Edna decided to use her allowance to buy her own movie ticket. There was no better time than the present to set the tone for the future. Unlike her mother, she would never grow to love the likes of Conrad Sterling, especially now that she had been completely enthralled by FBI Agent Don Harrison. She couldn’t get him out of her head as she sat in the lounge, trying to read. Her mind kept giving her a play-by-play recap of their entire interaction. Never in her life had she given a boy—or better yet, a man—so much thought.
A movie had just ended, and viewers were exiting the theater. Their voices sounded muted, and the words on the page lost focus as she pictured herself riding in Don’s car, heading to Smith College. Along the way, they would make big plans for their future. He would continue busting bad men and putting them behind bars, and she would be an economist or a lawyer. She didn’t see herself as a lawyer, though. Edna was the person sitting in the judge’s chair, like the guy in Perry Mason. She saw herself wearing a black robe and pounding the gavel. She saw her father approaching her bench, head hanging and pleading for mercy.
“What are your crimes?” she would ask.
“Forcing my daughter to marry a man she didn’t love,” he muttered shamefully.
“And what else?” she demanded.
“I never gave her the praise she deserved.”
“And what else?”
He would look up. Their eyes would meet. His lips would form into a maniacal grin.
“Edna?”
Edna gasped and looked up from the blurry pages of her book. Conrad was standing over her, wearing a pair of bluish-gray slacks with a banded, striped, mustard-brown, button-front shirt. His wing-tip shoes shared colors with his shirt and trousers.
“You’re early,” he said, checking over his shoulder.
“Um…” She took her glasses off and stood as she put her specs in her purse. “Yes, I am.”
He held up two tickets pinched between his fingers. “I bought our tickets.”
She thought about the ticket in her purse but decided not to let him know she had already purchased hers. “Great,” she said through a fake enthusiastic smile.
“Then let’s go.” He walked off, toward the theater, expecting her to keep up.
As usual, Conrad Sterling was not a gentleman. When they made it to the aisle he had chosen for them, he didn’t even step back to let her enter first. He had made her feel just as insignificant on their first date.
He slouched in his seat, spread his legs wide, and shook them impatiently.
“Is everything okay?” She wondered if he needed to be somewhere. If so, then she had no problem with letting him go.
“Yeah.” He sat up. “What’s the name of this movie again?”
“The Great Blue Night,” she said.
“Oh.” He was still shaking his leg impatiently.
Edna sighed. She wanted to end the date right there and then. It felt as though Conrad wasn’t one for pretending they had real feelings for each other, either.
“So how has your day been?” he asked.
She snapped her gaze to his face, surprised that he had asked. “Fine, and yours?”
Suddenly his attention was captured by whoever was on the opposite side of her. Edna turned to see what had fascinated him so. A pretty blond woman in a red-and-white, polka-dot halter dress was swinging her hips down the row in front of theirs. She settled comfortably in the seat in front of hers. Edna found the fact that the woman seemed electrically aware of Conrad strange.
He cleared his throat and sat up straight. “Excuse me? What did you say?”
“I asked how was your day,” she said even though she would have rather let the question drop. She cared about how his day went just as much as he cared about hers.
“It was fine.” He crossed his legs as if he had to urinate or something.
Say it, she told herself. The lights went down, and theater snacks danced across the screen. It became increasingly harder to sit there as the seconds passed. Just say it, Edna.
The woman in the polka-dot dress turned to face Conrad’s direction. He uncrossed his legs and tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair.
Suddenly, the woman stood and sashayed down the row to the aisle. Edna wanted to mention how strange the woman was but didn’t feel enough camaraderie with Conrad to do so.
He crossed his legs again.
She leaned over to ask, “Are you comfortable?” in his ear.
He quickly faced her. “Hey, do you want any popcorn?” he asked a few octaves too high. “How about a Coke? Or both?”
“Sure,” Edna said, just to get him away from her.
Conrad shot to his feet. He moved rapidly down the row, and he was off.
With him gone, she felt as though the air were fresher. A preview for a movie she had no interest in was playing on the screen. Actually, she hated the movies. Sitting there, watching make-believe play on a big screen, felt like a gross waste of time. She decided to calm her frustration and anxiety by taking deep breaths.
Another preview came on the screen of an upcoming film by Alfred Hitchcock that would be in theaters next year. The viewing audience’s sounds of delight said they couldn’t wait to see it. Soon the main event started. Edna checked her watch. Conrad had been gone for more than five minutes.
Edna stared dazedly at the screen. Her mind was focused on what she had learned about her father earlier. She wondered how she would behave when she saw him again. The little girl inside of her wanted to yell in his face that he was a criminal then run out of the apartment. She would run away and go somewhere he would never find her again.
