Uptown Girl Page 11

  ‘A much older friend, right?’ the charmer asked and moved beside her.

  Kate was not in the mood. ‘Bunny and I have been friends since grade school,’ she told him, waving wildly through the glass, hoping someone would notice the movement. ‘And yes, in fact, Bunny is older by – almost a month. But we didn’t let that come between us.’

  ‘So what’s the problem if you miss some of the earlier festivities?’

  ‘I have to be there to support a friend from my posse.’

  ‘Your posse?’ he asked and smiled. ‘Anyone I know?’

  ‘Bev Clemenza, Bina Horowitz, Barbie Cohen.’

  ‘You’re kidding!’ he began and he stepped away to get a better look at Kate. She turned to him, just for a moment.

  ‘C’est incroyable, mais vraiment.’ What was it, she wondered, with the friggin’ French? She looked back in at the party. God! The DJ was starting to play! ‘You must be one of the infamous Bitches of B-Bushwick,’ he said. ‘I’ve heard about you girls.’

  ‘Excuse me?’ Kate asked, turning to him in surprise.

  ‘How come I’ve never met you?’ he asked, oblivious to her hostility. Typical narcissist, Kate thought. He looked over Kate’s head into the room and pointed. ‘I already know Bev, Barbie and, of course, Bunny. All the busy Bs. Who are you? Betty?’

  ‘My name is Katherine Jameson,’ Kate told him.

  ‘I’m Billy Nolan. Why haven’t I met you before?’

  ‘I left Brooklyn to go to college.’

  ‘I left Brooklyn to go to France. What did you do in college? And where have you gone since?’

  ‘I got my doctorate. I live in Manhattan now where I work as a psychologist.’ She paused. ‘Look, Billy, I have to get in there.’

  ‘So I see. I’m willing to cover my hand with my jacket and bust through the glass, but it …’

  ‘It might be a bit much,’ Kate finished for him.

  ‘They’ll open the doors once it gets too hot in there,’ he said, sitting down on the balustrade. ‘Have you noticed how no one from Brooklyn ever outgrows having their name end with an “ie”? Barbie. Bunny. Johnnie. Eddie. Arnie.’ He chuckled as he ran through the roster of juvenile nicknames. ‘Here in Brooklyn I’m never William or even Bill. I’m Billy.’ He held out his hand and Kate couldn’t resist shaking it.

  She tried to appear casual, despite the thrill that had run up her back, causing hairs on her neck to rise. ‘Do you prefer Billy to Bill?’ Kate asked.

  ‘Hey. We’re in Brooklyn,’ he answered. ‘Go with the flow. Here I’m Billy Nolan. And should I call you Doctor Katherine? Kate? Kathy or Katie?’

  ‘Oh, please, Kate not Katie. I hate it,’ Kate confessed. ‘Oh, look, they must be playing their song.’

  To her complete surprise Billy stood up, grabbed her hand and started to dance. Before she could make a move he stopped abruptly. ‘“Doo Wah Diddy” is their song?’ He made a face, looking puzzled in a really exaggerated way, his head cocked to the side.

  Kate laughed. ‘Well, maybe not.’

  ‘I hope not. If it is, I give the marriage three weeks. You have to at least start with some romance.’

  She bet he did. And that for him romance wore off fast. Kate looked him over. The sun glinted on his golden hair. He was one of those very few lucky Irish with the kind of skin that tanned and made their blue eyes bluer. ‘So you don’t think you can keep romance going?’ Kate asked him.

  ‘If I thought that I’d be married.’ Billy Nolan laughed. My God, he is handsome, Kate thought. Perhaps because of the brief exchange in French the phrase un coup de foudre, a lightning bolt, entered her mind and she felt almost as if she’d been jolted by one. He was something – and he knew it, she reminded herself.

  ‘Ah. The tyranny of commitment,’ Kate said, nodding.

  Billy reacted with widened eyes. Then he clutched at his chest. ‘Now they’re doing the “Hokey Pokey”!’ he said, as if that upset him.

