A small patch of earth was filled with red and white impatiens and petunias. There was a tall wrought-iron pole with a bird feeder hanging from each of its curved arms. “I can't get over it.” Off to one side was a small fish pond with several large goldfish and a tiny rock-strewn waterfall. “I would never have expected this in the middle of Manhattan.”
“I know. It's a lot of work but I just love it. I still remember when Aunt Elise and I sat out here as adults and equals for the first time.” There was a melancholy smile on Chloe's face.
“I'm sorry about her death.”
“Yeah, me too. She was quite a lady,” she hesitated, “and quite a pisser too. Wait until I tell you about her.”
Jenna said, “From the little you've told me I'm sorry I never met her.”
“Me too. You'd have liked her.”
“I want to put my things away but let's sit out here for a while first and catch up. I'm just blown away by this garden.”
A few minutes later the two women were stretched out on a pair of white wrought-iron lounge chairs covered with thickly stuffed red and white striped cushions, tall glasses of sweetened iced tea in their hands. “Tell me all about you,” Chloe said and, slowly at first, then more definitively, Jenna told Chloe about Glen and her feelings about him and about herself.
“He sounds like a keeper. What could be wrong with a good-looking attorney? Wasn't he any good in bed?”
Jenna blushed slightly. In college, the last time they had spent any real time together, Chloe had been quiet and demure but, in the time since, her friend had become surprisingly outspoken.
“He was fine in bed,” Jenna said, finding it strangely easy to talk about it. “Actually, fine is a good word. It was very okay and not much more.”
“No spark? No earth moving or sky rockets?”
“Sadly, no. I think I could have dealt with the rest if I hadn't felt so,” she hesitated, then blurted out, “bored in bed.”
“The death knell of any relationship.”
“I felt like such a shit telling him no as he sat there with a ring in his hand. But Chloe, there was more to my leaving than Glen. His proposal made me focus on where I was headed and how I was living. I've never been just me, alone. When he asked me to marry him, I suddenly felt, well, almost claustrophobic. It was like the walls were closing in. I couldn't breathe.” She slumped.
“I know exactly what you mean and that's why I'm so glad you're here,” Chloe said. “I've no intention of settling down right now, either. Frankly, I'm having too much fun. I'm less into finding Mr. Right as I am into Mr. Right Now.”
Jenna smiled at Chloe's candor. Suddenly she felt she had to get it all off of her chest. “It's Marcy too. We've always been so close that the thought of going from such a close relationship with her to another intimate one was strangling me. I want some aloneness, if that word has any meaning. I need to be me!”
“I realized that you two were trying to make separate friends. Maybe that was why she and I never got close in school.”
“We really did try to be separate but once we were back in Seneca Falls, it all fell back into the same old pattern, and I didn't really mind for a while. Actually, I think Marcy would have been content to have us go on living in the same neighborhood, doing things together with our respective husbands.”
“She's married?”
“No, but when she does, it will probably be to Mr. Seneca Falls and they'll have two-point-three children.” Jenna stopped herself. “Sorry. That's not fair of me at all. Marcy's wonderful and my best friend. It's just that we're too close. I had to get away.”
“Of course you did,” Chloe said, sipping her iced tea.
“You understand?” Jenna said, a bit nonplused. Her friends in Seneca Falls had looked at her blankly, and then told her she was crazy. A few sympathized, but most were small-town people at heart and viewed New York City as some kind of Sodom and Gomorrah, a center for terrorism, robberies, and rapes.
“Don't look so surprised. I can't really relate to what goes on between you and Marcy,” Chloe said, “being an only child and all, but I can understand what you're saying about being yourself. I've become a different person since I moved in here, so maybe the space will help you to get everything back into proportion.”
“You do seem more alive than when we were in school. You were always so, I don't know, closed sort of. Now you've blossomed.”
“Thanks for that,” Chloe said with a grin. “Actually, when I came back home after I graduated, I got a job on Wall Street and became a staid, boring stockbroker. Business-casual clothes, business-casual lunches, business-casual friends, and a business-casual life. It was okay, but just okay.”
“You seem anything but âjust okay' now. What changed besides you not being a boring stockbroker any more?”
“Aunt Elise changed me,” Chloe said. “Let me get some more tea, and then I'll tell you about her. Want some?”
