“See you later, Jack!” Blair interrupted, speaking in a tone that struck him as artificially chipper. Blair was often genuinely chipper, but this was not that. And yes, it disturbed him to realize he could tell the difference.
They watched episode two the next night. After their morning walk, Blair seemed to be assuming Jack would want to continue with the show. He didn’tnotwant to, so he went along with it.
“Let me order dinner, though,” he said, not wanting to get into a situation where she was cooking for him all the time. “Though I do want that tomato and cheddar pie sometime.”
“No, no, I’ll cook. I do most nights anyway. But not the pie. Piecrust requires mental preparation. And lard. Mental preparation and lard: Is that the key to success in life? Is that what I’m doing wrong?”
What didthatmean? Did Blair Kellermoon doanythingwrong? From his vantage point, it didn’t seem like it, even if she had different priorities than he did.
“I’ll make something simple,” she said.
When he slid open the door from the pool at the appointed time, he heard the sound of an incoming FaceTime. Then Blair’s voice: “Hi, honey.”
“Hi, Mom. What are you doing?”
It was a girlish voice, so it must be Blair’s daughter, Esme. Jack turned to go, intending to come back later.
“Making dinner. I have a friend coming over.”
The fact that Blair thought of him as a friend gave him pause. He thought, for some inexplicable reason, of her thigh on the sofa last night.
“Tiffany?” Esme asked.
“No.”
“One of those assistants from your office whose names I always forget?”
“No. You don’t know him.”
“Him!”
“It’s not like that.”
“Oh, it’s not?” Esme asked in a singsong voice.
“It is not,” Blair said firmly. “It’s Jack Branksome.”
There was a pause. “The author you hate?”
“I don’t hate him.”
“You acted like you did. You said he humiliated you.”
Humiliated her.Those were strong words.
Were they incorrect, though?
“He did,” Blair said. “He totally did.”
He should go. He shouldn’t be hearing this. He didn’twantto hear this.
Something kept him pinned in place, though, frozen in the mudroom.
“I’m over it,” Blair said. “You just have to accept that he’s kind of an asshole generally. It’s not personal.”
Ha. That made him feel a little better.
“Mom, don’t take this the wrong way, but your whole speech when you and Dad split up was about not settling, about how it’s better to be alone than to be with someone who doesn’t light you up.” Esme made a gagging noise Jack interpreted to be about the phraselight you up. He shared her disdain.
