65
It was late afternoon by the time the ferry docked at MacMillan Pier. Gemma sensed that Provincetown was more crowded than when she’d left. Even though Carnival, the annual theme week of costumes and parties, was still two weeks away, a few people were already showing off their creative interpretation of this year’s theme, “Enchanted Forest.”
The energy in town was so buoyant, she felt bad about returning with so much negativity. But Sanjay was right: The best thing she could do was return and get back to work. Work was always the answer. Still, she couldn’t stand the thought of sleeping under the same roof as Elodie. And Elodie would surely be back this week for the wedding.
The front door to Maud and Alvie’s house, like all front doors in Provincetown, was unlocked. If her request to stay for the night was an imposition, Maud didn’t show it.
“Stay as long as you’d like,” Maud had said the night before, jumping into Gemma’s FaceTime chat with Alvie.
It wasn’t just that she didn’t want to see Elodie. She also wondered how she’d spend time with Celeste and avoid mentioning what happened during her trip. But Elodie was right: It would be selfish to dump her problems at Celeste’s feet right before her wedding. The truth about the Electric Rose—and her questions about Elodie and her father—would have to wait.
“Welcome, welcome—I’m just on my way to the restaurant but make yourself at home,” Maud said, emerging from the back of the house to greet her.
“Thanks so much,” Gemma said. “Is Alvie here?”
“She’s at the restaurant already. Then we’re going to observe the blue moon later. You’re welcome to meet us at the beach. A blue moon is very powerful—ripe for channeling our intuition.”
Gemma’s gratitude for a place to stay disappeared with a flash of irritation at her hostess. She’d been skeptical the day that Celeste brought her to get her cards read, but she’d let herself be seduced by the fantasy that some cosmic power could show her the way.
“By the way, your ‘true love’ prediction for this summer was way off,” she said.
Maud smiled, glancing at her phone and then back at Gemma.
“In what way?”
“Well, for one thing, I was dating a guy here who turned out to be using me for my family money. And Sanjay, my photographer friend, the one who came with us to the Boatslip? He’s the one I actually care about. But he’s with someone else now. So, sorry to say but you were wrong.”
Maud smiled, a twinkle in her eyes.
“The summer’s not over yet.”
Later that morning, the Barroses called a family meeting, summoning everyone to Manny and Lidia’s. It wasn’t unusual for them, but Celeste didn’t have the energy today.
“You go and just fill me in,” Celeste told Jack. She said she needed to keep the store open, but truly, she was just too upset over the conversation with her sister to deal with whatever the Barroses wanted to discuss.
She didn’t know what upset her more: Elodie’s lie about the diamond, or the fact that a piece of the cursed item remained in the family, like a floating cancer cell just waiting to metastasize.
Part of her confidence in moving ahead with the wedding planning was based on the ring being sold. If the cursed diamond was gone, it reasoned that the curse, too, was gone. Plus, the star alignment looked positive, and Maud’s tarot reading didn’t show any signs for alarm. But now, a major piece of her calculations had been false.
She stepped outside the store. A few customers milled around, but traffic had dwindled. It was too perfect a beach day for people to spend time indoors shopping.
I need a sign, she thought, looking up at the sky. Is marriage the right next step?
By the time Jack returned home, she had all but forgotten about the meeting.
“Hey,” he said, walking in with those quick strides of his, eyes bright.
“So what was that all about?” she said.
“Here’s the deal,” Jack said, his face particularly animated. “Marco is expanding the business—the oyster farm. He’s going to become a licensed reseller.”
“What does that mean? Isn’t that what he’s doing now?”
“No. He’s a wholesaler. He can’t sell directly to restaurants. Now he could get a much higher price, and even sell direct to consumers at farmer’s markets.”
“Well, good for him.” She didn’t know why the family needed to call everyone over to announce that, but that was the Barros way.
“The thing is he can’t just snap his fingers and become a licensed reseller. He’s gotta get approved. They need a mechanically refrigerated vehicle, a walk-in refrigerator on-site, new sinks, stainless steel tables. Minimally, it’s an eighty-thousand-dollar investment to convert the business.”
“That’s a lot.”
“It is, but the increased sales volume and margins will let us earn that back within a year.”
“You mean Marco and Olivia. They can earn it back in a year.”
“He’s offered us a chance to go in with him. Tito, too.”
Celeste leaned forward, hands planted on the counter. He couldn’t be serious.
“Why would we put money into Marco’s oyster farm?”
“Well, it would become partly our oyster farm. And because this is a business that could be profitable enough in a few years to let us really plan our retirement.”
Celeste couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“I have zero interest in investing in an oyster farm.”
“Why not? My family has always earned a living off of the water, and Marco’s done a great job taking it to the next level. It’s incredibly generous of him to open it up to us.”
“We have our own business to invest in,” she said, sweeping open her arm.
“There’s no way to grow this business—no amount of money will make it more scalable. We’ve only seen it shrink over the past few summers. We’re getting older, Celeste. We need to think about security. Stability.”
It was all too much. He wanted to get married, get involved in an oyster farm. It was clearly a midlife crisis.
Or maybe it was the curse.
“I’m not ready,” she said to Jack.
“Well, now’s the time. Marco says that—”
“I mean, I’m not ready to get married.”
He froze. His face turned red—something she’d never seen before in his olive-toned complexion. It was alarming.
Without another word, he walked to the stairs.
She looked around the store, making certain there weren’t any customers she hadn’t noticed. Then she closed the front doors and put out her Went to the Beach sign. Heart pounding, she rushed up to their bedroom, where she found him piling clothes into his suitcase.
“Jack. What are you doing?”
“I’m going to Manny and Lidia’s.”
“What? Jack, no. Don’t do that. We need to work this out.”
“I don’t see what there is to work out.”
“I love you. And you love me, for one thing.”
“Well, maybe that one thing isn’t enough. Because you’ve been pushing back for years against the idea of marriage, and I always thought time would fix it. But now I know it won’t.”
“There’s nothing to fix. We’re happy together.”
He looked at her sadly. “I’m not, Celeste. For me, something is missing. I want you to be my family. I want to make it official. I don’t understand why you don’t want that, too. But you don’t. And I have to accept it.”
“I’m sure we can find a way to work through this,” she said slowly.
He stood still, looking at her. Their eyes met, and for a moment she thought she’d reached him, that he would let go of the idea their relationship had to be all or nothing. But then he walked out.