Chapter Fourteen

DAYS WENT BY WITHOUT a call from Laura. Bennie was relieved that her resolve not to see Laura wasn’t being tested, but she thought about her every day and kept Laura’s business card in the corner of her blotter. She was tempted to call the number in New York, but so far had resisted. She pictured Laura going about her life in the city, thinking about her too. She was oddly certain that Laura would contact her. She just wasn’t sure what she would do when it happened.

After mailing her letter to Alice, Bennie had time to think of all the problems that could arise if she followed through on her visit to San Francisco. She knew Will would be dead-set against it. He would take her going to see Alice as backsliding and might threaten her again with losing Livie for good. Olivia would certainly only make matters worse. She wouldn’t want Bennie to escape the last few weeks of her attempts to encourage reconciliation. By the time Alice called, Bennie had decided against going to San Francisco.

“Why?” Alice asked. “Your letter sounded so encouraging.”

“Do you really want me to go through all the dreary reasons? I’m depressed enough.”

“I can hear you’re on edge. Tell me the dreary reasons.”

“You know how Will and Olivia would react to an announcement that I’m going to California to see you.”

“Don’t tell them.”

“Alice, I can’t just disappear.” Bennie raked her fingers through her hair.

“Tell them you’re going to Portland to visit your father. You can take a few days and fly up to see him, so it wouldn’t be a lie, not exactly anyway, and you can call Livie every day.”

Bennie hesitated.

“Is it about Laura Clayborn? You hinted in your letter that there was more to be said about that. Are you involved with her?” Alice asked.

“You know I can’t talk about some things on this phone. But I’ll say I haven’t seen or heard from her in several weeks.”

“If it is her, you can bring her with you, you know. We’d be just one big happy foursome. You can stay at the Mark Hopkins if you’d be more comfortable.”

“You know what I’m facing here with Will and his mother. I don’t see how I can make a trip to California work. You’re a dear for offering. Will you ask me again once this is over?”

“Of course.”

Laura called the following week. The message in Bennie’s box read Call me at the New York number. Bennie waited until the girls settled into their rooms after dinner before making the call. She was prepared to decline an invitation with the excuse of end of school year duties, but she was unprepared for the shock of pleasure the sound of Laura’s voice stirred in her.

“Laura, it’s Bennie,” she said when Laura answered.

“Bennie, you’ll never believe who called my husband. I won’t keep you in suspense. Will called Charles.”

Bennie’s knees went weak and she leaned against the wall of the tiny phone alcove to keep her balance.

“Why? What did he want?”

“That’s the funny thing. He’s the president of the country club or the chairman of the membership committee or something like that. He heard of our gift to the school and my place in New Canaan, and he’s giving us the rush to join the club. Charles handed the phone to me.” Laura chuckled. “Charles isn’t the athletic type, and he’s hardly ever been to New Canaan. Anyway, your husband invited me to go by the club. He’s sure I’ll be impressed. Isn’t that delicious irony?”

Bennie let out a sigh of relief. One of the girls had taken the chair that usually sat in the tiny phone booth so Bennie slid down the wall to sit cross-legged on the floor.

“Hello? Are you still there?”

“I’m here.”

“I thought you and I might go there for a game of tennis this weekend,” Laura said. “Do you play tennis? I don’t even know.”

“I played on the tennis team at Mary Bradford’s and in my freshman year at Barnard, but that doesn’t say much. Neither team was very good.”

“Great, we’ll be well matched. I thought you might like to come to the house for supper afterward. I promise the place won’t be as cold as last time.”

Anyone listening to the conversation would have missed Laura’s subtle insinuating tone, but her voice struck Bennie like an electric jolt. She struggled to find the right words to resolve the conflict between her physical response to Laura and her resolve to avoid the danger of involvement with her. Bennie closed her eyes and rubbed her hand across the front of her shirt, as if she could calm her racing heart. “Things are chaos here the last two weeks of school. The girls are already starting to pack. Just getting all the gowns out of the formal closet is a major project. My floor is all seniors, so they have to prepare for graduation.” Bennie heard herself rattling on and on. She stopped and took a breath. “I really should say no this time.”

“Oh.” Laura sounded surprised. “Of course. I understand. I’ve been frantically busy myself. I’ve taken on a hotel project, the biggest of my career, and one of my design assistants quit without notice.”

Bennie wondered if the design assistant who quit was the young woman Laura brought to the dinner party where Alice met her.

“Well, another time then. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.”

Bennie hung up but left her hand on the receiver. She looked at the business card with Laura’s home number written on the back. She picked up the phone and dialed the number again.

Laura answered on the first ring.

“You should go see the club. It’s quite lovely, and they’re famous for the quality of their clay tennis courts. I could spare enough time for a few games.”

Laura chuckled. “Good. I’ll pick you up at eleven tomorrow.”