Tristan sang out the last line of the song: "Once you have found her, never let her gooooooo." He swept his hand toward me and held my eyes. It was corny, it was theatrical and it made me feel like queen of the world. His audience applauded enthusiastically and he took an exaggerated bow before returning to my side.
The party wound down quickly after Suze closed the lid on the baby grand. Tristan and I walked back to our cars in the theater parking lot. It was a beautiful moonless night and the stars were brilliant in the warm night sky. He led me over to my car.
"Don't you think it's time you had a new 'Eep'?"
I laughed at how observant he was. The 'J' had fallen off the word 'Jeep' on the rear door many months before. It wasn't worth trying to replace it. Jenn and I often joked about riding in my 'Eep'.
"I'm kind of attached to my old Eep. Besides, when summer is over and I go back to New York I won't really need a car." I ran a hand fondly over the oxidized red paint on the driver's side door. "This has been a good vehicle. She's never let me down."
"Well, I think she deserves to be put out to pasture. Let me get you a new car."
"Tristan, you're crazy. I wouldn't accept a new car from you. I don't need one and I certainly wouldn't be able to explain something like that to my parents."
"You could tell them a wealthy patron of the arts appreciated your brilliant assistance with his acting over the summer and gave it to you. That would be pretty much the truth."
"No, it wouldn't. Please drop it. It makes me uncomfortable."
"Very well, little one. I'll drop it for now." He brought me into his arms and kissed me long enough and deeply enough to make me try to get as much of my body against him as possible. There wasn't a quarter inch of space between us and I could feel his crotch coming alive against my lower belly. It was all so new that it spun my head. Here I was, standing in a parking lot kissing this gorgeous, sexy and fabulously wealthy man. A man I wouldn't allow to buy me a new car. I giggled at the absurdity of it all.
Tristan gave me a puzzled look. "That wasn't the reaction I expected when I kissed you."
"I'm sorry. I guess there's a surreal quality about me standing here with you that just struck me as …I don't know…a little on the bizarre side." I got on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for tonight, it was…you were fantastic."
"We were fantastic. But we're both tired so I guess it's time to say adieu for tonight." He opened the car door for me. "I'll follow you home."
"It's hardly necessary. I only live a few blocks from here."
"Please don't argue with me Raina. I said I'll see you home."
It was one of those moments that should have come up as a red flag, or at least a yellow one. Instead, it was the first of many times that I would simply accept his terms because the alternative wasn't important enough to me to warrant my dissent. A little thing, after all. Only a little thing.
***
He watched me go up the path and get my key in the lock. It wasn't until he saw that I had the door open that he waved and drove off. I switched on the hall light and had just put my purse and keys on the table next to the door when the phone rang. It was my mother's number. I felt a wave of guilt because I hadn't called her in a couple of weeks. That was followed by the grip of cold fear as I realized my mother was calling me at nearly one in the morning.
"Mom?"
"Raina, sweetheart."
"What's up, Mom?" I tried to keep steady. My mother never, ever called this late.
"I waited to call you until I knew everything was going to be all right. But I'm sure it's going to make the news, so I wanted to warn you. Your dad got into it today with some union thugs. He was hurt."
"Daddy? Where is he? I want to talk to him."
"He's still in the hospital. But the doctors will send him home in a couple of days. He's fine, really. A few stitches and a broken rib or two." Her voice shook even though she was trying to put a brave front on for me. "It was a scuffle over the courthouse building. Some of the workers still aren't satisfied with the contract terms."
"So it got ugly again." My father's firm was one of the biggest contractors in Brooklyn. But Dad wasn't a big supporter of unions. He did all that he could to see that the city struck a hard bargain. Sometimes it seemed he was the only one concerned with the people who ultimately paid the bills--taxpayers like him. I had been frustrated more than once with what I saw as my father's refusal to just do his job and mind his own business. If the unions wanted the city to buy a fifty-dollar hinge where a ten-dollar one would do and the city didn't mind, then why should my Dad?
"It's like this Angelcakes,' he'd tell me."It's 'cause me, and Bob and Vito and all the rest of our neighbors here are the ones who eat all that padding. Frankly, I'd rather have steak."
I told Mom I'd drive home that instant.
"Don't you dare," she ordered. "It is way too late for that. You don't need to come. He'll be out Wednesday at the latest. You can talk to him tomorrow." I knew my mother too well to buy her story. Okay, maybe it was too late to drive to New York, but with both my sisters on the West Coast, I was the only child available for moral support. She was frightened, and with good reason. We'd had bricks thrown through our living room window and phone threats before. Until Dad was home, she'd be scared shitless. Not that I could do much, but I could be company.
"I'll leave at the ass-crack of dawn, Mom."
"Raina, your language."
I laughed hard at that one. "Mom, I am Donald Harding's daughter. 'Ass-crack' doesn't even merit honorable mention on Dad's list of cuss words."
"You're also my daughter…"
"I love you, Mom. See ya tomorrow."
"I love you too, sweetie, but you really don't have to…"
"Bye, Mom."
"Bye."
Eight
I got up before the sun and threw some jeans and t-shirts into a bag. I was on my way before the sky had a trace of light in it. I realized, an hour out of Stockbridge, that I didn't have the cast list with me so I couldn't have called Tristan if I wanted to. Maybe that was just as well. If I was going to do this 'thing' with him on his terms, calling him with a family crisis was probably not a good move.
I had the theater's number in my phone and I left a message for Tom that I'd have to miss two, maybe three night's rehearsal on account of a family situation. When I thought Jenn would be up, I intended to call her and see if she could pinch hit for me at least one of those nights. I told Tom to give me a call when he got the message and I'd explain. I decided I would leave it up to Tom to explain--if anyone was interested--why I was missing.