of course. I applied to their London location. I think I told you? They couldn’t hire me, but this email says the gallerist there remembered me and they’re opening a space in Brooklyn.”
“Brooklyn? Really?”
“Yeah.”
“I wonder if it’s near our old neighborhood.”
“They want me to go down there and interview to be Matilda’s assistant.”
“What! That’s fabulous,” Elisabeth said. “You must have made an impression.”
“I guess I did,” Sam said, and she looked amazed.
“Don’t be so surprised. They’d be lucky to have you.”
“They want me to come for an interview tomorrow, in Brooklyn. I know I’m supposed to work.”
“Of course you have to go. The only question is what are you going to wear?”
“I don’t know,” Sam said. “And I don’t know what to say to Clive. Is it bad not to tell him yet? To wait and see what happens?”
“I might not be the best person to ask about withholding important information from your partner at the moment,” Elisabeth said.
“I want this job,” Sam said. “Have you ever been shocked by your own reaction to something? Like maybe you don’t know yourself at all?”
Elisabeth thought of the moment Andrew came in and said she wasn’t pregnant.
“Why don’t you just see what happens?” she said.
Sam nodded. “I might not even get it.”
She sounded both hopeful and fearful that this could be the case.
19
Sam
GIL WAS UPSTAIRS NAPPING when Sam got the call.
She and Elisabeth were sitting at the kitchen table, drinking tea, making plans for the party. Outside, rain pelted the windows.
Elisabeth had given a few chapters of her new book to her editor and agent and was awaiting feedback.
“This is my favorite part of the writing process,” she said. “The part where I get to do nothing for several days without feeling guilty about it.”
She went for a run that morning, before the weather turned. She ate a nice lunch out somewhere, alone.
“I can’t wait to read the book once it’s done,” Sam said.
“Oh, Sam, you’re the best,” Elisabeth said.
“Really. I’ve read both your books now. They’re so good. I think the second one is my favorite.”
Elisabeth’s face lit up. “Sam!” she said. “You always say the perfect thing.”
The afternoon itself felt perfect, like so many things did now that the end was near. Lately, Sam attended classes with a sense of sappy gratitude, for getting to be part of a group of smart women, debating the meaning of literature and art. When in her life would she ever do that again? She inhaled deeply when she studied in the library stacks, wanting to memorize the smell of the books. She got into bed for her afternoon nap each day, knowing Isabella was in class, and that no one else would disturb her, because she had written ZZZZZ on the whiteboard that hung on the door, and her friends knew what that meant.
Things that had irritated her all year now made her smile. The sight of Isabella slicing oranges on her nightstand for sangria; the sound of Rosa next door playing the same Prince song on repeat for an hour; the fact that she could just appear in the dining hall at six and a warm meal would be waiting.
The campus was at its best in springtime. After a winter spent crossing the quad with their heads down, wrapped in heavy coats as they hurried past the frozen pond, the students took their time now. They stopped to chat, or to take pictures of the pink cherry blossoms that lined Paradise Road, or to have a picnic on the green, green grass behind College Hall.
The seniors were extra emotional. Somebody on their platform cried every night lately, about one thing or another.
Sam looked around Elisabeth’s kitchen. This too would soon be over. She had loved their time together. Things had felt a bit strange after George told her about Elisabeth’s family money, but that feeling had mostly faded now. After Elisabeth confessed what she’d done with the embryos, Sam spent a few days fixated on the deception. But she had to put that away. It didn’t match the Elisabeth she knew. Maybe everyone had parts of themselves like that.
It was her new habit to get up at six each morning and go to the art building to work on the painting. Elisabeth had said not to worry if she needed to finish over the summer, but Sam intended to present it to her at the party. In part, so that she might get paid before moving to London. And in part