I spent the weekend working, chained to the computer at home. Well, at my temporary home. Since my separation from
Dan, I’d been renting a dark, thoroughly charmless, furnished studio on the third floor of a five-story walk-up on West Forty-sixth Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues—an area known alternately as Hell’s Kitchen for its gangland past, Clinton for its later association with DeWitt Clinton, the city’s former mayor, and Midtown West, a bland name conceived by real estate agents hoping to attract people who’d been priced out of fancier neighborhoods. Just west of the theater district and not far from Times Square, Hell’s Kitchen wasn’t my idea of heaven, with its topless bars and mom-and-pop ethnic restaurants. (My building was next door to a Hungarian restaurant where they put paprika on everything, even the desserts.) You could walk by a stripper in a G-string, a grandma in a babushka, or a drag queen in a ball gown. It was all too bohemian for me, but I was on a tight budget since the split. My dreary, tiny place was all I could afford if I wanted to stay in Manhattan.
And I did want to stay, needed to stay. For one thing I needed to be near my dog, who, when he wasn’t with me, was with Dan in our old apartment—a sunny, thoroughly charming, professionally decorated three-bedroom on the thirty-second floor of a thirty-six-story building on Seventy-eighth and Madison on the very civilized Upper East Side. For another, I needed to be near my office, which was at Forty-eighth and Park. And for a third thing, I needed to stay in the city because I just couldn’t bring myself to go back to Brooklyn or Queens. Not after spending my childhood in the outer boroughs, dreaming of crossing the bridge into Manhattan where someday I would become a success and escape my gloomy past. No, my walk-up in Hell’s Kitchen wasn’t paradise, but it allowed me to hang on to my dream—being made a partner at Pierce, Shelley and Steinberg and then buying myself a drop-dead apartment that would put Dan’s to shame.
In the meantime I was camping out in my closet of a home in a building the landlord called the Heartbreak Hotel, because nearly all of its occupants were divorced or separated and in transition. An upbeat place it wasn’t.
Since it was December, there were year-end tax documents to be reviewed for my clients—all of whom had been enriched by the decisions I’d made for them, even in a down market. If it was a sound investment, I was all over it, researching, making calls, grinding out the numbers, doing whatever it took to manage the assets of the people who’d put their trust in me. Yeah, that was my MO—the woman who never let up—which is why my boss had dubbed me his “top gun.”
In addition to the year-end stuff, I was also going over the file on Jed Ornbacher, a seventy-year-old Texas widower who’d made a fortune in oil and was considering Pierce, Shelley as the new custodian of his millions. I was flattered that I’d been asked to make the presentation to him, because it meant I’d been charged with reeling him in. I was good at reeling them in. Maybe if I reeled Jed in, I’d get that partnership I’d been hoping for. A nice bonus, at least.
“Look who’s here to check out Mr. Ornbacher’s file with me,” I said with a laugh when Buster jumped down off the sofa where he’d been lounging, trotted over to the makeshift desk I’d set up on my bed, and leapt up next to me.
I put aside my paperwork. I was nearing the end of my week with Buster, so I tried to take advantage of our time together. Maybe you only know pugs from the movie Men in Black, but let me tell you: they’re cute little clowns. That flat, black, wrinkled face is enough to make anybody smile—even a depressed divorcée.
“Are you hungry?” I asked him. While my appetite had increased following my breakup with Dan, Buster’s had decreased. According to the vet, he was suffering from a psychological disorder that was becoming all too prevalent in New York City: pet separation anxiety brought about by custody disputes. Not only did Buster have to be shuttled back and forth every other week between my poor excuse for an apartment and Dan’s Architectural Digest–worthy residence; he had to get used to two sets of crates and toys and food bowls. It had to be extremely disorienting for him.
I went and got him a biscuit and played with him for a while. At one point he looked up at me with those eyes—big, round, dark, expressive eyes—and I could almost hear him saying: “Where’s Daddy?” Yeah, laugh all you want, but when you love a dog, you’re convinced you know what they’re thinking.