Jenna sensed the pain in Chloe's voice when she talked about her aunt. The two had obviously been very close. Jenna looked at her glass and said, “Sure. Let me give you a hand.”
“Not necessary. Right back.” As Jenna started to rise, Chloe grabbed the glass and motioned, “Sit, sit. I'll just be a moment. This is the last time I wait on you, however. From now on, you live here and you're on your own.”
Settling back into her chair, Jenna thought about Chloe. The two women had had rooms close together in the dorm during their freshman year and had become closer and closer as their college years passed. By the end of their senior year they had been the best of friends, and the wrench she'd felt when Chloe had gone back to the city had been difficult. The two women had kept in touch in the intervening years, keeping each other up to date on their business lives. Socially they hadn't shared much, until now.
Jenna was jerked from her reverie by the sound of the backdoor slamming. Chloe handed Jenna the refilled glass and settled back on the lounge chair. She sipped, then said, “Okay. As I wrote you, Aunt Elise died about six months ago.”
“I'm sorry about her death. You seemed so devastated. You didn't talk much about her back when we knew each other.”
“We got much closer after my folks died. She was the only one left of either of my parents' families. It was a tough year. First, my dad went from cancer; then my mom just sort of wasted away. During all that time Aunt Elise was there for everyone, giving as much of herself as anyone needed. I hadn't known her very well before that, but for all those months she was our rock. At first I loved her for helping, then I just loved her. She was a wonderful, classy, alive woman and she pulled me out of the depression I fell in after my folks were gone.” Chloe sipped her tea, pain radiating from her body. “I'm sorry. It seems so silly for me to still be upset. After all, it's been more than six months since she died.”
“Stop apologizing. We all grieve in our own way and get over it at our own speed.”
“I know, and Aunt Elise wouldn't want this. Exactly the opposite. She was the one who made me realize that we only go around once in this life and we should do things that give us joy.”
“She sounds like someone I'd have liked.”
“Oh, you would have hit it off with her and she'd have loved you too.” Chloe gazed off into space, then said, “She was almost seventy when she got sick. We looked alike, you know. She was tiny, like me, with soft, curly, brown hair and striking blue eyes.” Chloe smiled. “Her auburn hair probably came out of a bottle.
“So after my folks were gone, Aunt Elise and I got really close. We spent a lot of time together. She called me her alter ego. She was the kind of free spirit that I had always wanted to be but never thought I could, especially where her love life was concerned. She still had several men friends when she got sick.”
“I'm so sorry. Her death must have been difficult for you, especially after living through it with your parents.”
“It was.” Jenna watched Chloe take a deep breath. “Her last years weren't easy. She was diagnosed with cancer about three years ago and died last November.”
“I'm so sorry,” Jenna said. Two and a half years. Jenna's parents had died suddenly in an auto accident when the two girls were in their final year of graduate school. The shock had been devastating, but now that she thought about it, how difficult must it be for someone to have to deal with it for two and a half years.
“Me too,” Chloe said. “Before that, she was the most active, interested and interesting woman I ever met. We took vacations together, went to the theater and movies, and just enjoyed life. We spent so much time together and I began to change, to be like her. It became more and more important for me to do things that gave me pleasure. It didn't take a rocket scientist to discover that I hated being a stockbroker, and we talked at great length about what I wanted to do. She convinced me to go back to school to study art, not the fine arts stuff but graphic design. She helped me with the cost of my courses and gave me a party when I finally got up the nerve to quit my Wall Street job. As you know, I'm still working at the same advertising agency I started with back then. It's not nearly as much money as Wall Street, but I really love what I do.”
“She sounds like a very generous lady.” Jenna and Marcy had had to work part-time throughout school to supplement their scholarships, Jenna waiting tables in the local watering hole and Marcy writing short stories for a magazine and articles for the local paper.
“Yes, she was. At the time it seemed okay to let her help and I agreed to pay her back when I could but, after a while, I realized that although she spent like she had lots of money, things were getting tight for her. Then she was diagnosed with cancer. It sucked, long and messy. She was in and out of the hospital and, during those final months despite insurance, the out-of-pocket for her medical care was astronomical. She went through everything. When I show you around, you'll see that the downstairs and my bedroom are pretty much the only parts of the house that are still furnished.”
