“What’s that, Gracie?” She laughed at the nicknameand then her eyes started welling up again. “Please don’t cry,” I said.
“We have to forget for a little while who we are to each other. No talking about the past. That’s my condition.”
“Deal.” I left a fistful of bills on the table, grabbed her hand, and pulled her toward the door. But just before we left, I turned to her. “Wait. Let’s do a shot first. We’re young, the city is ours, you don’t have to wake up early tomorrow to teach, and I don’t have an asshole for a wife.”
“Sure. Why not?” Her cheeks turned pink. She suddenly seemed happier, younger. And though I had promised her we wouldn’t talk about the past, I couldn’t help but feel like we had traveled back to the best time of our lives.
We each had a tequila shot, left the bar, and found a little twenty-four-hour diner. “I think I want pie,” I said as we stared into the refrigerator case.
“Me too. You wanna share a piece?”
“Let’s share two pieces,” I said, practically daring her.
“You’re talkin’ dirty now. I like it. Let’s do a slice of chocolate cream and...”
“A slice of peanut butter?”
“That’s so perfect. I’m gonna eat the crap out of that pie.”
God, I loved her.“Same here,” I said.
We ordered and then sat in a green vinyl–upholstered booth. She traced the sparkles in the retro tabletop with her finger. “So, how are Alexander, your dad, and Regina?”
“Great. My dad will never retire. He and my brother are partners at the same firm. Alexander and Monica have two kids and a big house in Beverly Hills. Regina is the same, except her face is tighter.”
Grace laughed but then her smile faded. “I’m sad to hear about your mom. I really liked her. I felt like we were kindred spirits.”
I thought back to the days before I lost my mom. She asked me what happened with Grace, and I told her it just didn’t work out. I was confused as to why my mother was bringing Grace’s name up after so many years had passed. She had no idea Elizabeth and I were having marital problems, but it was like she wanted me to know she still thought of Grace. I think she must have felt that they were kindred spirits, too. Elizabeth was never close to Mom, even after knowing her for a decade. One visit, and Grace was in my mom’s heart forever.
“Yes. She went peacefully. My dad actually came to see her before she died. It was heartbreaking because, after all they went through... she still loved him. That’s why she never remarried. I think, once everything was stripped away and he saw her near the end of her life, he loved her, too. At least, that’s what he said to her. If he didn’t mean it, at least my mom died believing it. I came to respect him more after that.”
“I can understand that.” She said it as if she spoke from experience.
I took a deep breath. “Let’s talk about something happier.”
“I followed your career for a while and saw that you won the Pulitzer. What an amazing accomplishment, Matt. Congratulations.”
“Thank you. It was unexpected and hard to appreciate because, I think, at the time, I was in a really dark place.”
“That was before your mother got sick though, right?”
“Yeah. She got to see me accept the award. She and my dad were really proud.”
Grace was so interested, so compassionate. I thought I had made up all those things about her in my mind. How fitting her name was. How real, beautiful, and genuine she was in the flesh. All those times I had stared at her photos and wished I could hold her, touch her, or just see her in person, in color, here she was, just like I remembered.
The slices of pie sat untouched between us. I stabbed a piece and held the fork up to Grace’s lips. “Pie makes everything better.”
She took the bite, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her mouth. I licked my lips, thinking about how she tasted—what it had been like to kiss her.
“That’s soooo good.”
“I know we aren’t supposed to talk about the past, but I’m dying to know what you did after we graduated. How was the orchestra?”
“It was wonderful, actually. We traveled for a couple of years. Tatiana did, too. When we came home to New York, Dan got his old job back at NYU, and I got my master’s in music theory in an online program. I taught at the college level for a few years, and now I direct the orchestra and band at the high school.”
“That’s fantastic, Grace. How is Tatiana?”
“She’s good. Still single and feisty. She’s with the New York Philharmonic so she travels a lot. She’s a very dedicated musician.”
