The Sins of the Mother (31 page)

“In what field?”

“She turned a hardware store that my grandmother inherited from her boyfriend into a very successful business. My older brother is a Harvard MBA and works for her. My other brother is a very talented artist and also works for her. His wife is the one who teaches at Princeton and hates my book. My baby sister is a very successful music producer in London. Both my marriages failed, and I have two wonderful daughters. That’s the whole story. It’s hard to compete with all that.”

“You just did,” he reminded her. “That’s the biggest advance I’ve ever gotten for a first novel. And I’m sure the book is going to be a great success. That ought to put them all in their place. Why did your marriages fail? In ten words or less?”

“I married a French race car driver when I was twenty-one. He got killed in a race before our daughter was born. That’s my daughter Sophie. Then I married a moderately famous actor, Jasper Jones, and we got divorced in less than a year. He had an affair with one of his leading ladies. We had my youngest daughter, Carole. That’s it.”

“At least you married interesting people. I married a very dull woman I met at school. She ran off with my best friend. She’s gotten fat, and now he’s bald, and unfortunately they’re very happy, which proves that bad-looking people deserve each other. And I’ve never married again. I was cured. I lived with a woman for about six years, but we never married. She then became a nun, so I can say that I’ve driven at least one woman into the convent. I thought it was a bit rude, but she was a nice girl. I’ve sought out atheists ever since. Are you religious?”

“Sometimes.” Something occurred to her then. “Is this a date? Or are you taking me out as my agent?”

“I’m not sure. What do you think? Which would you prefer? You’re a very beautiful woman, even if you are a bit neurotic and very insecure, so either one would work for me.”

“Are you married?”

“No. Never again.”

“Living with anyone?”

“Unfortunately not. I’m very messy so no one wants to live with me, and I have a dog that snores.”

“Dating anyone?”

“Not lately. Dry spell actually.”

“Okay, then maybe it’s a date.”

“I agree. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can get off on the right foot. Would you like to have dinner?”

“Tonight?” Liz looked startled.

“Or another time, if you have other plans.”

“I don’t. I just wasn’t expecting to have dinner.” Nor a date. But she liked him. A lot. And he was gorgeous.

“Sometimes the element of surprise is good. Sushi?”

“That sounds good. What kind of dog?”

“English bulldog. His name is Rupert. After my uncle. He looks like him.”

“And let me guess.” She had picked up on the fact that he was more than likely an aristocrat, and she had noticed he was wearing a crest on a ring. “Eton and Cambridge.”

“Eton, Oxford, Cambridge. Right, you’ve got that down. And I hated Eton. Very un-English of me. I got beaten up all the time. I was small as a child, only got tall later. They sent me when I was seven.”

“How awful. I hate the English system.”

“So do I. That’s why I never had children. One of many reasons. Why have them if you’re going to send them away when they’re practically in diapers?”

“I agree.”

“My brothers all loved it.”

“What are the other reasons why you never had children?”

“They remember everything you do wrong, blame you forever for all your mistakes, and hate you for everything you do.”

“Sounds like my older brother,” Liz said, laughing. “He’s still mad at my mother for not being around enough when he was a child, and she was always working.”

“And do you hate her too?”

“No, I love her. She did her best, and my grandmother took care of us, and she was terrific.”

“Women are much more forgiving. One must always have daughters if one has children. I come from a family of five boys. What do your daughters do?”

“One is finishing a master’s in computer science at MIT, and then she’s going to work for my mother. And my youngest daughter just moved to L.A. to work for her father and stepmother, who produce movies.”

“The actor is now producing?” He remembered, he was paying attention.

“Yes, he is. Or his wife is. He works for her.”

“And your mother seems to be employing the entire family. Good thing she didn’t give you a job, or you wouldn’t have had time to write the book.”

“I’m working on another one now, but it’s just in the early stages.” He looked pleased to hear it, paid for their drinks then, and took her to a small sushi restaurant where the meal was delicious. And they talked for several hours about the book business, how he’d gotten into it, and his boyhood in England. He told her about his allegedly very eccentric family and made her laugh. They had a very good time together, and she dropped him off at his apartment after dinner. He lived at the Dakota, on Central Park West, which was a famous old building, full of well-known people and beautiful apartments. And she knew he wasn’t relying on his work as an agent to buy something there.

