A Song in the Daylight (33 page)

“We can talk in front of the boy,” Larissa said as they walked through the back door to her kitchen, “just euphemize, ‘kay?”

Bo watched Larissa mill around the kitchen, unpacking the groceries. She was wearing light skinny jeans, a snug cashmere Henley with the seams exposed. Were the jeans
too
skinny? The four-inch-heel boots that went with them—chocolate suede, Gucci?—were definitely too high. Is this how Larissa went food shopping?

“How’s everything with
you
?” Bo asked slowly.

“Good. You know, same old, same old. Nothing exciting ever happens here. Hey, want some ice cream?” Larissa asked cheerily. “Or a sandwich?”

“A sandwich might be nice. I’m hungry.”

“I’ll make you and Michelangelo tuna. Honey, want some tuna?”

“Yes, Mommy. On an English muffin. With pickles. But can I have a little tiny snack while I’m waiting?”

“You got it, bud. Take your folder out. We’ll get started on the homework while I make your snack appetizer and snack main course.” Larissa turned to Bo from the fridge. “What would you like to drink, Bo? I can make us coffee.”

Larissa then proceeded to tell Bo about the six different varieties of coffee she had at her house, and how they each tasted, especially when run through the espresso maker. What was Bo in the mood for? “The French roast is bold but not too spicy, and the Colombian is very mild but good, then I’ve got some Italian espresso which is quite strong, and the best of all is the Jamaican blue, though it’s deceptively mild. Which would you prefer?”

“I guess, um,” Bo said dully, “the Jamaican blue.”

“Good choice. Coming right up. Now do you like half and half, or milk in yours?”

“Larissa…”

“And sugar or Splenda?”

Bo turned to the island to glance at Michelangelo, who was cutting and pasting a dinosaur while munching a cup of dry Cheerios, a string cheese, a cookie, a glass of milk, and a fruit cup, while waiting for the tuna sandwich. “Lar,” Bo said lamentably, “I met someone.”

“Oh, yeah?” Larissa was grinding the coffee beans on a loud setting, while breaking up the tuna into little morsels in a steel mixing bowl with a metal fork and putting boxes of tea in the cabinet, which she then slammed shut. The English muffins were toasting. “Who’d you meet?”

“Larissa!”

Larissa turned around, still mixing the tuna.

“You’re not listening! I
met
someone,” Bo stage-whispered, raising her groomed and freshened eyebrows. She was hoping Larissa would know all about stage whispers.

“You
what
?”

Finally something got through. Larissa went to sit at the island next to Michelangelo and across from Bo. But only for a second. A second later, she was up again because the English muffins had finished toasting. Bo let Larissa make the espresso and the tuna sandwiches, and
finally
they sat down, and Larissa nodded invitingly, ready to listen. Bo began to speak. She spoke for a long time. When she finished, there was a pause between the women. Fortunately in the middle of the monologue Michelangelo had sneaked off with his sandwich to watch TV in the den.

Larissa’s pause lasted unusually long on her inscrutable face. Eventually she spoke. She said, “You’re thinking of having an affair with someone named
Stanley
?”

Bo was completely taken aback. “That’s
all
you have to say?”

“No…that’s just the beginning. That’s where I’m starting.”

“What’s wrong with Stanley?”

“Nothing…just doesn’t seem like a name for an
affair
.” Larissa took a long sip of her coffee. “Coffee’s good, isn’t it?”

“It is, yes. There are names that are more suited for affairs?”

“Well, I’m just saying. Does Stanley have a good voice?”

“What does
that
mean? Is that also one of the criteria for an affair? A sexy name and a good voice?”

“It doesn’t hurt. Is he attractive?”

“He’s not, um, conventionally attractive.”

“He’s not
conventionally
attractive?” Larissa paused again. “Jonny is such a good-looking man,” she said. “And he has a very good voice.”

“I live with Jonny! I don’t need to have an affair with him.”

“You’re right. Well, what’s this Stanley like?”

“He’s riveting, and interesting, and I love to listen to him, he is incredibly smart, and he’s in a band. I’m completely taken with him, Lar. I’m not thinking of being with him because I want someone conventionally attractive. Jonny is plenty handsome.”

“This is so true. Hey, would you like some cheese strudel? I bought some at your Chatham Bakery, and it’s unbelievable. Come on, share a piece with me.”

