Girls in White Dresses - JENNIFER CLOSE [96]
“I’m not sure yet. What do you think?”
“Sometimes I wish Ken would be transferred to another state,” Mary said.
“Really?” Isabella asked. “You want to move?”
“No, not move. But if Ken was transferred to Boston or something and then he traveled all during the week. That would be nice.”
“Really?” Isabella said.
“Yeah, I mean, I could have the remote every night and we’d still see each other on the weekends. It would just be nice to have some alone time.”
“Well, you’d still have the kids,” Isabella said. “You wouldn’t really be alone.”
“Right. Yeah, I guess it wouldn’t work.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. Sometimes I’m just tired of having people all around me. Sometimes Ken asks as many questions as Henry. He offered to go to the store yesterday and then he called me three times while he was there. If he doesn’t know what kind of American cheese we buy now, will he ever?”
“Probably not,” Isabella said.
“No,” Mary said. “Probably not. It’s exhausting. I’d rather just do it myself. He came home with fat-free American cheese and pepper-smoked turkey. I mean, what is wrong with him?”
“Maybe he just needs practice?” Isabella said.
Mary shook her head. “No. He’s had practice. He just doesn’t know how to do it. I can already tell in ten years he’ll still be calling me from the store to ask if we get pulp-free orange juice or not. He drinks it every morning and he still doesn’t know!”
“Was he always like that?” Isabella asked.
“Yeah,” Mary said. “He was. I just never really thought about the fact that he was going to be like this for the rest of my life.”
“So what are you going to do?” Isabella asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, are you happy?” Isabella asked. She didn’t know if this was the right thing to ask, or if she was even allowed to.
“Yeah,” Mary said. “When I think about it, he might really bug me but I like having him around more than I don’t like having him around.”
“So if he took a job in Boston?”
“Yeah, I know. I was just talking. I wouldn’t really like it, I know. Sometimes it’s nice to dream. But I know it’s not what I really want. I like the bastard.”
“That’s good.” Isabella let out a breath. She had been worried that Mary was going to tell her she was leaving Ken.
“I guess that’s how you decide about Harrison and Boston,” Mary said. “If you like him enough not to be away from him.”
“Yeah,” Isabella said. “I guess so.”
“But you know what?” Mary asked.
“What?”
“I’m going to start writing out the most detailed grocery lists ever for Ken. And if he comes home with the wrong stuff, I’m going to send him back out.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Isabella said.
“It really does.”
“Sometimes things in life aren’t easy,” her mom said. “Sometimes you have to make really hard choices.”
“I know,” Isabella said. “But some people don’t. Some people don’t have to make decisions like this at all.”
“And some people in this world are starving, Isabella. Life isn’t fair.”
“I know,” Isabella said. “But that seems unfair.”
“You can’t move,” Lauren said. “You’re my last babyless friend. If you go, I’m going to have to start going to Mommy and Me just to see people.”
“I don’t think you would like that class,” Isabella said.
“Yeah,” Lauren said. “Not to mention it might raise red flags if I go without a baby.”
“Probably.”
“So, you’re really going?”
“Yeah,” Isabella said. “I guess I am.”
“I feel like that’s a really adult decision to make,” Lauren said.
“Really?” Isabella said. “Because I feel like I’m fourteen.”
“Join the club.”
“What about the second apartment we saw?” Harrison asked. “The one that was in the Cleveland Circle area. It had the really big closets.”
“I’m not sure I really liked that one,” Isabella said.
“Why?”
“It’s in Boston.”
“Right,” Harrison said. “I forgot about that.”
“I think you need to network more,” Harrison told her. She still didn’t have a job in Boston. It didn’t bother her that much. If she didn’t have a job, she could pretend