The Best of Us (27 page)

Jamaican pot was much more intense than the stuff she’d tried back home, Savannah reflected. She wasn’t a regular smoker, but she never turned down a few puffs if it was offered at a party. Usually it made her feel giggly and sleepy, but this stuff was transformative. She felt boneless, like those chicken breasts she was always broiling for dinner because they were quick and low-calorie. She’d have to cook lots of boneless chicken when she got back home, to make up for all the rich food she was eating during this trip.

But boneless chicken were her kinfolk now, she thought as she began to climb the stairs. Could she, in all good conscience, cannibalize them?

Savannah giggled so hard that she missed a step and sprawled backward, onto the beach. She was pretty sure she’d
twisted her ankle, but it didn’t hurt a bit. Aha! Because there were no bones in it! She lay there in the soft sand, looking up at the sky. It was so beautiful. The wind was picking up, and the palm trees were dancing in unison, as if they were all taking a swing class.

She could stay here forever, she thought as she began to move her arms and legs to make a sand angel. Time didn’t matter . . . Time wasn’t real, anyway. It was just an invention of man, a way to try to exert control over what was essentially uncontrollable. The waves crashing behind her had been here long before the advent of time, and they would be afterward, too. Savannah wished she had a sheet of paper and pen to jot down her thoughts; they were so important.

She closed her eyes, but the sound of the waves made her realize she was thirsty. Cottonmouth, that’s what they used to call it in college. Everyone got cottonmouth when they were high, usually followed by the munchies. Ooh, maybe there was some pie left at the house!

She pulled herself up and began climbing the stairs again. Jesus, had there been this many steps on the way down? They seemed to have multiplied. Maybe they’d been having sex, too; they should’ve used a condom, like she had. She began to count, “Three, four, five . . .” She almost slipped again, but she grabbed the rail. “ ‘Five little monkeys, jumping on the bed! One fell off and bumped his head!’ ”

“Savannah?”

A dark figure appeared at the top of the stairs.

Savannah really wanted to finish her song. “ ‘Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, “No more monkeys jumping on the bed . . .” ’ Oh, hi, Gary!”

“I was just going to come look for you,” he said.

“Oh!” Savannah couldn’t think of anything else to say, and she was terribly thirsty, so she walked past him, into the house.
All of her friends were in the kitchen, and they turned to stare at her, moving as one. Just like the palm trees. Maybe every single living thing on the planet was in sync right now, at this exact moment. What a beautiful thought.

“Savannah!” Tina said. “Did you see who’s here?”

“Yup,” Savannah said. She found a glass in the cabinet and filled it with water from the purifier built into the refrigerator, then gulped the entire thing down.

“Ah, so good!” she said as she filled the glass again.

“Savannah?” This time it was Allie who spoke. “Did you talk to Gary?”

“Savannah?” Gary had followed her into the kitchen.

“You all love my name, don’t you?” Savannah said. “You keep saying it! Savannah, Shavannah, Shlavannah . . .”

Gio came closer to her and sniffed. “She’s high.” He burst into laughter. “Where’d you get the ganja, Van?”

“The guy from the boat,” Savannah said. “The one who gave Stella her groove back.”

“What guy?” Gary asked.

“Shhh!” Savannah lifted a finger to her lips. She reached into the pocket of her jean cutoffs and pulled out the ziplock bag. “I bought some from him. We can share!”

Tina was the first one to react. She hurried to Savannah’s side, opened the bag, and inhaled. “Ooooh, I haven’t gotten high in forever! Years! No, a decade!”

“Light one up, baby,” Savannah said. “It’s premium.”

“Not in here, though,” Tina said. “Should we go out to the pool?”

“Okay,” Savannah said. “Just don’t try to take off my pants again like last night.”

“Who took off your pants?” Gary asked.

Tina laughed but didn’t answer him. “Van? Seriously, stop molesting that pie and come on out. You joining us, Allie?”

“Nah,” Allie said.

“She’s a good girl,” Savannah observed. “She’s been yelling a lot on this trip, though.”

“You have no filter right now, do you?” Ryan asked.

Tina snorted. “Like she ever did.”

“You, I especially like right now,” Savannah said, pointing to Tina. “You’re fun again.”

