“Thank you,” I murmured.
The telegram was from Alberto.
OLIVE BELLA STOP
MEET ME AT DINTY MOORES 8 PM STOP
46TH AND BROADWAY STOP
He was sitting at a table in the back when I arrived that night. I liked the place because they didn’t give two hoots about Prohibition laws, and the bourbon they served was a heck of a lot more appealing than the corned beef and baked potatoes they were known best for.
“Olive,” he said, standing and kissing me on both cheeks.
“I’m so happy to see you, Alberto.” I meant it, too, since I hadn’t been expecting to see him again until the spring. But I would’ve been happier if I’d had a chance to recover from the previous evening. I’d tossed and turned all day, barely able to sleep it off, and my head was still pounding.
“I’m starving,bella,I ordered the food already, are you hungry?”
I shook my head and Alberto waved down the waiter. “A drink for the lady,” he said, “and maybe somethingpiccolo? Something small for the lady?”
“Just a bourbon, please, on the rocks.” I handed the menu to the waiter. “What brings you back to New York so soon?”
“My friend Chester, do you remember?”
“Of course.”
“He’s coming to Italy to visit me and I come first to travel with him. He has never been outside of the New York. Anyway, sorry I meet you so late in the day.”
“Don’t worry about me. I don’t have to be at the club until eleven,” I said.
Alberto shook his head. “I heard this, you are at the Three Hundred Club now. I no like it. It’smoltobad for you, for your career.”
My career. What a joke.
“You are my biggest fan, Alberto.” I tried to remain cheerful around him, since he didn’t deserve my terrible mood. “But Ziegfeld didn’t want me back, the Three Hundred Club was all I could get, and the pay is decent. All the shows are already cast. Maybe I’ll have better luck next season, but right now I need to make some money. Things are different for me now.”
“I know.” He shook his head. “Did you see him, Archie, again?” he asked. “He was very in love, and you also last time when I see you, before the wedding. What happened?”
The wedding. Planning it seemed a lifetime ago. So much had changed since then, and the thought of explaining left me weak.
“It’s a sad story, Alberto. Thank you for asking. But it’s a long one and I might end up in tears.” I managed a wobbly smile. “And I have to put on a show tonight,” I added as brightly as I could. “I can’t show up red faced and puffy!”
“Okay,” he said sadly, patting my hand.“Capisco.”
The waiter delivered a mound of corned beef, carrots and cabbage for Alberto and he dug in heartily. I smiled at the sight of him devouring it.
He was such a kind man. I suddenly had an overwhelming urgeto tell him about Addie, but when I looked into his expectant eyes, I knew I’d only start to cry. What would I tell him? That I was an unfit mother—spending last night with a man I couldn’t remember now? While Addie, left motherless in my aunt’s house, was going to be brought back to a completely strange house in Brooklyn, where she’d be raised by two people who would take on this “burden” only because it was the right thing to do. Two people who were actually her grandparents but would never acknowledge that fact. They’d found me a burden, hadn’t they? And yet who was I to pass judgment? I hadn’t made it easy for them. If I’d done the right thing two years earlier, Addie wouldn’t be in this situation now. And I would never have met Archie—let alone left and humiliated him days before we were supposed to walk down the aisle.
I knocked back my bourbon, and the waiter brought another round.
“You don’t want to eat, Olive? Share with me, please?”
I shook my head.
“I get to the point, Olive.” He grinned excitedly, rubbing his hands together as if he were about to let me in on a big secret. “I have a holiday show starting middle of November. We will travel Europe, and after there isbuonochance we go to Russia. Chester will accompany me. I want for you to come with me, Olive. We will perform a section of duets together. We will introduce Olive to Europe and Europe to Olive.Che ne dici?”
I stared at him, speechless, and when I met his eyes, I realized he was excited, anticipating my response, a little puzzled even when I didn’t reply right away.
I should’ve been ecstatic, jumping up and down for joy. After therecent turn of events in my life, the offer should have been something I’d be thrilled by, and yet my legs felt like lead, my feet were stuck to the ground. I couldn’t feel anything.
