Natalie laughs meanly. “Well, it sure isn’t a leisure activity.”
Mae is looking back and forth as though her sisters are playing pickleball. She keeps opening and closing her mouth like a koi, saying nothing.
“Where is this coming from?” But Jordan doesn’t really have to ask this; she knows where it’s coming from.
“You may hate my traditional view of motherhood—”
“I don’t hate—”
“But at least I was there for our own mother!” Natalie has too much composure to yell in a bar, but she’s close.
“What?” Jordan can’t believe those words just came out of Natalie’s mouth.
“Yeah. And not only did you put work ahead of her, now you’re just fine with tearing down her house!”
Okay, thinks Jordan. “Oh mygod,” she says. “You both need to stop talking like I’m standing outside the house with a bulldozer. None of this was my idea!”
“But if we allagreed,”says Natalie, “if we were allunited, maybe we could do something about it. If you cared.”
Now the gloves are well off. On the inside Jordan is seething and shaking, but she knows from years of experience that the antidote to Natalie getting too emotional is to remain cool herself. It was the same with Audrey. Maybe we purposefully find in the outside world the patterns we grew up with because we think we know how to manage them. She draws herself up with as much dignity as she can summon, and, keeping her voice steady and even, says, “Well, Natalie, you may think your memory is pretty good—”
“My memory isverygood,” snaps Natalie.
“—but one thing you’re definitely forgetting is that you aren’t the only one with things going on. As usual, you think you are. I’m going to the bathroom.” And with that, she pushes in her barstool(because even as angry as she is she doesn’t want anyone to trip) and heads to the back of the restaurant.
“Oooooh,” breathes Mae once Jordan is gone. Natalie rattles the ice in her glass. “What wasthatall about?”
Natalie gives Mae the CliffsNotes: the article, the backlash, Austin’s refusal to see any of it as a problem. Mae winces and nods at all the right times, and Natalie is grateful for that.
“I hate that reporter,” Mae says loyally.
“Me too,” says Natalie. But she’s mostly angry and scared about Austin. She’s scared that she’s taken this beautiful part of their life and broken it. In all the time she’s known him, Austin has never gotten off the phone without a goodbye, without sayingLove you.
Natalie considers. “To be fair, maybe it was the editor or the designer who decided to highlight the quote and write the caption,” she says.
“Then I hate them too.” Mae takes the last, exuberant sip of her drink. Natalie tells her about her hope for Jordan to fix it, and Jordan’s refusal.
“But Jordan fixes everything!” explains Natalie. “She’s beingso weirdabout this.”
“Jordan does fix everything,” Mae agrees. “She used to fix my American Girl doll when the leg kept falling off. Grace? The one who baked? That girl’s leg wouldnotstay on.”
“Tough to be a one-legged baker,” observes Natalie. Then she says, “She always untangled my necklaces.”
“She organized the drawer that held the food containers, like, once a month.”
“No,Idid that,” says Natalie.
“That was you?”
“Definitely. I always wanted them to be matched with their hats but nobody ever put them away properly. It drove me crazy, all those orphans.” In Natalie’s kitchen, her beautiful, grown-up, endlessly photographed kitchen, every container has a lid and every lid has a container. There are no orphans.
They’re quiet for a minute. The bartender comes by and says, “Another round?”
“Yes,” says Natalie, at the same time that Mae says, “Probably not.”
The bartender raises an eyebrow and waits. “We’ll decide when our sister comes back,” says Mae.
“I’ll be over there when you do.”
