A New Kind of Bliss (28 page)

“Emily, I never planned—”

“There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of an opportunity,” I said matter-of-factly. “By the way, do you like lobster?”

“I love it. Why?”

“Because you’re going to be having a lot of it.”

I smiled as I left the office. Shelly looked bewildered at my last statement, but she’d find out what I meant soon enough. She might have an easier time with Beverline than I did, but that didn’t change the fact that she was in for a boring time behind the bedroom door.

Even lobster for dinner is going to get tasteless if you have it every night.

I
set my plan in motion by first talking to Mom, who showed loving support. “As long as you’re happy, and I must say, you’re looking better now than you have in the past two weeks.”

“I wasn’t being honest with myself, Mom. I’ll never do that again.” From now on I was going to be satisfied, or else the man was gone. If he was sloppy, dishonest, a womanizer, or lousy in bed, I wasn’t taking any less than what I deserved.

“Um, Mom, I don’t think there’s a rush, but you probably do need to think about moving out. I don’t think it’s healthy for the kids for you to keep living here. They’ll probably have a hard time with the breakup. The saddest aspect of this whole thing, and the hardest part for me, is the effect it will have on Aaron’s kids. Billy is bound to be disappointed, even heart-broken; and Kirsten and Arden, who’d just started to get used to the idea of me being their stepmother, might be embittered by the way it turned out.”

“That won’t be a problem, Emmie. I’m already on the waiting list for senior citizen housing.”

“You are!”

Mom shrugged. “For months now. I didn’t see how it would hurt. When we moved in here, no one knew whether it would work out or not, so one day I drove over there and signed up.”

For a moment I was speechless. “Mom…you’re a wise woman.”

“It comes with living nearly eighty years. It shouldn’t be too much longer for something to come available. It’ll work out nicely, Emmie. A number of my friends from church live there, and Henry doesn’t live far.”

I nodded knowingly. “Ah, yes, Henry.” I decided to put a voice to something I’d been worried about. “Mom, you wouldn’t consider remarrying, would you?”

“Of course not. Maybe if I’d been widowed young, like Winnie.” Valerie’s mother, a little younger than Mom, had lost her husband about a dozen years earlier. “But it’s too late for marriage. That would only create problems with our survivors after we die.”

I called the people who managed rentals for my condo the next morning and told them I was coming back. The condo was vacant, and they assured me there would be no further rentals. I informed a disappointed Dr. Norman that I’d be leaving, and even though it was Tuesday he allowed me to make the following Friday my last day. All that awaited was for me to pack and ship my things…and tell my friends.

Before I could say anything, Valerie called and suggested we have a farewell dinner at her house for Marsha Friday night. I decided that would be an ideal opportunity to inform them about my broken engagement and impending departure. “And I’m not inviting Tanis,” Valerie had said.

Perfect.

After Valerie, Rosalind, and I had toasted to Marsha’s happiness and discussed her plans, I dropped my bomb. All three of them were shocked but respected my decision to keep the details to myself.

“I know you know what you’re doing, Emily, but still, I’d hate to see Tanis move in on Aaron,” Rosalind lamented.

“Me, too,” Valerie added. “I think she’s keeping that grip operator around just until she can land a big fish.”

“Well, she’ll be very disappointed to learn that Moby Dick is already taken.”

Collective breaths were drawn in. “Is Aaron seeing someone
already?
”

“Yes, and before you get too excited, it didn’t get started until we were on the rocks. Aaron insists it was just lunch—” I left out my suspicions about dinner—“and I happen to believe him. Everybody needs someone to talk to when they feel like their life is falling apart. But now they’re free to take it to the next level.”

“You’re very understanding,” Rosalind said, clearly baffled by my casual attitude.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s over with us, Rosalind. I’m just glad we realized it wouldn’t work before we got married. The last thing I need is another divorce. But wait till I tell you who his new playmate is.”

They all spoke at the same time. “Who?”

“Shelly Muldoon.”

They howled so loud I was glad we were in a private home and not a restaurant, for if we’d been in the latter we surely would have been asked to keep it down.

