“I said, I’m just going to sit here for a while.”
“Do you want me to wait with you?”
Claire shook her head. “No, you can go home.” She put her head back on her knees and waved her arm. “Go, I’m serious.”
“I’d feel better if you were inside,” he said.
Claire stood up and walked down the steps. “Okay, I’ll go in the back door, then.”
She waved good-bye to him as he walked down the driveway and the sidewalk, and then when he turned the corner, she walked across the street and back to Lainie’s.
Almost everyone had gone home, but Lainie’s two younger sisters were still there, and they cheered when she walked in. “You’re back,” Lainie said. “Yay!”
They sat on the back patio and smoked cigarettes, until Claire started feeling like it was going to make her puke. Lainie smoked only when she was drunk, but she didn’t like to smoke in the front of the house, in case any of her clients walked by. “Pilates people do not smoke,” she always said.
They talked about Fran, and Claire re-created her “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” scene for Lainie, who loved it.
“What do you want with Fran?” Lainie asked. Claire shrugged. She really didn’t know.
“I don’t think I want anything,” she said. “Or maybe just a little something. I don’t know.”
She barely remembered their moving back inside the house, and vaguely remembered sitting on the couch and then just laying her body down sideways to sleep. Then the next thing she remembered was waking up to Jack calling her out on sleeping in her clothes.
“RUTH, AREN’T YOU GOING TO HAVE any turkey?” Bets asked.
“Bets, Ruth is a vegan,” Cathy said.
Bets sniffed. “Right, I forgot.” She asked the same question every year, and Claire was pretty sure that she put “Vegan” right along with “Alcoholic” on her list of things she didn’t believe in.
“Martha, how’s the job going?” Maureen asked.
“Fine. I mean, good. It’s going well.”
“You must be the only white caretaker out there,” Bets said. “All of ours are foreign, probably illegals. You’ll be in high demand.” She smiled at Martha.
“Mom,” Weezy said. Bets just shrugged and held up her hands, like, What do you want me to do?
“Should we say grace?” Will asked. They all bowed their heads, and afterward Will raised his glass and said, “Let’s eat!”
Claire noticed that Cleo was just poking her food around on her plate. “Are you okay?” she asked her quietly, but everyone heard her anyway.
“What’s the matter, Cleo? Are you not feeling well?” Weezy asked.
“There was a bug going around the retirement community last week,” Bets offered. “Four people died.”
Claire and Ruth caught each other’s eye and smiled, then looked down at their plates. It wasn’t funny, of course, that four people had died. It was just that the first time Ruth met Bets, she’d been going on and on about all of her friends that had died. Ruth had very nicely asked Claire later, “Does your grandmother talk about death a lot?” and Claire had laughed so hard she’d peed a little bit. Ever since then, the two of them were in serious danger of getting the giggles when Bets announced that another bridge partner had dropped dead.
“The sweet potatoes are wonderful,” Will said. “And so are the apples and cranberries. Martha, you’ve outdone yourself.”
Martha smiled as everyone chimed in, “Yes, they’re amazing, they really are. So tasty.”
Claire had moved on to white wine and she finished her glass and refilled it from the bottle at the table. Thankfully, it was making her headache go away. There would be another one tomorrow, she knew, but for the moment it was worth it to get through this dinner.
“We’ll call Drew after dinner,” Weezy said.
“Where is Drew?” Bets asked. They’d told her maybe ten times already.
“Drew stayed in California. He’s having Thanksgiving with some coworkers,” Maureen said.
“Well, that sounds downright depressing,” Bets said.
“I think it sounds nice,” Max offered. “To be someplace where it’s warm, I mean.” He got up and returned with another beer. On his way back to his seat, he patted Cleo’s shoulder. The table got quiet and all Claire could hear was chewing and forks hitting the plates.
“Do you like train travel?” Bets directed this question at Ruth, who looked as surprised as the rest of them.
“Um, yes, I do. I haven’t done much of it, but I do like it.”
Claire saw Weezy and Maureen give each other a meaningful look across the table. They were always on the