But she was eternally grateful to them for taking Bets for the stretch between the two holidays. Getting her back and forth from Michigan twice a year would have been a nightmare, and while Weezy suspected that Bets was much kinder and more charming to her nieces and nephews than she was to her daughters, she still couldn’t have been an easy guest.
Maureen was coming over today to talk about menus. Ruth was a vegan, which was a choice that Weezy respected, but it made cooking for her almost impossible. The girl was so nice about it, always brought over a side dish of her own, and assured Weezy that she was getting enough to eat, but Weezy didn’t see how that was possible, considering that pretty much all she could eat was plain vegetables and nothing else. Last year, they’d made a special pecan pie for her, and out of curiosity, Weezy took a bite. She’d made herself swallow, but it wasn’t easy. Poor, thin Ruth, she’d thought. No butter or meat, what a sad life.
She was happy that none of her children had entered into the world of vegetarianism. Unless you counted the two years in high school when Claire refused to eat red meat, but even then she’d eat chicken occasionally. She was just doing it to be difficult, really. Even Cleo ate meat, thank God. Not that she considered Cleo one of her children—it was way too early for that. So at least she had that much to be thankful for, that her children were getting enough protein. Ruth should probably be taking iron pills, and Weezy made a note to ask her about that.
Maureen was late, which was not unusual. In fact, it was almost expected. It surprised Weezy how Maureen could be so organized and efficient in her work, and have none of that spill over to her personal life. Maureen was an executive assistant for John McLaughlin, one of the VPs at Price Waterhouse. She had been there for over twenty-five years and as he got promoted, she went with him. He called Maureen his “right-hand man” and he meant it. She kept his schedule, was loyal to him, and always had her ear out for talk among the assistants of any rumblings in the company. She kept his office running tightly and smoothly, and you would never know that she often ran out of dishwasher detergent at home and forgot to replace it for weeks.
Maureen had gone back to college after her husband left, and it had taken her almost three years, during which Cathy and Drew spent a lot of nights eating dinner with the Coffeys, and sometimes spent whole weekends there so that Maureen could make it to class and study. But she’d done it, and landed the job with John right after she graduated.
“You went back to college to be a secretary?” Bets asked when she got the news. “I was a secretary for years, and I didn’t need to go to college.”
“An executive assistant,” Maureen corrected her. Bets had rolled her eyes, but her job was one thing that Maureen never doubted. She loved working for John. She was friendly with his wife, attended his children’s first communions and graduations, and accepted his investment advice. Maureen loved everything about her job, feeling in control and having lunch with her friends in the office. Hearing her talk about it always made Weezy a little jealous.
Now, John was over sixty and his role in the company was getting smaller. He wanted to retire. He and his wife wanted to move to Maine full-time. For the time being, he still had an office at the company, but he’d been moved to a small office, and while Maureen went in every day, she was done by one o’clock at the latest. There just wasn’t much to do. She set up his golf games and answered e-mails and phone calls about when he would be in the office. Sometimes he came in and they organized files or went over things. But by next year, he would be gone, and Maureen would be retired as well. She wouldn’t need to work, thanks to the investments she’d so wisely listened to him about, but she wasn’t looking forward to it.
“All those days, stretching on, spending them all by myself,” she’d said. “It seems so definite.”
“You’re not by yourself,” Weezy told her. But she knew what Maureen meant.
Maureen kept suggesting that they start a business venture