“We could get Princess a special Christmas collar and everything.”
“She would love that so much,” he lies with great vigor.
“Right?”
Mom looks at us as if we’re both crazy. Maybe we are.
“‘I must learn to be content with being happier than I deserve,’” I quote. And it’s nothing less than the truth.
“Hey, that was my line.” Beck rises, kissing me on top of my head. He starts collecting the plates, pausing briefly to look at my mother. His gaze is cool. “You don’t trust me. I can understand that. I wouldn’t want some rich asshole coming in and sweeping my daughter off her feet either. Moving her to another state. Changing her life in big ways. Maybe you and I will learn to get along or maybe we won’t. I hope for Alice’s sake that we do. But whatever happens, don’t ever again tell her what to eat.”
Huh.
Mom stares after him as he takes the plates over to the sink. When she turns to me, the shock in her eyes is clear. Though I don’t know why she’s so surprised. Guess no one’s ever stood up for me before. I’ve done plenty of it myself. Or did I just learn to ignore such shit? Those times at BBQs when she’d point out what piece of steak had the least amount of fat. Serving me the smallest piece of cake at birthday parties. Things like that. Ugh.
“Why don’t I let you two catch up?” Beck heads up the stairs, not looking back.
I just wait, slumped back in my chair, sipping on my beer. How do you respectfully ask your mother to retract the stick from her ass? I knew there’d be resistance to my moving away and everything. This, however, is excessive.
Mom’s hands sit in front of her, fingers tightly laced. “I had a friend in college who dated a rich boy. Tori, her name was.”
“Wasn’t she one of your bridesmaids?”
“That’s right.” Mom’s smile is there and gone. Like lightning. “They were so in love. Just crazy about each other. They went everywhere together. Every party, every football game…you name it. There they were, joined at the hip. He even took her home to meet his family for Thanksgiving and he’d never taken a girl home before. It was fine at first. Everyone was perfectly nice. But then his family decided he was maybe a little too serious about this blue-collar girl. Her father was only a mechanic, you see? Her mother had passed. Tori didn’t know anything about fitting in with the country club set. Didn’t know the right glass to use. But they were determined to be together. Nothing could stop them.
“So after graduation they got married. She worked as a teacher, supporting them both, while he went to law school. It didn’t matter that he’d been cut off by his family and they had to live in some rat-infested attic. They were in love. As long as they had each other everything was fine. For years this went on; Tori worked and he studied. He studied hard, graduated top of his class. His family finally came to their senses and accepted the young couple back into the fold. They bought a big mansion in Bel Air and lived the high life. Parties and galas and business dinners. Holidays in the south of France and skiing in Aspen. She changed to teaching at a private school and drove to work in a brand-new Mercedes and wore Ralph Lauren. It was fine. Until it wasn’t.
“All of the little pressures just kept mounting up on her. The pressure to maintain that illusion of perfection. The pressure to always be in the right place saying the right things to the right people. The pressure to fit in and help her husband make partner. And all the while she was surrounded by these rich people living idle lives with poison pouring out of their mouths and not an ounce of kindness in them. I imagine it must have been like living under a microscope, constantly being watched, everyone just waiting for you to mess up so they could talk about it behind her back. No matter how much Tori and her man loved each other, it wasn’t enough to combat that kind of constant pressure and stress. The cracks started to show and they divorced in the end.
“You can tell me it’s not like that with you and your man. That he and his family and friends are different. That no