‘What are you up to?’
‘Pizza. We need pizza. Any preference?’
She shook her head and giggled. ‘Actually, I am pretty hungry. Must be the gin.’ She’d noticed her legs felt decidedly wobbly when she’d gone over to search the kitchen cupboards.
Jack ordered a pizza with flavours that made her mouth water but flavours she wasn’t sure went together: pineapple, pepperoni, onion, sweetcorn, olives. What were they doing? They’d gone from hating one another to sharing a pizza?
Evie poured two big tumblers of water as they waited for the food and handed one to Jack.
‘So how did you meet Nicole?’ he asked her, first thanking her for the water.
‘I went to the shelter where she works, a few times. I liked it there. I felt at ease, nobody hassled me, nobody tried to counsel me. They just let me be. And then one night when I was huddled up in a doorway, Nicole recognised me. She tried to take me home with her, but I refused.’ Evie laughed. ‘She wouldn’t take no for an answer till I promised I’d check in at the shelter in the morning if she’d leave me alone for now.’
‘But she finally convinced you?’
There was no malice in his words, no accusations. ‘Every time I’d visit the shelter, Nicole would make it known to me that she was there to help, but she stopped hassling me. Then one night, huddled in a doorway, a man approached me. He offered me money to … well, you know.’ She couldn’t look at Jack now. ‘And when I said no, he offered me more and then he tried to pull me away, towards the park. God knows what he was planning to do, but I fought him with everything I had and ran straight to the shelter. It was shut already, they don’t open overnight and I didn’t trust anyone else. It may seem stupid that I didn’t go to another shelter for the night but I was scared, too scared to be able to relax anywhere. So I walked around.’
‘All night?’
She nodded. ‘All night, until seven o’clock the next morning when the shelter opened up. I was sitting on the steps and lucky for me, Nicole was there. She took one look at me and pulled me inside. That was Thanksgiving.’
‘The day we first met.’ The words sounded odd on his lips.
‘An hour later, once everything at the shelter was sorted, Nicole took me to her apartment where I showered and had a good meal. She left me to sleep while she went to her housekeeping job at your father’s house. She trusted me completely, didn’t hide anything.’ Evie smiled. ‘I could’ve cleaned her out. Her jewellery wasn’t hidden, and I remember she had several expensive-looking ornaments out on display. There was even a jar of small change on the kitchen bench, which must have amounted to well over fifty dollars. Maybe it was a test, I don’t know, but she came home in the middle of the afternoon and I went on my way again.’
‘You weren’t tempted to stay?’
‘Of course I was. I mean, you’ve seen it, her apartment is gorgeous. It was safe, warm and felt almost like it could be home, despite its unfamiliarity. And when I said I was going, she looked so sad, as though me being there had saved her rather than me. But I went on my way, begrudgingly taking twenty dollars she handed me, and she told me if I wouldn’t stay in the apartment then I was to come to your father’s house, about nine o’clock when she was almost finished, and she’d feed me. I knew she was saying it because she wanted to see me, check I was okay.
‘So I stopped by the house as she’d said and we talked for a bit, out back. She hates food going to waste you know, said half the people at the party didn’t know how bloody lucky they were.’ She stopped, covered her mouth. ‘Oops, I shouldn’t have said that.’
Jack grinned. ‘I couldn’t agree more. Some of those people my father associates with are assholes.’
Evie smiled at his frankness. ‘Well anyway, that’s the whole story up until the moment you and I … first met. I left but I hung around a couple of hours as I wanted to make sure everything was okay for Nicole, that she hadn’t made your family angry. When she walked to the next block and I stepped out from the shadows, she was crying. Proper, sobbing tears.’
‘Fuck.’ Jack grabbed his gin instead of the water and knocked it back.
‘The first thing she said, before she even told me she’d lost her job, was that she wasn’t going to argue anymore and I was coming home with her and that was that. She sorted me out with a job within a few days, and after almost a year of living in her apartment, I was able to move out into this studio. Rent in Manhattan is crazy so it’s all I could afford, but it was really important I did this for myself.’
The doorbell buzzed three times, short and sharp. ‘That’ll be the pizza.’ Evie took money from her purse, Jack took cash from his wallet and after a battle of wills they agreed to go halves. Funny, Jack seemed more shaken than Evie was, she decided. He looked as though his world had just been put on the spin cycle when she was the one confessing, not him.
It was almost midnight, but Jack and Evie were ravenous. The chilli and garlic bread had long since worn off, and the gin plus the confession time had made them so hungry neither of them spoke as they devoured a couple of slices each.
When the eating slowed, Jack asked, ‘Was it long before Nicole got back on her feet? I tried to get in touch, you know.’
‘I know you did, she told me. We became close, almost like mother and daughter in many ways, even though I fought it at the start. But also we became best friends. I think she thought that by cutting all ties she was doing you both a favour. That night left a lasting scar on her, and it only did that because she cared so much about you both.’
‘She was like one of the family.’ Jack broke the stringy cheese between two slices of pizza when he pulled one piece from the box.
‘I think that’s why she cut all ties. She was thinking of you as much as herself. She never got another job, just upped her hours volunteering, so I know money wasn’t a problem for her. I think she comes from a wealthy family, not that I’ve ever asked much, it’s just an impression I get. My guess is that she was your housekeeper for so long because she felt she’d found where she belonged. Something tells me she’s never been so happy since. I saw it when I agreed to live there with her and then an almost despair when I was leaving.’
Jack sat back. ‘She’s a good woman. There’s no denying it.
Evie put down the remains of her pizza. ‘Okay, I can’t fit another thing in.’
‘Me neither. I’m officially full, and a little bit drunk.’
Evie giggled and let a moment pass between them. ‘So now you know everything,’ she said finally.