“He’s at our old house,” I said. “He and Mommy aren’t living together anymore, remember? But it has nothing to do with you, and there’s no reason for you to feel guilty.”
Okay, yes. That’s what you tell a little kid whose parents split up. But it’s the same thing with a pet. Really.
Buster snorted loudly, as if to demand more details.
“Why aren’t Mommy and Daddy living together anymore?” I said. “Well, the short answer is that Daddy doesn’t like it that Mommy is doing better at her job than he is at his. Daddy’s very macho except when it comes to taking Mommy’s money.”
Buster passed gas. Luckily, I wasn’t downwind.
“Okay. I won’t say anything negative about Daddy.” Buster called us on it whenever Dan was nasty about me and vice versa. What a loyal, sweet dog. Besides, I had promised Robin I would try to lose the attitude. “It’s hard to explain what went wrong, but essentially Mommy told Daddy that he wasn’t the person he used to be, then Daddy told Mommy that she wasn’t the person she used to be either. You can’t have a marriage between strangers.”
He appeared to give that one some thought. Then he shot me the inquisitive eyes again.
“How did we change into different people?” I shrugged. “How does any couple drift apart, especially when they were so right for each other in the beginning. You should have seen us then, Buster. When Mommy met Daddy, it was the happiest day of her life.”
I was twenty when I met Dan Swain, and happiness wasn’t on my agenda; working my way through school was. I’d been working ever since I could remember. While my father did nothing to put food on the table, I had a paper route, babysat for anyone who asked, ran errands for people. Once, when he was drunk, he told me we’d end up in debtors’ prison if I didn’t “hustle ass,” and since I was too young to know that there was no such thing as debtors’ prison, I spent my entire childhood petrified of being locked up in it.
My plan at age twenty was to finish up my undergraduate degree at N.Y.U. as a scholarship student, get my MBA, and start climbing the corporate ladder. One of my part-time jobs at the time was waitressing at a restaurant that was frequented by professional athletes. I didn’t know a thing about sports and couldn’t care less about them, but I was very pretty, with my dark, wavy hair and curvy figure, so I was popular with the male patrons.
“Hi. What can I get for you?” I said to the table of four, large college-age men to whom I’d brought menus five minutes earlier. It was nine-thirty that Sunday night, and I was dead tired after having worked the lunch shift too, but I put on a perky smile, hoping to nail a perky tip.
“A room,” one of them said, staring longingly at my breasts. “You and me and a king-size bed, and I’m so there, baby.”
The others thought this was a riot. Well, except the blond one with the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. He was gloriously handsome in his yellow cable-knit sweater and chinos, like one of those radiant golden boys from the Ralph Lauren ads. He leaned toward me and smiled apologetically, exposing big, straight, white teeth, and said, in a twang that suggested somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line, “Please pardon my friends. They left their manners at home.”
Suddenly, I was charmed. Maybe it was the “please.” Maybe it was the respectful tone. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn’t just gorgeous but polite too, and the combination was so unexpected. “Not a problem,” I said, noticing he had a little scar to the left of his right eye. It only added to his appeal, because it humanized his otherwise too perfect face. “We keep a cage in the back for animals who haven’t had their obedience training.”
It was the blond who laughed this time. “Score one for the lovely lady.”
A compliment. I was oddly thrilled. “How about something to eat?” I said, getting back to business.
“Yeah, you and me can order room service and eat naked,” said the jerk.
I sighed. “I’m sure you’re a work of art without your clothes on, but the museum’s down the street, okay?”
“Yeah, enough, Ernie,” said the blond, with authority. “You’re lucky she has a sense of humor.”
Did I have a sense of humor? No one had ever mentioned it.
After the blond silenced his buddy for the moment, he asked me if I had any specials to recommend.
“The pasta special is excellent tonight,” I said, aware now that he was the leader of the group.
“Then four pasta specials it is,” he said. “And four glasses of water.”
