that she knew he’d like.
“Seared scallops with asparagus risotto,” she read. “Pecan-crusted tilapia, maple-glazed salmon.”
Will got the scallops, which she’d known he would. Weezy got the tilapia, which Will had guessed. They both ordered white wine with their dinners, and ate slowly. Will cut one of his scallops in half and deposited it on her plate with a scoop of the risotto. She did the same with her fish.
They even split a dessert, at Will’s insistence. “My diet is already shot,” he said. “So we might as well go all the way.” Will’s “diet” consisted of his complaining about his weight and spending a few days each month doing sit-ups in his office and trying to give up butter.
“This was a perfect night,” Weezy said as they left. Will had ordered a glass of port for each of them and they were both a little wobbly as they left the restaurant. Will had started slurring just the tiniest bit, and Weezy knew it probably wasn’t smart for them to drive home, but it was only a couple of miles.
She woke up in the middle of the night with a headache and stomach cramps and spent the next hour in the bathroom. Will came in at one point to get the antacids. The rich food and all that alcohol. Oh, what was she thinking? There was a time when that wouldn’t have bothered her one bit, when she would have slept peacefully through the night. But now? Well, now she was old. Practically a grandmother.
She thought of Will then, the way he’d said “just the adults” as if Claire and Martha were still little children they needed to escape from. She thought of the way that she’d passed Claire’s room the other night, seen Claire asleep on the bed, her mouth wide open, her arms around an ancient stuffed moose. How Will had said “Poor baby” to Martha. Her head pounded and her stomach threatened to revolt again. What was going on? She took two aspirin and drank a glass of water and tried to go back to bed.
THE NEXT WEEK, WEEZY TOLD MAX that she needed Cleo’s mother’s number. Enough was enough. She understood that families work things out in their own way, but Max and Cleo were not in any position to deal with things on their own. “Just have her tell her mother that I want to talk to her,” Weezy said.
She found she was nervous when dialing the number, and even more so when she heard someone else answer the phone. “Elizabeth Wolfe’s office.” Weezy identified herself and was put on hold. She wondered what Elizabeth would say, if she would even take the call. And just when she was beginning to think that she’d never get through, the line clicked.
“Am I ever glad to talk to you,” Elizabeth said.
“Oh! Well, I’m glad to hear that.”
On the other end of the phone, Elizabeth let out a breath, blowing straight into the receiver. “Can you believe this?” she asked. “Cleo is driving me absolutely insane.”
“I’ve said the same thing about Max every day since I found out.”
The two women laughed a little, and Weezy felt relieved. Elizabeth was just a mom after all. Weezy felt guilty for all the things she’d been saying about her, and even though there was no way Elizabeth could have known about them, she almost apologized. “I didn’t want to intrude,” she said. “I just thought we should talk.”
They made plans to meet that weekend for lunch. “I can take the train there,” Weezy said. “It’ll give me an excuse to do some shopping.”
The two women met at a restaurant on the Upper West Side, not far from Elizabeth’s apartment. “I can’t imagine raising a child here,” Weezy said. “I admire you for it. If I hadn’t been able to run mine like dogs outside, I think I might have gone crazy.”
Elizabeth just nodded, and Weezy was afraid she’d insulted her. “It really is admirable,” she said again. “Cleo’s a lovely girl.”
“A lovely pregnant girl,” Elizabeth said. Weezy looked up, embarrassed that the waiter was standing right there and had heard, but Elizabeth didn’t seem to care. She ordered a glass of wine and raised her eyebrows at Weezy, who nodded in agreement.
“I’m just so furious,” Elizabeth said.
“I know, I know.” Weezy found that Elizabeth’s anger made her want to be even more understanding.
The two women talked about what was to come, agreed that their children had no idea what to expect, but