She began to walk out of the room, but as she passed Gary, she suddenly had a moment of clarity. She’d been scared, after her all-too-brief experience with her trainer, that she’d never find a man who could sexually satisfy her again. She knew the fear was ridiculous—plus she had a drawer full of vibrators, so it wasn’t like she was going hungry in that department—but she and Gary had always meshed well physically and she’d wanted to know she could have that again. Now she knew she could. The crewman had been . . . insatiable. She’d come twice, her legs wrapped around his muscular waist, her cries drowned out by the sea.

Savannah could sense Gary registering the sand in her hair, and she licked her lips, feeling how swollen they had become from the rough kissing.

“Your shirt,” Gary said. His mouth was a perfectly straight line, like something a little kid would draw on a stick figure.

Savannah looked down and realized she’d missed two buttons.

“Whoops,” she said. But instead of fixing it, she walked by Gary without another word, hoping he picked up the scent of sex clinging to her along with the pot.

*   *   *

Allie couldn’t believe how close they’d come to getting caught.

She and Dwight were hidden behind the copse of palm trees, but the bright headlights of a taxi had swing around
the corner and suddenly illuminated them. For one jumbled, heart-stopping moment she’d thought someone was shining a spotlight on them, exposing their infidelity.

Luckily they were still fully clothed. Dwight’s common sense had pulled them back from the brink a few minutes earlier. He’d tucked in his shirt and stepped back, breathing hard, and when Allie’s hands had reached for him again, he’d squeezed them tightly in his own. “Let’s slow down,” he’d said. “The guys could come back at any second.”

Allie hadn’t wanted to slow down, though; even the mention of Ryan didn’t conjure any guilt. She, who felt shamed when she kept out a book a day past the library’s due date!

But Dwight had been prescient; moments later, the taxi had approached. Someone had gotten out, and then the cab had pulled away.

“It’s Gary,” Allie had whispered, watching him walk around the pool and go into the house. “I can’t believe he’s here!”

“He didn’t see us,” Dwight had said.

“I don’t think so, either, but we need to go in,” Allie had said. “But not together! I’ll go now and you follow in a minute. If anyone asks where you were, just say you went for a walk on the beach to catch Gio and Ryan, but you didn’t see them. I’ll say I was at the pool.” The story had slipped off her tongue as easily as if she’d been lying for her entire life.

“Okay,” Dwight had said. Allie had smoothed back her hair as she hurried inside. But no one was around. She could hear Tina’s and Gary’s voices down the hall, by the bedrooms, so she’d slipped into the kitchen. When she’d come out a few moments later, she’d feigned surprise at seeing Gary.

Now Allie began tidying up the kitchen, glad that the pile of dishes and sudsy water gave her an excuse to avoid eye contact with Gary. He was just standing there, in the same spot, casting occasional glances toward the door where Savannah had exited.

“I thought she wanted to see me,” he said. “She asked me to come.”

No,
Allie thought, scrubbing harder than necessary at a mixing bowl.
I’m not doing this!
Why did everyone come to her with their problems? She used to find it flattering, but not anymore. The new Allie couldn’t fix everyone else’s life; it was taking every ounce of her energy to hold the fragments of her own together. Besides, Gary didn’t deserve sympathy. So he’d spent a little money and taken a day or so off work—big deal. He could afford it.

Gary reached for the wine bottle again and filled his glass, then sloshed more into Allie’s. “Do you think I should go out there?” he asked. “You must know how she’s feeling . . . Do you think she wants me to follow her?”

Allie dropped the scrubber back into the pan. Why was she the only one doing the dishes? Let someone else clean up.

She looked at Gary, letting her eyes rove over his fancy suit and his pretty-boy face. He’d skipped her thirty-fifth birthday party because he had to “work,” but Allie knew he’d never made an effort with Van’s friends. He’d never really tried to become part of the group. This was one of the few times she’d been in a one-on-one conversation with him, and that was only because he needed something.

The anger that had been building in her all week erupted in one clipped sentence. “I think you should’ve kept your dick in your pants,” she said, relishing watching the shock spread across his face.

Then she walked out of the room.

*   *   *

Tina reached for the joint Savannah offered and inhaled deeply. “This is goooood stuff.”

“You should’ve seen his other stuff.” Savannah arched an eyebrow.
“It was even more . . . effective.” Tina reached over and gave her a high five.