“Why didn't she sell the building? It seems that something like this,” she gazed around the brownstone, “in the middle of Manhattan, must be worth quite a bit.”
“I tried to get her to sell but she was incredibly stubborn. She loved this house as much as I do now and wanted me to have it after her death. I argued but she wouldn't change her mind, obstinate old darling. So I helped with whatever I could. I emptied my meager savings account, secretly paying part of the costs of almost everything so she could have the illusion that she could afford it all. At the end, she had hospice care and passed away right here in this house. She wanted that very much.” Chloe sniffled and Jenna pulled a Kleenex from her purse and handed it to her. “I was holding her hand when she died.”
“I'm so sorry. It must have been very difficult for you.”
She sniffled, then brightened and said, “That's in the past now, but I love this building so I'm here, and I'm going to stay here for as long as I can manage. The tax payments are tough and that's where your rent money will help a lot.”
“Of course. This should work out just great, and give me time to figure out my life.”
“There's one more thing that we need to talk about. I lead a pretty active social life and I hope we won't get in each other's way.”
“We won't. I don't think I'm going to be doing much dating, at least until I get my head together.” She didn't want to get into a relationship and have to tell another guy no the way she had with Glen.
Chloe looked horrified. “Of course you'll date. That's what you're here for.”
“No, it's really not. I need space and time to figure myself out.”
“Nonsense. From what I hear, you need to experience everything and that means a social life and a sex life. Sky rockets, earthquakes and all. You need to find out whether Glen is the one or not and you can't do that without other men to compare him to. Take it from me, good sex is the best cure for whatever ails you. You said he was just average. It's time you found someone who makes your toes curl.”
Was curling toes a cure for her confusion? “I'll think about it.”
“If I have anything to do with it, you'll do more than just think about it.”
Chapter
3
T
he two women talked for several hours until the lowering sun and the shadows of the nearby buildings darkened the little garden and voracious mosquitoes forced the women inside. They talked about nothing and everything and quickly all of Jenna's remaining unease about the living arrangements lifted. Chloe was still the same easy-to-be-with, caring person she had been in college. Although Jenna and Chloe had been friends in school, she hadn't felt as close as they did after that one long afternoon.
When they eventually went inside, Chloe took Jenna on a quick tour of the brownstone. The charming four-story building consisted of a living room, dining room, kitchen and one bedroom on the main floor with three bedrooms of varying sizes on each of the upper floors. “I sleep down here,” Chloe explained, “and you can have the larger bedroom on the second floor.”
“I'll take a smaller room,” Jenna said quickly. “I don't need much space.”
“Actually there are only two bedrooms with furniture, mine and the one I picked for you. I put your boxes there, so let's just leave it the way it is for now. I'm happy where I am.”
“There's no furniture in the other rooms?”
“Oh, there's a bed in most of them, and a dresser in some, but not much else. Aunt Elise was into antiques so when she got sick we sold off most of the contents of the upstairs. We also replaced the good pieces downstairs with stuff from discount stores. She liked to think of it as redecorating.”
“I didn't realize that money had gotten that tight.”
“She had been a collector of sorts and spent freely, so the furnishings were worth quite a bit. Between that and my secret supplements she had private-duty nursing and the best food from good restaurants. Remember that scene in the movie
Arthur,
when he brings the butler the meal on the cart? I took that to heart. At the end, eating was her only real pleasure.”
Chloe opened the door to her bedroom. “Aunt Elise took over this room when she got sick and I moved into it after she died.” Like the living room, Chloe's bedroom gave the immediate impression of being comfortable. It was just big enough for a queen-sized bed with a bright crazy quilt topped with brightly colored pillows, a rocking chair with flame red seat and back cushions, a narrow dresser topped by a large mirror, and several white ginger jar lamps. A TV stood on the corner of the dresser, arranged so Chloe could watch in bed. The thick, moss green carpeting matched the drapes.
“This is a great room,” Jenna said. “Inviting, welcoming somehow.”
“Except for putting the regular bed back instead of the hospital one, it's not too different from when Aunt Elise lived in here. I hope you don't think it's ghoulish but I feel closer to her with her rocking chair and quilt still here.”
“It's not ghoulish at all.”
Chloe showed Jenna her large closet, stuffed with clothes, a wardrobe that must have cost a small fortune. “Wow,” Jenna said.