Bo began to suspect that Larissa was going to be surprisingly little help. “What do I do?” She fidgeted with the tips of her fingers.

“Well,
I
don’t know!” Larissa stridently replied. “How should I know? What do you
want
to do?”

“I don’t know. What do you think I
should
do?”

“What do I think you
should
do? Who am I, the Pope? How would I know, Bo? Why are you asking
me
?”

“Because you’re my friend.”

Larissa came around the island and put her arm around Bo. “I’m sorry. Of course. But, darling, it’s not my life, it’s your life. What do
you
want to do? And I thought Jonny got a job?”

“What does that have to do with
anything
?”

Larissa looked pensive. “I thought you
wanted
him to get a job.”

“I did! But again, what does that have to do with anything?”

“Well, I don’t know. I thought it made things better.”

“I’m not unhappy with Jonny. I’m just not happy. We’re in a rut, stuck in the same place for years, bored, spinning our wheels.”

“Huh.” Bo watched Larissa studying her, chewing her lip. Larissa with her light flawless makeup, so composed and polite, so exquisitely superficial, smiling, pleasant, groomed. Her hair shiny, straight, parted, down, perfect. Bo had never come to Larissa with anything personal before, and maybe this was why. They’d been friendly, but in that adult way—when you talk about everything but the state of your life. Perhaps she had been wrong to give Larissa her confidence. She tried one more time.

“I think I still have feelings for Jonny, Lar.”

“Of course. That doesn’t go away immediately. You’ve been together so long. You have a family, you built a life, you have children…”

Bo narrowed her eyes at Larissa. “What are you talking about, Larissa?” she asked. “You know we don’t have any children.
Who
are you talking about?”

Larissa blinked. “Uh—you know what I mean.” She emitted an embarrassed chuckle.

Bo studied Larissa carefully.

“You know what I think, Bo? I think we should get Maggie in on this.”

“You don’t think she’s too judgmental?”

“No, no. She is very smart. And she is kind. She has excellent ideas. Let’s all talk it over. Because you see, I have to run, unfortunately. I’ve got to pick up Emily from school. She is auditioning for the talent show, and it’s almost 4:30. And Asher’s got cross country till 5:00. I’m…this is a terrible time for me to give you my undivided attention. I feel a little distracted and that’s not fair to you.”

“I’ve been calling you all day,” Bo said plaintively. “Where’ve you been? I even called Pingry, but Ezra said you’re not always there on Mondays.”

“This is true.”

“I don’t know what to do. I’m bored, I guess. I want to add a little spice to my life.”

“You’re
bored
? Bo, how can you be bored? You go into the city every day. You work at the Met, for goodness’ sake. You work on fantastic exhibits, the best in the world, you meet powerful, fascinating people, you travel. You have a cute boyfriend who’s smart, and who now also has a job.”

“I know all that. But we are getting stale. We’re so familiar with each other…”

“So break up with him, Bo,” Larissa said. “You’re not married. It’s easy. You’re so
lucky
. You’ve got no kids, no commitment. Isn’t this why you didn’t want to get married? So you could leave your options nice and open?”

“No,” Bo said defensively. “Larissa, you have it all wrong. I didn’t want to get married because both Jonny and I don’t believe in marriage.”

“But that’s great! That’s so convenient! Now you don’t want to be together anymore, so break up.”

“Who said?”

“Well…didn’t you just say…?”

“I didn’t say. I said I didn’t know. I’m not even sleeping with Stanley yet.”

“Oh. Yeah…” Larissa trailed off. “You’re making it all needlessly complicated, I think. You know what I mean?”

“Larissa, me and my mother are living in an apartment that was left to Jonny by his mother when she died. I can’t just pack up and move out. Besides, I don’t even know if Stanley would want me to move in with him. We haven’t even…”

“Oh. Right. Yeah, you might want to…first…and then afterward ask him if you can move in.”

“I don’t know if I want to break up with Jonny, Larissa. I love Jonny.”

Larissa smiled. “
Now
we’re getting somewhere.”

Bo couldn’t believe that she had just professed her love for Jonny.

“I gotta run, darling,” Larissa said. “You’re welcome to stay for dinner. But I have to go get my kids.”

“No, no,” said Bo, getting up off the bar stool. “I think I best be running along.”