“Water?” Ernie griped.
“Water,” he said. “We’ve celebrated too much already.”
“What are you celebrating?” I asked.
“Our first trip to the Big Apple,” said the blond, who then flushed slightly and added, “I must sound like an idiot. Nobody who lives here actually calls it the Big Apple, right?”
Gorgeous, polite, and self-deprecating? Yeah, I was charmed. “Not usually, but welcome to New York anyway,” I said, little Miss Chamber of Commerce. “I hope you enjoy your stay.”
“Are you gonna ask us why we’re here, or do you just want to kiss me?” said Ernie.
Jeez. The guy didn’t quit. I was about to respond with another put-down but restrained myself. I’d discovered that when you’re dealing with alcoholically impaired jocks, it’s best not to antagonize them. “Okay, tell me,” I said. “Why are you here?”
“For the Heisman ceremony last night,” he said.
He acted as if I was supposed to understand what he was talking about, but the only Heisman I knew was Sophie Heisman, the old lady who lived upstairs from us in Queens. She was always letting her bathtub overflow, which caused mold to breed in our ceiling.
“Our hero was the runner-up for the trophy,” he went on, pounding the blond on the back. “Voted the second-best college football player in the country.”
“No kidding?” I looked at the blond and thought how refreshing it was that he hadn’t bragged about himself but instead left it to someone else to tout his accomplishment.
“No kidding,” he acknowledged. “I was the bridesmaid.”
“Bridesmaid or not, you deserve congratulations,” I said, duly impressed. “I’ll probably read about you in the newspaper. What’s your name?”
“Dan Swain,” he said.
“But everybody calls him Traffic,” said Ernie.
“Traffic?” I said.
“That’s his nickname. He’s the best receiver in the game because he can catch the ball even with ten guys charging him. Like, when he’s in traffic.”
“Ah, I get it,” I said as I studied this Dan Swain person and found myself drooling a little. I mean, I just couldn’t find anything not to like about him.
“You think it’s dumb, don’t you?” he said.
“Not at all,” I said. “If you can be the calm one in the middle of chaos, I think that’s a gift.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
No, it wasn’t poetry, but we were connecting in a way that made me sweat. I’m serious, my armpits were leaking.
“So what’s your name?” He pointed at me. “I’ll probably read about you in the newspaper someday.”
“Because I’ll be voted second-best waitress in the country?” I said.
“Something tells me you’d never settle for second best,” he said, then gently removed the pencil and pad from my hands, took my right hand in his, and shook it. “Your name?”
“Melanie Banks,” I said as he held on to me seconds longer than was necessary and my insides started to turn over.
By the time he finally released me I had forgotten what I was supposed to be doing there, until Ernie mouthed off that he was hungry.
“Four pasta specials coming right up,” I said, writing down the orders, forcing myself to do my job.
“See you soon,” said Dan as I headed for the kitchen. “Melanie.” When I glanced back at him, he smiled at me, and I felt truly off balance—wobbly, a little nauseated, wonderful. I wasn’t the type to get derailed by silly infatuations. I had a plan for myself, as I’ve stated, and it didn’t involve love. And yet there I was, falling. Fast and out of nowhere.
I went off and waited on the other tables in my station but was mainly counting the minutes until the pasta dinners were ready so I could get back to Dan. After what seemed like an eternity, I carried the tray over to his table and served everybody. When I placed his plate in front of him, I asked him where he was from.
“Minco, Oklahoma,” he said. “Bet you’ve never heard of it.”
“You’d win that bet,” I said. “What’s the population? The four of you and your relatives?”
“We’ve got about sixteen hundred people living there—only fifteen hundred of them being relatives,” he said with a sly grin. “It’s a sweet little town. You oughta come visit.”
“Is that an invitation?” I said, humiliated that I was flirting with him. I’d never been a flirter.
“Sure is,” he said. “You should come for the Minco Fair, our biggest event of the year. Maybe they’ll let you judge the cake contest.”
