“Sure,” says Nicola. Even though she wants to know more, she’s sensing something from David, a hurt that’s deep enough he doesn’t care to have it excavated. After a time he snaps his fingers and says, “You know what you should do, Nicola? You should come to the Vineyard with us. We takeAs-Is. It’s a blast.”
“A blast,” confirms Jack. His eyes are closed again.
“As-Is?”
“Our boat. Don’t laugh. Real estate term.” He shrugs. “I didn’t name her. There’s space to sleep on her, but sometimes we get rooms at the Winnetu instead.”
“David,” Nicola says gently (but she’s also annoyed). “You know I can’t afford to do that.”
David takes another slow sip of his bourbon. “It’s okay, Taylor has an account at the Winnetu.”
“I’m not spending Taylor’s money!”
David shrugs. “Spend my money, then. It’s all the same money.”
Nicola knows from her father that David signed a comprehensive prenup, so it’s actually not “all the same money.”
“I don’t know,” she says, and David shrugs and says, “Suit yourself. Or spend Jack’s money.”
“Sure,” says Jack carelessly. “Spend my money. The Tour has been very kind to me.” After a beat, “I’m going to head out. I’m supposed to meet someone in town. Nicola, can I drop you anywhere?” He stands.
You can drop me into your bed,Nicola wants to say, but of course she doesn’t. She says she’s going to ride home. She yawns, suddenly exhausted, maybe from the wine or the bike ride there or the prospect of the bike ride home or maybe from the sheer effort required not to say the wrong thing in Taylor and David’s beautiful home.
David says, “They’re working you hard over there at the Institute, huh?”
“They are. I mean, yeah. I’m just a lowly intern. You’ve heard of the forty-year-old virgin?” She glances at Jack and blushes. Why’d she bring up virgins? “I’m an almost-thirty-year-old intern. But I love it. I’m learning a lot about aquarium maintenance, and I’m going to lead my first dockside exploration soon...” She’s losing her audience. This stuff is interesting to her—she hasn’t even broached the wonders of the squid dissections they do with the kids!—but Jack’s shoulders are turning away from the table, and when the shouldersgo, knows Nicola, so goes the attention. She switches gears. “Actually, I haven’t been sleeping well. There’s this house next to me where there’s a party every night.”
She has him back. “Sounds like my kind of neighbor,” says Jack, sitting back down. “Go on!”
“Apparently you don’t have to be invited to go. You just... show up. It’s all courtesy of Juliana George.”
David and Jack exchange a look. And it’s there—Nicola feels it, as sure as a pinch on her arm—that the night, in fact the entire summer, takes a turn.
“Did you say Juliana George? She’s your neighbor?” David is sitting up straight, his hand gripping his bourbon glass.
“Apparently. I haven’t met—”
“Here? On Block Island?”
“Yeah. Yup. I guess. That’s what someone told me. So what? Who is she?”
“LookBook!” say David and Jack together.
“Sorry?”
“LookBook.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
Jack taps on his phone and holds it up for Nicola to see a website on the screen. “It’s an online fashion portal. The Expedia of fashion.”
“How do you guys know this stuff?”
“I may look like a golfer,” says Jack (actually he looks like an underwear model), “but deep down I’m a business ho.”
“He’s hot for startups,” David concurs. “Company valuations are his porn.” Nicola tries not to snicker but snickers anyway. “That, and regular porn.”
“Oh, please. I spend more time readingBusinessweekthan you want to know,” says Jack.
