Beautiful Days (26 page)

Authors: Anna Godbersen

BOOK: Beautiful Days

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Cordelia nodded.

“You must be special then.”

Cordelia smiled at that, and looked to Max to see if it were true. But he gave no sign. He only said, “I'd better go, Ma. I asked Cordelia to come over last minute, and she has somewhere she has to be.”

“Thank you for dinner, Mrs. Darby. Everything was delicious,” Cordelia said, as she began to follow Max toward the door.

“Come back soon, Cordelia. You're a long way from home, and this is a city that will wear you down if you don't put a home-cooked meal in your belly once in a while.”

“Thank you. I will.”

Cordelia waited in the hall as Max embraced his mother and said a few parting words, and then they walked to the car and headed in a downtown direction. By then it had grown dark outside, and a half moon was hanging over the silhouettes of the buildings, and a cool night air that smelled like summer touched the skin of her face. There didn't seem to be anything to say until he turned the car onto Fifty-third, and parked halfway down the block from The Vault. She could see that already people were gathering out front, and that photographers were waiting in the street as they had been the night before.

“You wouldn't be able to fly anymore if they found out, would you?”

“Not the way I do now,” he said. “Maybe they'd let me be a boxer. But not a flyboy.”

“I'm glad you introduced me to your mother,” Cordelia replied.

He was as handsome to her as ever, and it made her feel pleasantly weak having his serious gaze on her again, and at such close quarters. The anger that she had felt toward him had evaporatedâshe could see now why he made himself difficult to know, and why he had resisted pursuing her the way another boy might. All his celebrity and all his opportunities depended on him seeming like a very specific type of person, and he couldn't risk seeming like another person for even an instant. Too much was at stake.

She knew that when she got out of the car she might not see him again, and so she sat quietly and looked straight ahead and reached out for his hand. They interlaced their fingers and listened to the other's breath grow steady. Everyone had secrets, Cordelia saw now; she was not alone in that.

“Well, good-bye, I guess,” she said after a while. The phrase made her heart hurt.

“Bye.”

She squeezed his hand and got out of the car and began walking toward the club. She was glad that it was there and would keep her busy for many hours to come. The crowd would pour in, and there would be brutes and beauties, and it would be a whole pageant for her to watch. She had come all this way to see spectacles like that, and now they were hers to view every night, but she had never been so grateful for them as right now.

One of the cameramen had spotted her, and she heard a flash go off. Someone ahead of her called out her name, and she smiled. Then she heard her name from the opposite direction, from over her shoulder. She turned around and her smile dropped away.

Max was standing on the sidewalk in his white T-shirt with a look on his face that made her want to cry. She took a step toward him and then stopped, unsure if he only wanted a final glimpse of her and was hoping to remain unrecognized. Then he began to stride toward her on his strong legs, his face as determined and serious as it had been when he was flying the plane. When he reached her he put one hand on her waist and one hand on the back of her head. He brought her mouth up to his and kissed her for the first time. She could feel the strength of his jaw in the kiss, and as her heart floated upward, she pressed back with equal force. Another bulb sizzled behind her, but still he let their breath mingle for a few seconds more.

“Can I see you soon?” he asked when he pulled back. There was such uncharacteristic yearning in his voice.

“You know how to find me,” she said simply, and gave him a wink.

All was briefly calm on the street; he flashed her that exquisitely rare smile once and then he was gone. She could hear him running back to his car and the motor starting up, but she had already turned around and lifted her arms to greet the gathering crowd. There would be singers looking for a big break and debutantes in tiaras who wanted special tables and newspapermen begging for quotes. The taste of Max's mouth was still on her lips, but she couldn't dwell there. The day had been beautifully long, but it was going to be a longer night.

Acknowledgments

I am very grateful to have such wonderful friends and editors in Sara Shandler and Farrin Jacobs, who work so hard to turn these books into the best versions of themselves. Many thank-yous also to Joelle Hobeika, Josh Bank, Les Morgenstein, Elise Howard, Catherine Wallace, Kristin Marang, Sasha Illingworth, Beth Clark, Marisa Russell, Christina Colangelo, Lauren Flower, Liz Dresner, Aiah Wieder, Melinda Weigel, and Laura Lutz. And thank you, Hawkes, for the use of the spare house in old rum-running country to write in.

About the Author

Anna Godbersen
was born in Berkeley California, and educated at Barnard College. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. Visit her online at www.annagodbersen.com.

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Beautiful Days

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