“Yeah. I love nice clothes and you know how I love to shop.”
Chloe backed out of her room and led Jenna up the stairs. She opened the door to the room on the left. It was as cheery as Chloe's room, with soft rose carpet, a queen-sized bed with a mauve satin quilt as a bedspread, sprinkled with small roses and matching pillow shams. One wall held a triple-width dresser and a desk/makeup table combination with a small upholstered chair. “I got new linens and stuff when you told me you were coming.” She stroked the quilt. “I had a ball in one of those giant bed-and-bath stores. I got you new towels and mats too.”
“You didn't have to spend the money. I don't know how long I'll even be here.” Jenna knew that Chloe hadn't fully recovered financially from her aunt's illness and so felt slightly guilty. She hadn't wanted Chloe to spend anything on her. “I offered to send anything we might need.”
“I know it wasn't necessary but I just couldn't help myself. I want you to be comfortable.”
“Thanks.” Jenna was starting to understand why Chloe had trouble making the tax payments on the building. Maybe she could help her friend get her financial house in order. It was usually Marcy who made budgets but Chloe certainly needed help if she was going be able to stay in the brownstone.
Chloe opened the door to the double closet and Jenna saw her boxes, neatly stacked off to one side. “Those were heavy,” Jenna said, shaking her head. “I hope you didn't try to carry them upstairs by yourself. I fully intended to help you.”
Chloe winked. “Don't worry, I didn't carry them myself.” She batted her eyelashes. “When you're five feet tall, no one lets you do anything. One look at me and the UPS guy called me honey, carried everything upstairs, and put it all in the closet.”
Jenna couldn't suppress a chuckle. “Doesn't playing helpless get you down from time to time? From what I remember you're as helpless as a barracuda.”
“I know that, and you know that, but when it suits me”âshe batted her eyelashes againâ“no one else does.”
Jenna burst out laughing. “Okay. I give.”
Early on Tuesday morning, Jenna took the copy of the advertisement in the
New York Times
and made her way to the temp agency Chloe had found. She explained to the manager that she didn't want a permanent position since she didn't know how long she'd be in town. With her letters of reference from AAJ and her scores on the computerized exams she took, she was immediately welcomed into the cadre of translators at a generous hourly rate. “It says you've specialized in simultaneous translation. I've got something for you for tomorrow if you're ready to begin working. I've got some textile importers from Hamburg coming to negotiate with the president of a small firm in the garment district. I had intended to send someone else but, if I can arrange it, I'd like him to stay on the long-term assignment he's on. I had just about given up hope of finding anyone.”
“Sure. Sounds great.” A job already. This is going to work out fine.
Just before nine the following morning she arrived at Paramount Textiles, in the heart of the garment district. She'd dressed carefully for this, her first job. With Chloe's help, she'd selected a beige linen pantsuit with a black, knit, short-sleeved top and black flat-heeled shoes. She'd kept her jewelry simple, wearing only a slender gold necklace and matching earrings.
She fought her way across west Forty-seventh Street, weaving between rolling racks of dresses and slacks in every color of the rainbow and triple-parked trucks, finally arriving at the ancient but spacious building just on time. As she got off the elevator on the fourth floor, she was almost tackled by a tall, angular man of about thirty-five, with lots of deep brown hair, touches of grey already gracing the temples, and large, flashing brown eyes that glared at her from behind rimless glasses. He was scowling and pacing the front office. “If you're Jenny Bryant, the translator the agency sent,” the man said without preamble, his face flushed, “let's get started.”
“Are you Mr. McBride?” When he snapped a quick nod, she continued, “I'm sorry if you've been waiting for me but I was told to be here at nine.”
The man glanced at his watch, then huffed and looked chagrined. “Call me, Toby, and I'm the one who's sorry.” When his eyes softened, she realized that he was really quite nice looking. “I'm very anxious about these negotiations and I guess I let it get to me. You're actually right on time, Jenny. Can we begin?”
“Of course,” she said, realizing that she probably had more experience at such meetings than Toby had. “And it's Jenna.”
“Jenna?”
“My name is Jenna.”
“Jenna. Unusual name. Would you like some coffee?”
“No, thank you. I'm fine. Why don't we just get started?”