I answered the rapid-fire questions that followed. Yes, Shelly first met Aaron at the reunion. She sold medical equipment, and he’d attended one of her seminars. I didn’t know too much about what had happened after that, but she certainly seemed ready to take over once I was out of the picture.

“Well, who wouldn’t?” Marsha asked. “Aaron is a real catch.”

I smiled. Aaron would seem a lot less attractive to Shelly once she got to know him better—especially since she’d known Teddy.

After dinner, we all helped Valerie clear the table. Rosalind re-placed a vase of flowers in the center of the table. It had prevented us from seeing each other across the table, so we’d moved it. “What a lovely arrangement, Valerie.”

“I can’t believe how long it’s lasted. Elias sent them last week.”

Now it was her turn to be grilled as we pelted her with questions about Elias. None of us had even known they’d been seeing each other.

“Okay, stop!” she said, laughing. “We’ve just gone out twice. Stop trying to marry me off.”

“Hey, twice is good for Elias,” I managed to say between breathless laughter. “He usually loves ’em and leaves ’em.”

“We’re having fun. That’s all,” she said firmly.

“And are you going out again tomorrow?” Marsha hinted with a smile.

“As a matter of fact, yes.” Valerie paused. “This time I’m getting my housekeeper to stay over.”

We whooped again.

I went up to the dental offices to say good-bye to Teddy on my last day. He hadn’t known about it and was understandably floored by my news.

“You’re really going back to Indiana?”

I heard an old Jackson Five tune of that name playing in my head. “Yes. I’m shipping my things home Saturday, and my flight leaves Sunday.”

“I can’t believe it. I mean, I can’t say I’m upset that you and Aaron broke up, but damn. Give a brother a chance, will you?”

“Teddy, it won’t work. There’re hundreds of available women out there. One is going to be perfect for you. You probably need to think about settling down.”

“I’m sure one day I will.”

“What, when you’re fifty?”

“Sixty-five,” he said with a grin. “Now stop worrying about me like you’re my mama.” He pulled me into an embrace. “I’ll miss you, Emily.”

How fitting it was that the last thing I saw on my mother’s television before I left for the airport was a laxative commercial featuring Tanis, making a face and complaining about bloating discomfort before smiling and saying she was so much more comfortable now that she’d discovered No-Bloat.

I flicked the remote control. It was time to go.

I hadn’t really felt bad about leaving until it came time to say good-bye to Mom. We’d grown a lot closer, she and I, in the past year, and this time our relationship had moved to a different level than the one from my youth. I had lived with her as an adult, and my father’s absence had contributed as well. My parents had always been close, and I was happy to have been there for her, to have helped fill the huge void left in her life by his passing. I felt that our time together had given Mom a new respect for me as a woman, not just as her daughter, but as her equal. I was shocked when she pressed a check for twenty-five-hundred dollars into my palm. “Mom…you can’t afford this.”

“Sure I can. My rent is lower than it used to be, thanks to you. And it’ll stay low even after I move. Your daddy took good care of me, Emmylou.”

My eyes filled with tears at her using the name Pop used to call me.

“That’s what I want for you, someone to take care of you” she said. Then she took my hands. “I’m proud of you, Emmie. It takes real courage to walk away from the type of life Aaron was offering because you weren’t completely satisfied.”

I bit my lip to keep from laughing. I knew her words were innocently chosen, but I couldn’t help thinking…if only she knew how close she’d come to hitting on the truth.

“You’ve come a long way from the four-year-old who kept saying, ‘Look, Mommy, she has blue hair!’ when I ran into a friend from church on the street,” she continued.

I remembered that day. My mother’s gray-haired friend apparently used one of those old-style rinses that gave hair a bluish tint. Mom had tried her best to get me to shut up, but I insisted on being heard. That had been nearly forty years ago, and we still laughed about it.

“You take this check. It’s my way of saying thank you for moving back and helping me out. I enjoyed having you here so much.”

I sniffled.