His eyes held mine, and I had the crazy notion that I would have followed him to Minco or the moon. I was about to ask him how long he’d be in New York when he was surrounded by three fawning young men who’d watched the Heisman ceremony on television the night before and wanted his autograph.
I disappeared and busied myself with other tables, watching from a distance how effortlessly Dan handled the starstruck sucker-uppers. Most of the athletes I’d waited on at the restaurant had monstrous egos and a sense of entitlement, but Dan didn’t seem to. He simply accepted the meeting-and-greeting, shaking hands, answering questions, allowing his space to be invaded, without the revolting me-me-me attitude. What he had wasn’t poise exactly, because that implies sophistication. It was more a genuineness, an ease. Since I’d always been such a striver, who pushed and pursued and persevered, I marveled at him, at how laid-back he was, at how everything seemed to come naturally to him. Yeah, we were opposites—I was a hustling New Yorker and he was an Oklahoma country boy—but, improbable or not, practical or not, ready or not, I was enthralled by him.
“Anyone care for dessert?” I said after I’d cleared their table. “The lemon meringue pie is the best in the city, according to New York magazine.”
The others declined, but Dan asked if he could get a slice to go.
“Go?” I said, and realized my heart was breaking. Perky, I told myself. Stay perky. “Absolutely. I’ll have it wrapped up for you.”
I presented them with the check and dashed off to get the piece of pie. When I returned, I handed Dan the dessert in its Styrofoam container, took the cash off the table, and said I’d be back with their change.
“Keep it,” said Dan. “It’s all yours.”
“Thanks,” I said, stuffing the bills into the pocket of the dopey black apron they made us wear. That was the whole reason I was waitressing—to pocket tips—but when I watched Dan and his friends get up, put on their jackets, and start to leave, I didn’t give a crap about the money. I only wanted him. How insane was that?
“See ya, Melanie,” he said with a little salute as he trailed after the others.
I faked perky again. “Yeah,” I called out. “The next time I’m in Minco.”
He nodded and walked toward the door. He was about to push it open when he stopped. Literally. He just stood there, getting jostled by the crush of people waiting for a table. Just stood there with his back to me, head down, staring at the floor. Just stood there. I think I actually held my breath as I watched him and wondered what was going on. Did he forget his wallet or his keys? Did he feel sick? Was I supposed to rush over and help?
I was frantically debating the above when he turned in my direction, slowly, very slowly, and picked his head up. Instead of continuing out the door, in pursuit of his pals, he walked straight back inside the restaurant, his eyes lasered on mine. I remember emitting sort of a gasp as he strode toward me. Please don’t let this be about nothing, I prayed, as he kept coming. Please don’t let this be that he has to use the men’s room or make a phone call or buy another slice of pie for the girl back in his hotel room. Please let this be a miracle happening, something I didn’t have to work for just this once. Oh, please—
He was face-to-face with me then, and my brain shut down.
“What?” I managed. “Did you leave your—”
“Look,” he cut me off. “I know I didn’t exactly sweep you off your feet while you were bringing my buddies and me dinner, but—”
“You were the only one who didn’t treat me like I was dinner,” I said, cutting him off this time.
“I ordered the pie just to hang around you a little longer,” he admitted.
“Did you?” I asked.
He nodded. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
“No,” I said, my pulse thumping in my ears. “No.”
“Good,” he said. “I’m not leaving for two days, and I was thinking maybe we could see—”
“Yes,” I said. More thumping. “Yes.”
He reached up and touched my cheek. “I want you to know that I’m not like Ernie,” he said. “I don’t go around hitting on waitresses.”
“Then what do you do?”
“I follow my instincts.”
He lowered his head and kissed me. Right there in the middle of the restaurant. It was a fabulous kiss that was interrupted only when one of the other waitresses bumped us as she passed.
“It’s okay,” said Dan. “I don’t drop the ball in traffic, remember? I’m the calm one in the middle of chaos.” And then he kissed me again.