The Museum of Heartbreak - Meg Leder Page 0,11

you,” he said, leaning around and giving me a kiss on the cheek. I dropped my head, trying to hide my blush.

“Mrs. Marx, can I have some bread?” Eph asked, and Mom handed me the bread basket. I took my time choosing a slice, then waited until my mom wasn’t looking and passed it the opposite way.

He rolled his eyes.

“Ellen, how is your new glass studio? It’s in Bushwick, right?” my mom asked politely. She had already confided to me no less than a dozen times that she was worried Ellen would get mugged, going that far out in Brooklyn.

“It’s amazing,” Ellen replied. “I have so much more space . . .”

At that point I became aware of the table vibrating, a slight rattle of silverware, drinks shaking, drinks sloshing, and my mind immediately went to an earthquake or huge alien-overlord ship hovering above the city. Eph met my eyes and nodded his head toward my dad, the source of the kinetic energy. He was shaking his leg so hard under the table I thought the whole room was going to start inching itself out of its foundations.

I could tell Mom was trying to suss out the source of the vibrations while still pretending to listen to Ellen, so for my mom’s sake (but not for Eph’s, who’d called me absurd), I bit the bullet.

“How was your day, Dad?”

He exhaled deeply, relieved to let out all that bottled-up energy. “Willo’s coming, darling daughter!”

As if the declaration freed him, he reached for a hunk of bread and began happily gnawing on it.

“Who’s Willo?” Ellen asked.

“I’m glad you asked, Ellen,” my dad started, his mouth still full of half-chewed bread. Mom patted him gently on the leg, shaking her head.

“If I may, Theo?” George asked my dad. My dad frowned, eager to expound further but reluctantly held back by my mom’s good table manners. George spread his napkin over his lap with a flourish. “We’re mounting a major exhibit on dinosaur physiology. Were they fast, were they sluggish? Were they closer physiologically to birds or reptiles? Willo was—”

There was a buzz and George paused, grabbing his cell phone out of his pocket and lowering his dark-rimmed glasses to squint at the number. “Oh, I have to take this.” He pushed his chair back.

“George,” Ellen said, touching his elbow, inclining her head at the rest of the table.

“It can’t wait—I’m sorry.” He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek, then turned to my mother. “Jane, please excuse me. I promise I’ll be back for more of this amazing meal,” he said, winking at her before he left the room.

Ellen grabbed her glass of wine and put the whole thing back in one gulp.

My mom’s face knit in disapproval, whether from the wine or George’s departure I couldn’t tell. I knew she wasn’t crazy about these dinners: I had overheard her telling my dad more than once that she worried that Ellen drank too much, that she didn’t like the way George got all handsy at the end of the evening, that she thought George and Ellen shouldn’t leave Eph alone for so long when they traveled for George’s exotic museum-curating trips.

I loved her, but I wished she wouldn’t worry so much.

“Who’s Willo?” Ellen asked.

My dad gulped down a mouthful and leaned forward, chewing as he talked. “Willo was a dinosaur. And what’s remarkable about him, you may ask?”

“Funny, I was going to ask that,” I said.

“Actually, he’s not remarkable!” My dad laughed at his joke, officially reaching Peak Dad Humor. “But here’s where it gets interesting.” My dad leaned forward, his voice lowering to a moderately loud whisper. “Back in 2000, scientists in North Carolina began to examine Willo’s remains more carefully. They peeled away all this dirt and fossilized bone in his chest, and they made what at the time they thought was a huge discovery. Can you guess what it was?”

“A baby dinosaur?” my mom said.

“A second brain?” Ellen said.

“Amelia Earhart’s remains?” I said.

“A heart?” Eph said.

“Ephraim for the win!” my dad yelled, high-fiving Eph while holding a fork full of pasta, splashing red sauce on his own shirt in the process.

Eph mouthed I win at me. I stuck my tongue out at him.

“It was the first dinosaur heart anyone had ever found! I mean, they had all but given up on finding one. Can you imagine actually seeing the organ that pumped blood through those creatures? God, it’s amazing. And I haven’t even gotten to the big part yet.