Unaccustomed Earth - Jhumpa Lahiri [49]
“I got you this,” Amit said, handing Megan the lemonade.
“Oh.” She looked at the drink, shaking her head. There was a glass of champagne in her other hand. “I got this off a tray.”
“I was just telling Megan about what it was like here when we were students,” Ted said. “Before these ugly new buildings went up. Where did you live?”
“Ingalls my first year. And then Harkness.” He felt unsure about the names, as if they, too, might be incorrect.
“Guess what,” Megan said. “Our cell phone doesn’t work up here. I tried to call the girls but there’s no service.”
“I’m sure there’s a pay phone somewhere,” Amit said. “I’ll call them before their bedtime.” He was tired of standing, longed for the opportunity to sit down and fill his stomach with something solid. A few elderly people were already under the tent, along with some mothers nursing their babies, and he wondered if it would be improper of him to take his seat as well. He waited for a gap in Ted and Megan’s conversation, to suggest going to their table, but then he felt a tap on the back and turned to see Pam’s parents. He proceeded to catch up with them, congratulating them, pulling out his wallet again and showing the pictures of the girls. “They look just like their mother,” Mrs. Borden said in her usual forthright way.
When he turned back to Megan he saw that her champagne glass was empty. She had moved closer to Ted, and her hand was playing with her diamond earring, a habit of hers when she was nervous. Could it be that Megan was flirting with Ted? Instead of being jealous Amit felt oddly liberated, relieved of his responsibility to Megan, to show her a good time. His head was pounding. He needed a glass of water, needed to dilute the alcohol that had rushed too quickly into his brain. The evening had barely begun but it was as if he’d been drinking for hours. Then he saw that the hand by Megan’s ear was the one that had been formerly concealing her skirt. Now that she’d had a few drinks herself she no longer cared, and Amit realized he was free of his duty to stand by her side.
At dinner they were seated at a table with three other couples. Two of them were friends of Ryan’s from California, and after introductions were made they talked among themselves. The women were in their fifties, both dressed in silk jackets and with heavy pieces of silver jewelry, and Amit suspected they had something to do with television. The men were dark-haired and voluble and seemed to be very old friends. The other couple was engaged to be married. The woman, Felicia, was a friend of Pam’s, and her fiancé’s name was Jared. Jared was an architect, with very fair wispy hair, who seemed to be faintly smiling at everyone and everything, until Amit realized it was the set expression of his face, his thin mouth permanently pulled back at the corners. Jared’s current commission was a new wing in a hospital, and he and Megan immediately fell into conversation, Megan telling him all the things that needed to be improved, in her opinion, when it came to the design of hospitals.
As their wine and water glasses were filled and a salmon terrine was served, Felicia talked to Amit about her and Jared’s wedding plans. She was a petite woman, her girlish figure encased in a high-necked beige sleeveless dress. Her features, though pleasant, seemed too small for her face, as if yet to fill it up properly, the distance between the bottom of her nose and her top lip distracting. She spoke in a tired way, each word weighted down. They were in the process of deciding on a venue, Felicia said, and weren’t sure of the number of guests.