Даниэла Стил - Neighbors

Meredith had been slightly late for dinner because Debbie had made a fuss when she left the house.

“You’re going out again ? Why didn’t you tell me? I made your favorite dinner.” She looked like she was going to cry, and Meredith felt terrible to hurt her feelings.

“I left you a note in the kitchen this morning,” Meredith said gently.

“I didn’t see it.” She made a great show then of throwing out the dinner, which made Meredith arrive twenty minutes late at the Johnsons, after apologizing profusely to Debbie. She ran down the street to the Johnsons, and left Debbie looking mortally wounded in the kitchen. As soon as she left, Jack broke out a bottle of Debbie’s favorite Chateau Margaux, and she had dinner for him in the oven.

“She’ll get tired of them,” he reassured her, “or they’ll get tired of her. They’re not going to want an old woman hanging around all the time, and she’s not going to want to hang around an eighty-two-year-old man. Peter and Ava are going to be sneaking around seeing each other. They won’t want an audience for that. All Joel wants is to get laid. He won’t want Meredith underfoot either,” Jack said smugly.

“What about the colonel?” Debbie asked him, concerned, as they drank the wine and ate the dinner she’d hidden in the oven. “He seems pretty interested in her.” Debbie didn’t like the look of him. He was always watching her and Jack as though he was suspicious of them.

“She’s almost ten years older than he is. How long do you think that will last?” Jack said cynically. “He’s got his eye on Ava. I think he wants a piece of that himself.”

“And she wants Peter.” Debbie laughed. “They’re all so screwed up. You’re right, they’ll get bored with each other in no time, and she’ll come crawling back to us,” Debbie said, getting drunk on the wine, while Meredith had dinner with the Johnsons.

The atmosphere stayed tense between Andrew and Tyla all through dinner, and not wanting to make it worse, Meredith came home as soon as the children went to bed. The house was quiet by then, and Meredith could see the lights on in Jack and Debbie’s apartment as she walked home. She hoped that Debbie had forgiven her for not eating the dinner she’d prepared. She hated upsetting her. She knew it had been a hard month for them with everyone staying there after the earthquake. She’d given them extra days off as soon as the guests left. It had been a good month for her, but challenging for them, and they acted as though their own home had been invaded. She still remembered Charles’s words about them, and knew he was overreacting and had misjudged them. They had been moody while the guests were there, but they weren’t evil people.

She was thinking of him when the phone rang. It was only nine o’clock. It was Charles, calling to check on her, and thank her for inviting him to Arthur’s concert.

“How are you doing without your houseguests?” he asked.

“I miss them. I just had dinner with Tyla, Andrew, and the children.”

“How was that?”

She sighed when she answered. “Tense. I worry about her, and the kids. It’s like living on the side of a volcano. She still claims that everything is fine with them, but I know it isn’t. She burned the rice and he had a fit. Poor Daphne looks terrified whenever she’s around him. I just want to scoop them up and take them home with me.”

“Before you do that, how about dinner with me tomorrow night? You can scoop me up and take me home,” he said, and she laughed. They had never had dinner alone and she was nervous about it. He made it sound like a date, and she didn’t know if she was ready for that. She hadn’t been out on a date since before she married Scott. She felt ridiculous going on a date at her age, especially with a man eight years younger. She wanted to be friends with him, and thought it was probably better if they left it at that, but she was embarrassed to say it to him. “Are you comfortable going to a restaurant, or will everybody recognize you?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t go out much. Almost never,” she said. He had seen a few heads turn the night before, at the symphony, and the Greek restaurant, but no one had bothered her. They just stared at her for a few minutes and whispered to one another when they realized who she was. Her looks hadn’t changed much since she had stopped making movies, and she was easily recognizable, particularly when she was dressed up like the night before. She had worn a simple black dress, with her hair pulled back and diamond earrings. Everything about her was sleek, elegant, and understated. For an instant, he had felt overwhelmed, realizing he was out with Meredith White, but she was so open and easy to be with, that she made it possible to forget what a big star she was, and what an icon. In some ways, she had become even more famous, by being so mysterious and disappearing from public view when she went into seclusion.

“I know a little Italian restaurant out in the Avenues. No one will bother you there. Or would you rather go someplace fancier?”

“I’m a pizza and hamburger girl myself,” she said simply.

“You make things awfully easy. I can cook for you at my place too. I’ve become a decent cook in the past two years.”

“We can eat here, if you like,” she suggested, but he didn’t want to do that. He wanted to get her away from the watchful eyes of Jack and Debbie, and to make it a real date.

“I’ll figure it out. Pick you up at eight?”

“That would be perfect,” she said, and regretted it as soon as she hung up. She felt ridiculous going on a date with him at her age. She was past all that, or she had been for the past fourteen years, but he was slowly pulling her out of seclusion, against her better judgment.

She made a point of telling Debbie the next morning that she was going out to dinner again, for the third night in a row. She felt dizzy thinking about it. She was sorry she had told Charles she would go out with him. She was planning to make it clear to him at dinner. They could be friends and nothing more. She wasn’t interested in romance at her age. She was thinking about it when she went to the drugstore to buy toothpaste and nail polish remover. She had found what she needed when she almost collided with Tyla, who had just picked up a bottle of foundation and an ice pack. Meredith looked shocked when she saw the bruise on the side of her face. It hadn’t been there the night before, and Tyla looked instantly embarrassed and turned her face away.

“I walked into the bathroom door last night. I forgot where I was, and Andrew had left it half closed,” she said immediately.

“Are you okay?” Meredith asked her as they walked to the checkout counter together.

“I’m fine. I’m sorry dinner was so lousy last night. I’ve forgotten how to cook, after staying with you and being spoiled for a month.” She smiled and Meredith saw that her lip was slightly swollen too.

“Dinner was good, I was going to call you in a little while. But, Tyla, I’m worried about you.”

“You don’t need to be. We’re fine. I know I look terrible. I just bruise easily. I’m always walking into things, or falling over my own feet.” Meredith felt sick as she listened to her, and she was sure the children were upset too.

“Tyla, you don’t have to put up with anyone hurting you.” Meredith tried to make it sound as nonjudgmental as possible.

“Andrew doesn’t hurt me,” she said, coming to his defense immediately. She knew that if she told anyone, he would kill her, just as he said he would. If she left him, where would she go and what would she do? She couldn’t deprive her children of their father. They needed him too.

They chatted for a few more minutes, and then Tyla scurried off and said she had to pick the kids up from school.