
“Everything.”
A sad, hideous gasp makes its way free.