“Watch it, woman,” Gio growled as he came over to squeeze in next to Tina in the lounge chair. He kissed her neck. “Don’t give her any ideas, Van. I don’t want her running off with some eighteen-year-old.”

“He was at least twenty,” Tina joked as she passed the joint to Gio.

“Twenty inches, maybe,” Savannah cracked, and Tina convulsed in laughter.

Tina leaned back against Gio’s arm. By now Ryan had joined them, and Dwight, too. Allie was the only one not smoking, but she’d pulled over another lounge chair to form a circle with theirs. The night air felt swollen with the threat of rain, and the breeze was strong, but the house was blocking it.

Tina couldn’t believe they’d all be boarding Dwight’s plane again in a few days to go home. During this trip, the hours had seemed to pass slowly, but the week had rushed by. It was like motherhood, Tina mused. She’d always felt guilty when white-haired ladies approached her in the supermarket to exclaim over her children and say, “Oh, enjoy every minute! It goes by so fast!”

Really?
Tina always wanted to respond as she tried unsuccessfully to keep her kids contained in the cart instead of tearing down the aisles and demanding sugary snacks.
Because I wish it would go by faster!

And yet, when she looked back over the past eight years, they were a blur. If she could be granted one wish, it would be the ability to trade time in the present for time in the future. In twenty years, the requests for repeated readings of
Goodnight Moon
and the washing of soft little bodies in mounds of bubbles in the tub would seem like enchantments instead of burdens. Her house would be too quiet, her days too empty.

“Hi.”

Tina looked up. Pauline was standing there, twisting her hands together.

“Hey, stranger,” Tina said, feeling expansive from the weed. “Come join us.”

Savannah drew up her legs, making space at the end of her chair, and patted it. Pauline walked over and sat down.

“Help yourself,” Savannah said, handing her the joint. The tip glowed red as Pauline inhaled.

“You have no idea how much I needed that,” Pauline said after she blew out the smoke.

“You are one surprise after another,” Savannah said. “Hey, how’s your mom?”

“She’s . . . okay,” Pauline said. “Better, I think.”

There was a pause, then Pauline said, “You all are aware that there’s a strange man in the kitchen, right?”

Everyone looked at her, then burst into laughter.

“It’s Gary,” Tina said through her giggles. “Savannah’s husband. Ex-husband. Soon-to-be-ex-husband.”

“That’s what I thought,” Pauline said.

“What’s he doing, anyway?” Savannah asked, craning her neck to look back at the house.

“He was staring into a glass of wine when I walked by,” Pauline said. “Is he staying?”

Tina glanced at Savannah and waited for her answer.

“I guess,” Savannah said, shrugging. “I mean, we can’t make him sleep on the beach. There’s an extra room, right?”

Pauline nodded.

“I thought you were going to send him back to the airport,” Tina said. “Send his butt packing.”

“I will,” Savannah said. “Tomorrow. It’s probably too late for him to get on a flight tonight.”

Lightning arced across the sky, causing everyone to look up.

“Did you see that?” Savannah asked. “Whoa—here it comes again!”

“That’s amazing,” Ryan said. “Usually you just get a few streaks. That thing lit up the whole sky like some kind of giant spiderweb.”

“I’m thirsty. You need a beer, too, D-man?” Gio asked Dwight.

“Sure,” Dwight said, and Gio jumped up to get it. Tina followed him with her eyes. He was still trying to make up for hurting Dwight on the basketball court, she knew.

“Here you go,” Gio said, handing a Red Stripe to Dwight. He sat back down and popped his tab.

“So, Gio, are you going to teach me to surf tomorrow?” Allie asked, and Tina smiled. Allie hadn’t spoken to Gio in the past few hours, but her question signaled everything between them was good again.

“Sure,” he said. “The waves are getting fierce.”

“Actually, about tomorrow,” Pauline said. “I just got a call from the management company for the villa. They wanted to make sure we were prepared to evacuate, if it comes to that.”

“Really?” Ryan asked. “They think we’re scared of a little old hurricane?”

“They’re sending someone to board up the windows and reinforce the awnings tomorrow,” Pauline said. “Just as a precaution.”

“It would be kind of cool, to be in a hurricane,” Gio said.

“Sure,” Tina said. “Death and destruction is always a hoot.”

Gio gave her a squeeze. “Not a big, bad hurricane. Just a little one. Like a Category Two.”