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“I miss you too.” She also makes me miss parts of the world I told myself I was glad to leave behind. I minimalized when I left the world of the wealthy. How much stuff does a person need, anyway? “Your skin looks incredible.”
“Pierre,” she explains, touching her cheek. Pierre is her esthetician. He’s a miracle worker. If I had two-hundo for a facial, I’d totally get one. “You look…well, I love you, but you look not good.”
She doesn’t mean my skin, though I should exfoliate more.
“I’m not.” I flip my phone around and show her the urn. She gasps.
“Is that…”
“In the flesh.” I scrunch my nose. “Or not. You know what I mean.”
“Where? How?”
“Walt dropped it by my house.”
“I thought your brother was in Atlanta.” Marnie smooths one caramel-colored eyebrow with a manicured fingernail. I miss mani/pedi day too.
“Well, evidently he’s in Clear Ridge.” I look out my front window like he might leap out of the bushes. “I’m surprised he didn’t dump the urn into a trashcan somewhere.” I admire the decorative chalice holding my late father. It’s nice. If urns can be nice. “Or sell it for drug money.”
“He must be clean,” Marnie says, arriving at the same conclusion I had.
For now, I think but don’t say. It’s too sad to say aloud.
“What are you going to do with it? Or should I say ‘him’?”
I shake my head at my friend. “No idea.” On either count.
“I have something else to show you.” I tilt one Louboutin and point the phone at my feet.
Marnie gasps. Again. She knows I don’t wear anything showy in my new life. “Where did you get those?”
“From a billionaire.” I smile at my friend’s shocked expression. “I went to shut down his construction site and broke a heel. He showed up at my office with these.”
She tucks her chin and lifts her eyebrows. “Who is he? Anyone we know?”
“Like all billionaires know each other?”
“They all knew your dad,” she quips.
I sigh. “That’s what I’m worried about. This guy told me I belong in these shoes. That I don’t fit into the middle class.”
“Was he complimenting or threatening you?”
“I don’t know.” And I don’t, not for sure. “I can cause him trouble on this project if he doesn’t follow the rules. He has a reputation for finishing projects on time and cutting corners to do it. He wasn’t happy when I showed up with a roll of red tape.”
“Money can make that go away, Viv.”
“That’s not what the nest egg is for,” I say. “It’s for emergencies.”
“And you being threatened isn’t an emergency?”
“It’s for Walt-themed emergencies,” I mumble.
“You have to stop punishing yourself, Viv. Your father’s sins aren’t yours to absolve. He died for them, you know.”
That part makes me sad. He had the chance to help people but instead he robbed them. I change the subject. “I have a date tomorrow night.”
“Wow, I don’t hear from you for six months and then you call with all the news. Congrats.” Marnie lifts a glass of bubbly and I know it’s our favorite brand of champagne without seeing the bottle. We shared many a glass over brunch, or at girls’ nights, or on random Tuesdays.