“Let’s have lunch with Maggie. We’ll come out to the city like we used to.”

“You haven’t done that in a long time,” Bo said.

“Yeah. Been so busy. You know how it is.”

“Do I?” said Bo, as Larissa ushered her to the back door. “Can you come to the city tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow? Let me call Maggie, see if she can do it. She’s been feeling under the weather lately. Hasn’t been up to doing much. I’ll call you tonight?” Larissa kissed Bo on the cheek, opened the door, waved genially, and before Bo was at her car, the back door was slammed and Larissa had vanished.

3
Middle of the Night

T
he phone rang at a strange hour. It was 2:30 in the morning, and when the phone rang, Larissa was startled out of sleep. Her first reaction was not to answer it. She didn’t have a plan, but who on earth and for what good reason would be calling this late at night? Sure it could be her mother with some scary health news, but with Larissa’s bad luck, it could be bad luck calling. Her heart thumping a hundred times in the four rings before the answering machine picked it up, Larissa lived through Kai’s voice, and Jared’s voice, her life twisting yet again, metal breaking screeching—

It was Jared who harrumphed out of bed. “You don’t hear that?”

“Hear what?” she said in the dark, with no lights. Her voice didn’t sound like her own.

Jared answered it. “Hello?”

Larissa couldn’t hear the rest, whether he listened or responded. She was panting, deaf to him. She felt him nudging her arm, passing her the phone. “God, it’s for you…” He rolled away. She put the phone to her ear.

“Hello?”

“Larissa, baby!” The voice was dim, the satellite connection fragmented. It was Che.

“Che! Oh my God! Che!”

Jared groaned with judgment, pulling the covers over his head. Jumping out of bed, Larissa, relieved beyond measure, her spirit revived, her heart resuscitated, left the bedroom and ran downstairs.

“Che, it’s nearly three in the morning! Is everything all right?”

“Larissa Stark, you tell me. Why do you think I’m calling? What would make a penniless woman call her best friend in the middle of the freaking night?”

“I don’t know.” Larissa thought about it, rubbing her groggy eyes. “Wait…you’re not…are you…you’re
pregnant
?”

“Yes!”

“Ahhh!”

“Ahhh!”

“That’s the greatest thing I ever heard!”

“Isn’t it?”

“Oh my God!”

“I know! Oh my God! Isn’t that the greatest?”

“The greatest.”

“Finally.”

“Finally.”

“Oh, Che, I’m so happy for you. I’m so happy.”

“You’re the first person I called. I miss you so much.”

“I miss
you
so much.”

“Larissa, I can’t believe it’s
finally
happened.”

“How many weeks are you?”

“Like two minutes. I think we just had sex yesterday.”

Larissa laughed. “How do you know you’re pregnant?”

“The nuns told me.”

“The
nuns
told you?”

“Yeah. They know this stuff. They’re like soothsayers.”

“Hmm, Che, maybe you should go to a doctor? You know, just to be on the safe side.”

“Oh, I went, silly. He confirmed today what the nuns told me two weeks ago.”

“He did a blood test?”

“Yada, yada. Yeah, he did a blood test. But the nuns, Lar, they
knew
because they felt her soul inside me.”

“
Her
soul?”

“Oh, yes. Sister Agatha told me.”

“She can tell this?”

“A girl soul? Of course. Oh, Larissa…you have to be here for the birth of my baby. I can’t give birth without you.”

“You conceived without me, didn’t you?” They giggled.

“Ahhh!”

“Ahhh!”

“Is Lorenzo happy?”

“I don’t know. He’s gone fishing. He’s trying to start his own business as a fisherman, like his parents.”

“How’s it going?”

“Slow. He says there are no fish. Between you and me, I don’t think he’s a very good fisherman.”

“Oh, Che.”

“Oh, Larissa.”

“How much time do you have left on your calling card?”

“I don’t know. We may be cut off at any time. Why the hell haven’t you written to me in over six months?”

“I’m sorry.”

“You should be sorry. Something is very wrong. I can tell.”

Larissa started to cry.

“Lar, are you crying? Oh my God. It’s Jared, isn’t it? What has he done? I’ll kill him. What has he done?”

“No, no, Che…it’s nothing like that.”

“So what’s the matter, darling? Why on earth would you be crying? What could possibly be the matter?”