Little Known Facts A Novel - By Christine Sneed Page 0,92
that he was in Paris now, and he had talked to Anna in the past week, but she had said nothing about his father proposing to Elise. She probably didn’t know and wouldn’t know unless Will told her, because he could not see their father talking to her about it if his proposal had been rejected. Elise’s refusal was enough to make him call his father; Renn had left him a voice mail four days earlier, which Will had so far ignored. Just checking in, his father had said. Hope everything’s fine.
He tried his father’s cell phones, leaving a message on both, before he reached him when he tried calling a second time. “Is everything all right?” his father asked. “You sounded a little agitated in your messages.”
“Why didn’t you call me back after you listened to them?”
“I would have, but I’m at a shoot right now. It’s only eleven thirty in the morning here. What’s it over there? Six thirty?”
“Eight thirty.”
“Oh. Well, I would have called you in a couple of hours.”
His father sounded no different than usual. He even sounded a little buoyant. Had Elise changed her mind since e-mailing him and accepted the proposal? The thought made it harder to breathe. Maybe his father had seen his mistress, if he had one, which Will assumed he did. Elise was likely to be right about this. Women often seemed to be able to tell when something was going on; his mother had known too, though she had tried, often unsuccessfully, not to bring up her suspicions in front of Anna and him while still married to their father.
“Sorry that it’s taken me a few days to get back to you. I was just wondering how you were doing.”
“I’m fine,” his father said, a wary note in his voice now. “Everything’s fine.”
“That’s good.”
They both were silent until Renn said, “I hope you’re not overdoing it with your running.”
“I’m not,” said Will. “It’s harder to get overheated in the winter anyway.”
“But you could still overdo it.”
“I could, but I don’t.”
“Have you made any friends over there yet?”
“Dad, I’ve only been here a couple of weeks.”
“What do you do all day?”
“I go for runs. I shop for food and go to museums. I’m going to start taking a French class at the American School too.”
“Any more thoughts about law school?”
Will could hear someone talking in the background, then an eruption of laughter. He knew that his father would have to go in a minute, and they had said nothing at all to each other. But he didn’t know what he had expected—his father to confess to an affair? To admit that Elise didn’t want to marry him, at least not yet? Few people he knew, especially his father, were ever forthright about these sorts of things, unless they were being filmed for a reality show or calling in to Loveline.
“I’m still thinking about it,” said Will, “but I don’t know if I want to be a lawyer.”
“Billy,” said his father, almost soothingly. “Just try something. Take a leap and apply to Cordon Bleu if you’re planning to stay in Paris for a little while. Learn how to do magic tricks and work as a clown at kids’ parties. I don’t know. Just do something, and maybe it’ll stick.”
“Whatever I do, it’s going to be about running.”
“Running,” his father said slowly. “Running away. To Paris or Johannesburg or Riyadh or Warsaw.”
Will said nothing.
“Well, I hope you’re taking care of yourself. No girlfriend yet, I suppose.”
“No.”
“I’m sure it won’t take long.”
“What about you? Do you have a new girlfriend?”
His father hesitated. “No. I’m still with Elise.”
“Oh. Well, I guess you are.”
“What do you mean, you ‘guess’?”
“I don’t mean anything. I was just talking.”
“That’s the problem,” said his father, half under his breath. “All right. I have to run. Maybe we can talk more later.”
“Okay,” said Will. “I’ll be awake for a few more hours.”
His father did not call back that night or the next, but aside from his resenting Renn a little for his silence, it was a relief. He waited to reply to Elise’s e-mail too, not sure if he should respond at all because he had told her that he would leave her alone, and if he waited long enough, maybe she would e-mail him again. It would almost feel like he had the upper hand for an hour or two, but he wasn’t sure what that meant or what good it would do him to have it, especially considering that