He led her into a room with a wall of windows, and she placed her purse on the long wooden table covered with papers, bolts of fabric, and a large assortment of swatches. He introduced her to two men, Herr Schuller and Herr Morgen. They nodded to her, and they exchanged a few words with Jenna in their native language.
“What did you say to them?”
“I just asked which part of Germany they were from and how they liked New York. Sorry, I was just trying to put them at ease. I sense that they are as nervous about these talks as you are.”
“Really? That's very good to know.”
There was another interchange, then Jenna said, “They complimented you on your written proposal.”
Toby raised a quizzical eyebrow. “There was more than that. You blushed.”
She found herself embarrassed as she said, “They also complimented me on my pronunciation.”
His sudden smile lit his face but there was an edge of irritation to his voice as well. “That's great. You're getting along with them better than I am already.”
He's off the wall,
Jenna thought. Calmly, as if to a frightened child, she said, “Since I'm an extension of you it's good for both of us.”
Toby nodded and began to speak. For the next three hours, the three people bargained, haggling over delivery dates, quantities, and shipping costs, with Jenna easily keeping the conversations straight. At just after twelve, Jenna said to Toby, “I don't know what your plans are, but I'd suggest a nice lunch about now. I think they're close to agreeing to most of your terms but they need some time to let it all gel.” This was a common tactic at AAJ and Jenna had been part of dozens of such lunches.
She watched Toby consider it, then nod. “Good idea. Why don't you mention it to them?”
After a few minutes of discussion, a restaurant was agreed on. “If you don't mind another suggestion,” Jenna said, “when we get to the restaurant, I'll go to the ladies room and stay a while. Maybe you can arrange to get a phone call so they can have a few minutes to talk things over in private.”
“Okay. Great idea. You're really good at this,” Toby said, his eyes glowing with obvious admiration. “I'll set that up when we get there.”
By midafternoon, all terms had been set and the contracts were being drawn up in English. “Can you come back tomorrow and translate the terms and conditions for them?”
“You'll have to arrange that through the agency. You know that they'll have to have their own people go over the documents in detail back home.”
“I know, but I'm hoping to make them more comfortable with everything before they leave. If there are any last-minute hitches, maybe we can take care of them then.”
“Sure, no problem.”
“Thanks for being so patient with me. This deal is my first venture into the international market. I was a bit nervous about it.”
Dryly, Jenna said, “I never would have guessed.” Toby had the good grace to look chagrined, and then they both burst out laughing.
By the time she left at five-thirty, her agency had given her the go ahead for the second day, and had given her a two-day assignment for the following week.
At dinner that evening she told Chloe about her day. “That's great,” Chloe said. “You seem to have been a hit.”
“Yeah. Toby called the agency late this afternoon and gave me a glowing recommendation.”
“Is he cute?”
Jenna blushed. She thought he was very attractive but that wasn't a businesslike thing to admit. “I didn't really notice,” she said, uncomfortable with herself for sounding a bit stuffy.
“Right. And I don't notice when I look at that guy from
CSI Miami.
The cute one with the great biceps.”
“Really, I didn't pay any attention to his looks. This was business.”
“Of course it was. So, do you think he'll ask you to dinner tomorrow night?”
Chuckling, Jenna said, “You're incorrigible. Okay, yes, he's very good looking.” She hesitated. “He looks sort of like Glen.”
Chloe frowned. “Stop obsessing about your ex. He's in the past, or at least that's where you should put him if you don't want to get serious with him. It's kinder to both of you.” Chloe bit down on a burger she'd brought in from a restaurant down the street. “So, if he asks, will you have dinner with him?”
Would she? Maybe she needed to get back on the dating horse. She mentally shook herself. This was all silly. He wasn't going to ask her to dinner.
Â
“How about having dinner with me?” Toby said, the following afternoon after the two Germans had left. “I'd like to get to know you better.”
“Let me be perfectly honest with you, Toby,” Jenna said. “I'm just out of a long-term relationship and I don't know whether I'm ready for anything else right now.”
Toby stared at her. “I asked you to have dinner with me as a friend. Relax. I haven't devoured a dinner partner in weeks. I just wanted to thank you properly for all your help these last two days. You sped things up and made some very helpful suggestions.” All at once he looked like a little boy. “And you kept me sane.”