Anyway, a little reminder to the golden boy that he was not alone in the world.
Then Jay fixed the upstairs window and Cramer was locked out, until he discovered the trapdoor. It was something he knew that Jay didn’t. Something he had over him.
Cramer had never taken anything from him. The stone, but that was worthless. It was just to play with his head. Nothing truly nasty. He didn’t want to scare him away. He wanted to be noticed, and he had no idea how-no other idea how. And yes, he wanted to disturb Jay’s comfort. Comfort was what Jay had a whole lot of. A world of comfort! He wanted Jay to know what it felt like to never really be able to relax, to never really feel at ease, to never have any time off. In a way, though he couldn’t exactly explain it, he was just trying to make smaller the distance-the gulf-between them.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Conchita’s was down a flight of wooden stairs to a deck suspended only a foot or two above the river, shallow at this point, offering little risk of drowning if one happened to fall drunk over the railing. Or if you accidentally pushed someone. Now, now, Mimi, she muttered to herself. I’m sure Iris will be lovely.
The restaurant was tucked into what was once the basement of a building constructed by Scottish stonemasons a hundred and fifty years ago, never knowing that the building would one day serve quesadillas and killer margaritas.
Blue-and-yellow Corona umbrellas were open above every table on the crowded deck but served no real purpose, for the setting sun was blocked from the patrons’ eyes by the massive old place that housed the restaurant, a craft store, and bookstore as well.
Jay and Iris had already ordered a pitcher of margaritas when Mimi arrived, Thursday evening. She arrived late, on purpose, determined not to be the one sitting there alone and waiting. She had only packed a couple of dresses for her trip, and she dressed in the flirtiest of them before remembering that it was hardly a date. So she changed, a little reluctantly, back into her black capris and a black V-neck. She wore a lime-green plastic belt and a button that read IMPEACH NIXON. A girl had to show some style.
Jay actually stood to introduce the two women. Could he be more chivalrous? Iris Xu was petite, but her handshake was firm. Her smile dissolved her face into a glinting array of smooth and burnished plains. Her long hair shimmered; her eyes were warm. Mimi laughed with relief. Liking her was not going to be hard at all.
“Are you beat from the drive?”
“No, it’s just three and a half hours,” said Iris. “Except that Jay drives exactly at the speed limit!”
“How boring is that.”
“I know,” said Iris, and patted Jay’s hand affectionately. High-school sweethearts now old-marrieds. Mimi wasn’t sure if she felt very young or very grown up in their company.
Then a waitress arrived, smiling-mostly at Jay. And Mimi got carded.
“I can vouch for her, Nikki,” said Jay while Mimi fumbled for her ID.
“Okay, Jay,” said Nikki, blinking and winking at him and stumbling away with her tray clasped to her chest.
Iris leaned forward, with her hand to the side of her mouth. “Nikki’s been in love with Jay since third grade.”
“Poor thing,” said Mimi. “What does she see in him?”
Iris shrugged. “Back then I think it was his Han Solo action figure. But now I think she’s after his kayak.”
“Well, it is a really long kayak,” said Mimi, and Iris cracked up.
“All right, ladies,” said Jay. “Let’s keep it down.”
Nikki soon returned with the beer and a plate of nachos with jalapenos, sour cream-the works.
“Restraint is so last year,” said Iris, who was as thin as a rail. And then leaning against the table, she whispered, wide-eyed, “So how weird is it to find you have a brother you never knew about?”
Mimi poured herself a drink. “Oh, it’s right up there with getting arrested in the Uffizi,” she said. And she told them all about it.
They talked about travel misadventures and then history, which was Iris’s major, and art and music and New York. Spent napkins piled up around them.
“Sour cream alert,” said Iris, and taking Mimi’s face in her hand, she removed a smear from her cheek. They exchanged smiles and, unless Mimi was imagining it, blessings.
“Jay was telling me you left New York in a bit of a hurry.”
Mimi frowned. “What exactly did he tell you?”
“A predatory prof?”
Mimi glared at Jay.
He threw up his hands. “She forced it out of me,” he said.
“Yeah, right.”
“Dish!” said Iris.
Note to self, thought Mimi. Keep secrets from Jay. But Iris was not about to be put off and so Mimi dished. She didn’t mind. In fact, she was a little amazed at how crazy hungry she was to talk about it. So she told them about the exhilaration in the early days of the affair, the clandestine dates, the off-the-beaten-track venues, the surprising places one could find to be totally alone together even in an academic establishment. Then she told them how it all came undone, as Lazar got more and more infatuated.
“It got kind of surreal,” she said.
“Like melty?” said Iris.
“Huh?”
“You know, that picture by Salvador Dali with the melting clocks hanging from dead trees or whatever.”
“Ah, melty,” said Mimi. “I guess.” But what she guessed was that Iris was getting pretty drunk. Come to think of it, so was she. Nikki had come back with a second pitcher of margaritas. Mimi had tried to decline, but Jay guessed her only real concern.
“Nobody’s driving,” he said. “Transportation is under control.”
She didn’t bother to ask what that meant, mostly because she wanted to keep drinking. Wanted to let go. And she had let go. Except that letting go had led to this discussion about her love life.
“Is he dangerous, this Lazar Coatrack?”
“Cosic,” said Mimi. She shrugged and shook her head. Then thought a moment and nodded. Iris stared at her a little cross-eyed.
“Could you be slightly more definitive?”
“I’m here, aren’t I?” said Mimi. And what she meant was she had run away, but they already knew that. Hell, half the people at Conchita’s probably knew it by now, she realized. Her voice had gotten quite loud. It did that.
Jay looked serious, and she was about to apologize when he said something that stunned her. “He was stalking you, wasn’t he?”
She felt panicky as if Jay must have been stalking her himself. “How did you know that?”
“Your documentary. There was some dude standing outside the apartment, on the corner.”
Mimi stared at Jay and nodded slightly, a little unnerved. “Good eye,” she said.
Jay shook his head. “Not really. You zeroed right in on him, swore, and then went into this dissolve. If I was writing the score, there’d be cellos.”
“Cellos?”
He nodded. “Playing a lot of sharps.”
Mimi was a little lost.
Luckily Iris was there to move things along.
“So tell us about the film treatment.”
Mimi poured herself another margarita. “The script is so-so,” she said, waggling her hand as if she was screwing in a lightbulb that didn’t quite fit. “Actually, I’m thinking of turning it into a sci-fi thriller, set on one of the moons of Venus.”
