October 20
The Present
12:15 A.M.
Ellie peeped back into the party room. Yep, there he was. The one and only Brooks Overton, looking out of place for once in his life. She’d forgotten she’d invited him. He’d sent her a friend request on Facebook a few months back, right before reunion, and she’d accepted. She wondered if she should tell him about the texts she’d received earlier in the evening. She wondered if Brooks was still in touch with him. The one who’d sent her all the texts earlier. Not that they’d ever been close friends, but things were different now with social media and all those things that sort of connected people but not really. How many times had she promised old friends from Portland that she would see them if they were ever in town? So many times. How many times had she seen them? Zero.
Oh my god, Brooks, of all people, was fat. Fatter than Todd. So much fatter. She’d really given her husband a hard time, when in reality, he’d been so skinny before that the extra forty pounds weren’t terrible on him. Whereas someone ate Brooks and was now wearing his face.
She picked up Celine’s barely touched champagne glass and walked over to him. It wasn’t as if she could ignore him all night.
“Where are you staying?” she asked.
“The Hilton. I have points,” he said.
She never knew what to say when people said they used points. Condolences, maybe? Her dearest friend, her business manager, never stayed anywhere he had to pay; the man traveled on Marriot, American Express, Hyatt, Hilton, and Starwood points. It would be kind of sad if it wasn’t also endearing.
“Mishon told me about the party, said I should stop by. I saw her at reunion,” he said. “We missed you.”
“It was Fashion Week. I couldn’t make it,” she said. She had spent the weekend in Las Vegas, at the trade show, selling units like crazy. She’d had no time for a high school reunion.
Brooks was balding too. That golden mop of hair was gone. Now he looked like any ordinary middle-aged white guy. No one would believe he used to be beautiful. Oh, the ravages of time. She fought against it, every step of the way, with medical procedures and her thousand-dollar eye creams, but some people couldn’t or didn’t, and the loss of such beauty made her sad.
“You look exactly the same,” he said. “Gorgeous as always.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that; you’re too kind.”
“Look at you now.” He whistled. “Is that a real Damien Hirst?”
“Yeah, we bought it at auction. My husband . . . collects.” She was richer now than Brooks and his family had ever been. She laughed sometimes when she thought about how young and naïve she had been, how little she knew of the world, how much he and his family had impressed her. She had lapped them and more.
“You know I turned forty two years ago.”
“Yeah? What’d you do to celebrate?”
He shrugged, took another pull of his beer. “Went out to dinner with the wife and kids.”
“Nice,” she said.
“Yeah, it was okay,” he said. “Nothing like this.”
“As my husband says, not everyone needs this,” she said. What a lie! For Todd’s birthday, they went on safari and then a river cruise down the Nile with a group that included the Beckhams and the Bransons—Sanjay had invited them.
Brooks nodded.
Ellie tried to keep her voice light. “So how was reunion? Was everyone there?”
“Yeah, it was all right. Stacey was there; she’s married, two kids; they still live up in Arlington.”
Ellie tittered. “Of course she does.” It was exactly as she’d predicted.
“Olivia was there; she’s a lawyer in the Bay Area. Divorced. Um, who else? Dave Griffin; he lives in Chicago, still single. He works in insurance.”
“I know,” she snorted. “He works for us.” It was a revenge hire, as she still remembered how rude Dave had been in high school. Ugh, Dave. Gross. It was satisfying hearing him grovel to her and her husband on the phone as he tried to sell them more insurance. She kept him around like a talisman, like a chieftain, using her old oppressors as victims. What was the line? You will work for us someday. Well, that someday came to Dave Griffin.
“Oh,” said Brooks. “Well, Andie’s in rehab, for the sixth time.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised,” she said coldly, remembering the condescending senior.
“Deacon’s a tax attorney. You kept in touch with Mishon.”
“Yeah. She’s pretty much the only person I still know from high school,” said Ellie.
Brooks smiled. “You have any kids?”
“I have four; my eldest is at Stanford,” she said, out of habit. “Then another girl, and two boys.”
“I have three, all boys.”
She hoped he wouldn’t show her a picture, but he did anyway. She pretended to be interested in his bland offspring. What was he doing here? Ugh.
Her husband walked up. “Todd, this is Brooks. I told you about him earlier,” said Ellie. “He was the one who was texting me,” she said pointedly.
Todd offered his hand, assessed the stranger.
Brooks took it warmly. “Hey, man, I used to be madly in love with your wife.”
“Weren’t we all,” said Todd with a smirk.
“Gee, thanks, I think,” said Ellie.
“Come on, let me get you a drink,” said Todd.
Ellie excused herself as her phone was ringing again, and this time, she wanted to make sure she actually got to talk to Harry.
“Ellie!” he said, his voice carrying over the scratchy line.
“I’m so sorry; it’s my party and the reception out in the desert is the worst.”
“No problem. I was on a plane, so I couldn’t call you, and we just landed,” he explained.
“So what’s going on? Should I be worried?”
“Well, I have to tell you that we’re not doing the deal.”
“Oh.” Ellie felt as if the ground underneath her had just swallowed her whole. She was done.
“Yes, we ran the numbers and it didn’t make sense.”
“Right. Well. Okay. Fine. Thanks for letting me know,” she said.
“Ellie—I’m so sorry . . .” he said, but she’d already hung up. What was there to talk about? She didn’t want to ruin her mood any more than it was ruined.
Ruined.
She always imagined a girl in a white dress in the rain with mascara running down her cheeks. RUINED.
She was RUINED.
She put her phone away. She was calculating sums in her head, coming up short in every scenario. What would she tell Todd, how would she break it to the kids? So she really had no time for Brooks right now, who had made his way back to her to make another declaration she didn’t need to hear, while Todd was still at the bar, waiting for their drinks.
“I shouldn’t have let you go so easily. I know I made a mistake, back then,” he said.
Ellie sighed. She had no intention of walking down memory lane, but perhaps it was inevitable. “Mmm,” she said.
“I was crazy about you,” he said. “You broke my heart.”
“We were young” was all she said.
“So young,” he agreed. “You ever think about that night?”
“What night?” she asked, although she knew full well the night in question.
“You know. The night of Stacey’s birthday party.”
“Oh yeah,” she said. “That night. Hey, about that night, you know who texted me today?”
“Who?”
“You’ll never guess.”