“Pleased to meet you, Danica. Your mother and I had quite a time together in our twenties,” Shonda said. “Where were we? Japan? Paris? All over the place.”
“Were you a model?” Danica asked. There was an edge of disbelief in her voice.
“I was! But these days, I go out for acting roles for mothers and aunts and even grandmothers, sometimes.” Shonda laughed. “Of course, they’re writing better and better roles for women in their forties. Thank goodness for that.”
“But you work here?” Danica asked.
“I have to make ends meet in a city like this,” Shonda said. She didn’t seem upset by it. Rather, she seemed bright and cheerful, as though she’d never made herself feel ashamed for her position in life.
Juliet couldn’t believe it. At every turn, she’d thrown shame on herself. She couldn’t sleep, some nights, remembering that Alvin had abandoned her, that she couldn’t get a job in her field, and that despite the alimony, she was going to have to struggle hard to keep up with all her payments.
Was she going to have to get a job like this? Waitressing in a rotating restaurant? She imagined Danica, looking at her with shock, lying to her friend Mary about what her mother was up to. Juliet imagined having to keep up the lie with Celia, Ivy, and Wren. She imagined making up pretend stories about fashion shows and European gigs.
Oh, she was in trouble. Her palms began to sweat.
Then Shonda bent down to meet them at eye-level and whispered conspiratorially, “We have something really great on today. It’s an eggplant parmesan. Our new chef is Italian, and he’s been adding creative additions to the menu despite the owner’s disinterest.”
“I’ll have that,” Juliet said, her voice warbling.
“And I’ll have, um? The chicken salad sandwich. No!” Danica blushed and scrambled to grab the menu again. “I want the macaroni and cheese with bacon. Please.”
Juliet bit her tongue to keep from smiling. This was exactly what Danica used to order when she was a little girl. Maybe everything hadn’t changed so drastically after all.
Shonda ran off to put their order in, leaving Danica and Juliet in the awkward, charged silence that Juliet knew her own anxiety had created. It was better to get this conversation over with, to tell her daughter what was up. But maybe it was better to wait till Danica had had her mac and cheese?
Danica crossed her arms over her chest. “Modeling? In Paris?”
Juliet nodded. She felt on the spot.
“Did you already know Dad back then?” Danica asked.
“I met your father when I was twenty-two,” Juliet said. “But I didn’t quit modeling till after we got married. When I got my first gig in the fashion world.”
Danica had begun to look at Juliet as though she’d never seen her before. Were these facts that Juliet had never told her daughter about herself? Was Danica actually interested?
“What did your dad say about you modeling?” Danica asked.
Juliet couldn’t help but snort. “My father didn’t care what I was up to. All he cared about was the inn and Bluebell Cove and what people in Bluebell Cove thought of him.” But she sighed a moment later, remembering what Celia had discovered not long ago about their father—about how difficult his marriage to their mother had been and about how regretful he’d been about what kind of father he’d been.
Would Alvin be regretful sometime down the line? Would he write letters and diary entries that Danica would one day read? Letters that expressed his sorrow for abandoning her?
Their food came. Juliet was so nervous that she struggled to cut pieces from her eggplant parmesan. Danica dotted her mac and cheese with hot sauce and ate a big, cheesy bite. But as soon as she swallowed, she asked a question that forced Juliet into the topic at hand.
“What’s our schedule for the summer? I mean, how much can I stay on the Upper West Side?”
Juliet set her fork and knife back down. She folded her hands. “That’s actually something we need to talk about.”
Danica matched her mother, putting down her utensils and linking her fingers together. “Mom, I know you get weird and lonely in Greenwich, but…”
Juliet’s heart felt fuzzy. “It’s not that, honey. It’s your dad. He won’t be in the city this summer.”
Danica lurched her head back. “Where is he going?”
Juliet swallowed. Shonda passed by just then, fluttering her fingers and mouthing, “Hope it’s tasty?” Juliet couldn’t bring herself to answer.
“Your dad accepted a job in Singapore,” Juliet said flatly. “He’s moving next week.”
Danica’s eyes bugged out of her head. “Singapore?” But just as soon as the location struck her, just as soon as she wrapped her mind around it, she said, “I want to go with him.”