“I had a very good time,” he said to her before he left. “I’m glad we decided it was a date. It would be a shame to waste an evening like that on just an agent.”

She smiled at him. She really liked him. “Thank you for selling my book.”

“Happy to do it. Any time. Keep working on the new one. I’ll sell that one too. I’ll do anything for a commission.”

He walked into the building then with a wave, looking very elegant and very British. She’d had a wonderful time.

She turned on the radio then and drove home in a great mood.

And first thing the next morning, she called her mother and told her about the book.

“Ohmygod, Mom, he sold it for five hundred thousand dollars! They loved it! And he’s trying to sell it as a movie.”

“I told you it was good. I loved it too. Let Sarah put that in her pipe and smoke it.”

“I thought she knew.”

“She only knows academic books. I’m very, very proud of you.”

“Thank you, Mom. I have to tell Granibelle. She loved it too. I had dinner with my agent last night, by the way.”

“The new one?”

“Yes. He’s British, and very nice. He took me for a drink at the Carlyle, and out for sushi.”

“As a date?”

“We decided it was. We took a vote on it.”

“Well, that’s interesting.”

“And I’m working on a new book.”

“You’re full of good news,” her mother said, pleased for her. “Do you think you’ll go out with him again?”

“I hope so. Maybe he won’t ask me.”

“I’ll bet he will.”

“He lives at the Dakota.”

“He must be very successful, or have money.”

“I think it’s the latter. He’s very aristocratic, and very British. He went to Eton, Cambridge, and Oxford.”

“Well, see what happens. And congratulations about the book.”

“Thank you, Mom, for your faith in me.”

“You deserve it. You’re just a late bloomer.” Liz liked that. She was a late bloomer, not a failure. It put a whole different spin on things and her view of herself.

Andrew called her himself later that morning and told her what a good time he’d had with her. He told her to call him the next time she came to the city, and he’d take her to dinner again.

“Why don’t you come out here? It’s only forty-five minutes on the train. Or you can drive, if you prefer.”

“I’d like that. What are you doing this weekend?”

“Nothing,” she said honestly.

“What about Saturday?”

“Why don’t you come out in the afternoon? We can sit in the sun, and then go out to dinner.”

“Sounds great. E-mail me the directions, and I’ll drive.”

“You can bring Rupert if you like.”

“He doesn’t like the heat, and he gets carsick. I’ll introduce you next time.”

She was looking forward to seeing him again. Her book had sold for an exorbitant amount of money. She was working on another one. And she had a date with a very handsome man. Things were definitely looking up in her life.

Their date on Saturday went well too. He arrived at three o’clock and they sat on her patio drinking iced tea and talking. There was no news about the movie deal, but he said it was really too soon. Those things usually took longer than books to materialize. She told him about her new book idea, and he said he liked it very much. And they went to a small cozy Italian restaurant for dinner. He told her funny stories and had her laughing all night. He didn’t head back to the city until nearly midnight, and when he walked her to her door, he kissed her. She hadn’t expected it, and he was handsome and sexy, and it was a memorable kiss.

“I’m glad we decided these were dates,” he said afterward, and kissed her again. “This could be habit forming,” he warned her, and he finally got in his car, and she waved as he left. It had been a very, very nice evening. Andrew Shippers was definitely a wonderful addition to her life.

Chapter 20

O
livia was enjoying a peaceful Sunday afternoon in Bedford after Peter left to play golf as he always did, when she got a call from Alex. He sounded as though he’d been crying.

“Well, I was right.”

“What about?”

“I told them. Dad went nuts. And Mom couldn’t stop crying. He called me a fag.” And by then Alex was crying too, and Olivia was shocked.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry.”

“I’m leaving. I just wanted to call you and tell you what happened.”

“Where are they now?”

“They’re out. They went to lunch with friends.”

