Girls in White Dresses - JENNIFER CLOSE [84]
“I think Henry needs a new diaper,” she called to Mary. Then she stood up and ran to the bathroom to vomit. She heard Henry banging on the door. “Ummmbllll!” he screamed. Isabella knew he was saying, “Let me in! What are you doing?”
“Not now, Henry!” Isabella called.
“Bllll, baaa!”
“I know,” Isabella said. “I’m a disgrace.”
Every day at work, Isabella was sure she was going to be fired. And, as if that weren’t stressful enough, Peggy, one of the copy editors, wouldn’t leave Isabella alone. She asked her about every comma, every semicolon, until Isabella wanted to scream. Peggy was in her forties and wore odd-colored pantsuits with large shoulders and funky buttons. Whenever Isabella looked at her, she thought of her fifth-grade social studies textbook. Peggy looked like she should be in there, with a caption that said, “Someday you will work in an office and you will have coworkers. Women and men work together as equals.”
Peggy alternately repulsed Isabella and made her sad. She complained about her almost every night to Harrison. Then one day she came into work and found out that Peggy had been fired.
“They got rid of half of the copy editors,” Cate told her. “Crazy Pantsuits is gone.”
Isabella went home that night and cried. “I feel so bad,” she said to Harrison. He rubbed her back and said, “I know.”
Lauren had been trying to plan a trip for all of their college friends for the past year. She’d started out suggesting that they go to the Bahamas, but was met with too much resistance. Finally, she planned a weekend in the Hamptons. “This is pathetic,” she kept saying. “This was supposed to be a trip for our thirtieth birthdays, and it’s a whole year later. And all we’re doing is going to the beach?”
“It will be fun,” Mary told her. “The Hamptons will be perfect.”
Beth White was excited about the weekend. She kept sending e-mails out to the whole group that said things like “Watch out for the divorced lady” and “It’s like a reverse bachelorette party for me!” It was making everyone uncomfortable.
“I think she’s lost it,” Mary said.
“No kidding,” Isabella said.
Harrison lay on the couch and read the paper while Isabella packed for her trip. Winston was curled up on his chest. Every so often, Winston lifted his head and licked Harrison’s chin. Winston was a little white fluff of a dog and when he sat still, he looked like a stuffed animal. Isabella loved him more than anything. As soon as she got her suitcase out, he wouldn’t look at her. He turned his head away and only paid attention to Harrison.
“Harrison, if we break up, would you give me the dog?” Isabella asked.
Harrison lowered the paper and looked at her. “Excuse me?”
“Beth White is getting the dog, but she said that she had to fight Kyle for him.”
“Oh,” Harrison said. “I see.”
“So would you give me the dog?”
“No,” Harrison said. “If you broke up with me, I would kidnap Winston. Then I would take him around the country and photograph him in different states, so that I could send you the pictures and taunt you.”
“Fair enough,” Isabella said. She sat down on the bed and rested her head on Harrison’s chest, right next to the dog.
“I love you,” she said.
He took the end of her hair in his hand, twirled it around his finger, and said, “Good to know.”
“You look tired,” Isabella said to Mary. They were sitting on the top level of the double-decker train to the Hamptons. Mary stared out the window with dark circles under her eyes.
“I didn’t sleep well last night,” Mary said. “Can I tell you something weird?”
“Always,” Isabella said.
“Okay, but you have to promise not to tell anyone else. It’s really weird.”
“I promise.”
“I woke up from a nightmare and I was biting Ken on the arm,” Mary said.
“Jesus,