Then she wondered if she was ready to lose her family forever and ever. Edna closed her eyes and braced herself for the answer. Absolutely.
She checked her watch. Conrad had been gone for ten minutes, and the main feature was about to start. She checked over both shoulders. The theater was almost full. She stood and made her way up the aisle. If he didn’t have the common courtesy to sit with her through a film she didn’t want to see in the first place, then why stay? Plus, she had to use the restroom.
The lobby was virtually empty. Three features were playing in the theater, and they all started at the same time. Since the lines at the snack bar were open, she decided to buy a box of Raisinets and a bag of popcorn, but she would take care of her bladder first.
Edna walked down the hallway, searching for the ladies’ room. It was the first time she had come to that particular theater. On their last date, she and Conrad had watched a movie in Times Square. She shivered, remembering how he hadn’t been able to keep his eyes off all the pretty female tourists. She rounded a corner and figured she was close when a door opened.
Conrad walked out into the hallway, smoothing the side of his hair, but he didn’t see her. Something felt off, so she decided to dip back around the corner as fast as she could. Her steps were rapid. She felt as though at any moment, Conrad would see her. A few feet ahead, she saw a small alcove leading to the ladies’ restroom. Edna dipped into the nook and clung to the wall as she watched and waited for Conrad to pass.
He walked by a few seconds later. As soon as he was out of sight, she walked back down the hallway in the direction from which he’d come and turned the corner, heading to the door he had just walked out of. However, the door opened again. The blonde in the polka-dot dress walked out. Their eyes connected. Edna’s feet felt firmly planted to the floor. The woman grinned devilishly at Edna as she strolled right past her.
Edna clutched her chest. She wasn’t in love with Conrad, and she didn’t like him, either. But she felt as though he had slapped her in the face. He was supposed to suffer with her through the evening, not bang a floozy in the broom closet.
Her decision was made—she would never marry him. She would never speak to him again. Edna stormed down the hall and glared at him standing at the snack bar, gazing at the blonde as she sauntered in his direction. The way the woman walked, she knew he was looking. Edna shook her head as she swept past Conrad.
“Hey, Edna,” he called after her.
She had almost made it to the door when he called her name again, asking her to stop.
“No!” she shouted.
The warm night air hit her face. She was walking at full speed when a hand clamped down on her shoulder.
She tried to shrug off his strong grip. “Don’t touch me.”
“Edna, wait,” he implored.
She stopped dead in her tracks. “Take your hand off me.” She gritted her teeth and was ready to bite him on the arm if she had to.
“Okay, but will you wait?” he asked.
Edna answered by folding her arms.
He removed his hand, and she turned to face him. “Who was the girl in the polka-dot dress?”
“A friend.”
She shook her head. “You know I don’t care about you doing it with some dolly, but do it on your own time.” Her lips were clamped so tightly that they were starting to ache.
Conrad threw his hands up. “I’m sorry.”
She didn’t know what to say. Was he really apologizing for doing it in the broom closet? She wanted to say, “apology not accepted.” Instead she sighed and said, “Come on, Conrad, who are we kidding, anyway?”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Our parents want us married, and I don’t want to marry you,” she said. “And I’m not. I’m going to college instead. I made my decision.”
He looked at her as if he were about to pass a life sentence on her or something. “I don’t want to marry you either, Edna, but…”
“But we are free human beings able to do what we want with our lives.”
He smirked sarcastically. “Is that so?”
She raised her eyebrows defiantly. “I’m going to Smith College. I got a full ride. No matter what my father wants, I’m taking the scholarship.”
Conrad shook his head continuously. “Are you sure about that?”
Edna ruffled her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“I overheard your father tell my father that he called the school and convinced someone to rescind your admission.”
“No way,” she emphatically said. “He can’t do that. I earned my admission and my scholarship. I was valedictorian and class president. I volunteered at the Seventy-Sixth., Eighty-Ninth and Union Street shelters. He can’t take my—” Tears suddenly rushed to her eyes, so she closed them. “It’s not fair.”
“Listen, Edna.” Conrad sounded so sympathetic.
She opened her eyes, and the tears started rolling.
“This isn’t fair to either of us.”
She swallowed. “No, it isn’t.”
“If it were up to me, you could go to college and we would play this thing out our way, you know?” He raised his eyebrows.
“Our way?”
“We’ll do what they want, but we’ll live our way.” He dipped his head. “Understand?”
Edna swiped the tears from under her eyes.
“We’ll have the last laugh, Edna. But you know, we have to be in this together.”
It took a moment for Conrad’s words to fully sink in, only because they were plucked right out of her head and heart. Could they be allies against their parents’ agenda? There was only one answer to that question.
Edna nodded. “I understand.”