“Where are you going, Alex?” She was desperately worried about him, and sorely disappointed in her son.

“Maybe a friend’s house.”

“Why don’t you come here? You can stay with me for a few days.” But she knew he’d already started school. “Can you take a couple of days off school?”

“I’m dropping out.” This was serious.

“Don’t do anything stupid. They’ll calm down.”

“I don’t care. I hate them. And they hate me.”

“They don’t hate you. They don’t understand.”

“They don’t want to understand. Dad says he’s ashamed of me. Of my being gay. He says there’s something wrong with me.”

“How could he say something so stupid?” Alex was crying again. “Take the train to New York. I’ll meet you there. I’ll drive you back here.”

“You don’t have to do that, Grandma.” He sounded so lost and broken. She wanted to strangle John, or give him a good shaking, and Sarah too.

“I want to. Just call and tell me what train you’ll be on.” He called her an hour later, and she told him to leave a note for his parents that he’d be with her, and he promised he would. And as soon as they hung up, she picked up her handbag and car keys and ran out the door to meet him in New York.

He came off the train looking beaten. And he threw his arms around her and burst into tears. She held him for a long time while he cried, and she did too, and then they went to her car and she drove him back to Bedford. When they got there, he sat slumped in a chair looking sad, and they talked all afternoon. He said he hated his parents and his school, and he didn’t want to go to college, and the boy he liked liked someone else, and maybe wasn’t gay after all, he wasn’t sure. It was all so complicated and so much weight to carry for a boy of seventeen. She wanted to call John and Sarah, but since they knew where Alex was, she was waiting to hear from them. They never called.

She cooked dinner for Alex that night, and put him to bed in her guest room. All she could do was tell him how much she loved him, and be there for him.

And at midnight, she got a call from Liz.

“I don’t want to worry you,” she said, sounding serious. “But I got a call from John and Sarah. Alex ran away. They had some kind of fight about something, and when they got home, he had left. You haven’t heard from him, have you?” She knew how close the boy was to her. “They didn’t want me to call you, but I thought I should.”

“He’s here,” Olivia said quietly. “Did they tell you what the fight was about?”

“No, something about school, I think.” She sounded surprised. “He’s usually such an easy kid.”

“It’s a lot more serious than that.” She didn’t want to violate Alex’s confidence, but since he had told his parents, she decided to tell Liz. “It’s my fault, actually. I told him to be open with them. He’s gay. And apparently, John went berserk and called him names and told him he was ashamed of him. I told him to leave a note when he left. He said he did, but I guess he lied to me about that. He says he doesn’t want to go back.”

“Shit. How could John be so stupid? And they lied to me about it, but they sounded scared. They wanted to know if he had called Sophie. I called her, but he hadn’t. So I figured I’d call you. I’m glad he’s with you. I’ll tell John and Sarah.”

“Tell them not to come out here. I want to talk to them first myself. He wants to drop out of school.”

“He can’t,” Liz said, sounding worried. “He’ll screw up everything for college.”

“But they could screw up his life if they handle this badly. It will mark him forever. Maybe it already has. He was a mess when I picked him up in New York.”

“You picked him up in New York? That was nice of you, Mom.”

“He’s my grandson, and I love him. I don’t care if he’s gay or not. And John better figure that out too, and fast.”

“Maybe I’ll go talk to them tomorrow.”

“I wish you would. He always listens to you,” her mother said, sounding sad. She felt so sorry for Alex.

“I’ll let them know he’s with you now.”

John called her ten minutes later.

“How did he wind up with you?”

“He called me, and I invited him out. I told him to leave you a note. I’m sorry he didn’t.” But that was all she was sorry about, she was furious with her son. “You and Sarah have some serious fence mending to do, and you’d better start thinking about what you said. He has a right to be treated like a human being, by both of you, and with respect.”

“Did he tell you what happened?” John said in a trembling voice. “I caught him kissing some kid at the pool, a boy. So he told me he’s gay.”

“Would you have been mad if you caught him kissing a girl? No, you wouldn’t. He doesn’t like girls. He’s attracted to men. That’s who he is.”