“Now, don’t you go getting emotional on me. You can use this money to support yourself until you start working. If you get a job right away, you can put it toward your new car.” I’d decided against driving my Nissan back to Indy and sold it to one of my nephews. He was driving me to the airport. Mom had decided to stay behind.

Just thinking about her made my eyes puddle up. When I went to embrace her, I broke out into full-fledged sobs. I felt like a child being left at preschool for the first time. Mom cried, too.

“You have to fly out and visit me,” I said. “Spend a week. Hell, spend a month. If you can bear to be away from Henry that long.”

“It’s not like that,” Mom objected. “Henry and I are just friends. We cook together.”

“I know, Mom. I’m just glad you’re having fun.”

It felt good to end on an upbeat note. I took one last look at The Big House, empty on this Sunday, the family all out in Sag Harbor.

I felt no regrets. I knew I’d done the right thing.

It looked like the flight wouldn’t be full. At check-in I impulsively paid fifty dollars to upgrade to business class so I’d get a wider seat with more leg room. I accepted complimentary headphones and leaned back comfortably into the leather seat, listening to an old-school R&B station. I closed my eyes when Lionel Richie’s soothing voice sang the lead on the Commodores’s hit, “
Zoom.
” I, too, felt convinced that happiness awaited me, and I sure hoped it was in Indy.

Movement nearby made me open my eyes. A dark-skinned man with a shaved head was settling into the seat next to me.

“Hello,” I said.

“Hello. I hope I didn’t wake you with my fidgeting.”

“No, not at all.”
He’s rather nice looking,
I thought.
I wonder if he’s married
.

“I promise you’ll hardly know I’m here.”

“It’s not a problem.” I went back to my music.

When we were airborne he pulled out a briefcase and began working, not with a laptop, but with a yellow lined legal pad. I couldn’t help noticing his bold strokes in black ink, a letter and number combination that looked like some kind of physics. This man was becoming more interesting by the minute.

He put his head back, his chin raised and his eyes closed, deep in thought.

When I heard him sigh I glanced at him, only to find him smiling at me. I returned the smile.

“Are you going home or away from home?” he asked.

“Home.” The simple one-syllable word gave me a wonderful feeling of contentment. I couldn’t wait to see my friends. “You?”

“The same. My son was married in New York yesterday.”

“How nice! Congratulations to you.”

“Thanks.”

I soon learned that his name was Michael Butler, that he was a chemical engineer, divorced with two grown sons. I decided he was probably a little older than I initially thought, maybe fifty or fifty-one. Here was a man who took care of himself.

The flight went by very quickly, and before I knew it the flight attendant was announcing our descent and imminent landing.

“It’ll be good to get home, won’t it?” Michael said after the wheels of the landing gear touched the ground and we barreled down the runway.

My grin covered my entire face. “You have no idea.”

“I’ve been meaning to tell you this, Emily. You have a lovely smile.”

“Well, thank you.”

“I was wondering…you did mention you sold your car before you left New York. May I offer you a lift home? We can stop along the way and have something to eat.”

“That’s sweet of you, Michael, but a friend is meeting me at the airport. But if you’re willing to give me a rain check, I’d love to have a meal with you another time.”

“That’s a promise.” He held my gaze. “Let’s make it soon. I want to see that smile of yours light up the room.”

“I’d like that, Michael.” As I gathered my belongings, I thought how nice it was to have another shot at romance…with a man whose children were grown. Perhaps Aaron was just a pleasant interlude in my life that wasn’t meant to be permanent.

Why shouldn’t my spirits be high? I was back in Indy, where I belonged. Mom was fine. Sonny and my nephews would take care of getting her moved into her new apartment, and if she had any trouble with anything all she had to do was call her grandchildren, who’d hightail it to New Rochelle to come to her aid. She was happy and thriving in her new community, and with the help of family and friends, old and new, she’d continue to do so.

If Mom’s happy, I’m happy, too. After all, that’s how this whole thing started.

A READING GROUP GUIDE

A NEW KIND OF BLISS

BETTYE GRIFFIN

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

The questions and discussion topics that follow
are intended to enhance your group’s
reading of this book.