  ‘So unusual for a Brooklyn wedding,’ Kate agreed, a bit sarcastically. They always played the ‘Hokey Pokey’ or the ‘Alley Cat’ or both. She looked in the window, where dozens of old ladies were dancing, their backs to them. ‘We definitely won’t be able to get their attention now.’

  ‘Uh oh. I think I’m in trouble,’ Billy said and began to shake. Kate wondered if he was still reacting to the word commitment. ‘Good thing you’re a doctor,’ he said.

  Kate looked at him suspiciously. ‘Why is that?’

  ‘I may need treatment right now. I have a terrible phobia of the “Hokey Pokey”.’

  ‘Really?’ Kate said. He’d been putting her on. There was something irresistible about Billy Nolan, but she didn’t need this kind of banter now. She just wanted to get into the reception. Well, as long as they were stuck outside … ‘As I say in my practice “Why do you feel that way?”’

  ‘It seems obvious,’ Billy told her. ‘Did you ever think about it?’

  ‘About what?’

  ‘About the song? I mean, “You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out.” Yadda, yadda. “You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around. And that’s what it’s all about.”’ He shivered exaggeratedly.

  ‘So?’

  ‘Well, what if that is what it’s all about? What if life is just putting one foot in front of the other and that’s it? Doesn’t the thought terrify you?’

  Before Kate could decide how tongue-in-cheek he was being and come up with an answer, the doors at the other end of the terrace at last flew open and a big guy in a wrinkled blue suit stuck his head out. ‘Hey, Nolan!’ he shouted. ‘Get your ass in here. Arnie wants to talk to you about the toast.’

  Before he vanished again, Billy shouted: ‘Larry! Hold that thought and that door!’ He gracefully ran the length of the terrace, catching the handle just in time. Then he turned back to Kate, held the door ajar and said, ‘After you, chère mademoiselle.’

  Kate felt her cheeks color again, but wasted no time stepping through the doors and into the crowded room. She was about to thank Billy when she heard Bev Clemenza’s high-pitched voice cut through the ambient noise like a knife through an angel food wedding cake, ‘Katie! Katie! Over here,’ and didn’t dare look back.

  13

  As Kate crossed the room toward her posse she almost felt a gravitational pull at her back caused by Billy Nolan. She was deeply embarrassed by the strength of her attraction and decided to put it out of her mind. He was just a superficial Brooklyn flirt. And she had an important job to do now.

  ‘Katie!’ Bev called again. Kate didn’t want to see how terrified Bina was going to be. Though it wasn’t her choice, she bitterly regretted that she hadn’t been beside Bina during the first few critical minutes. As she moved through the crowd – now twisting again as they did last summer, or at the last wedding – she silently cursed Billy Nolan and the time on the terrace, diverting as it had been.

  At last she managed to get across the dance floor and could clearly see table nine. Luckily, Bina was still somewhere in the crowd and Elliot had apparently abandoned the table for greater intrigues. There was Bev, her frosted hair slicked back and her now visibly pregnant belly stretching her unsuitable Lycra dress. Barbie, with her big hair hanging halfway down her back, was already seated too. Barbie’s dad, in the jewelry trade, had been more successful than the other friends’ fathers had been. She’d always had more clothes, trips to Florida, weekends in the Poconos and things that seemed enviable at the time. But now she was a Brooklyn wife, a buyer for a women’s clothing store on Nostrand Avenue. Her husband, Bobbie, was an accountant. Kate could look at her now and feel no envy at all.

  Barbie sat beside Bobbie, her plunging neckline revealing the half of her breasts not covered by her push-up bra. Kate averted her eyes, but the husbands were, in their own way, more difficult to look at. If each of them hadn’t been wearing a bow tie and cummerbund that matched his wife’s dress, Kate wouldn’t have been able to tell them apart. They were nice-looking B
rooklyn boys, but neither of them was the kind of handsome that Billy – or Bill – or William – Nolan was. And behind their eyes was none of the genuine intellect that Michael possessed. The thought of Michael trying to communicate at table nine raised goosebumps on her arms.

  ‘Hey,’ Bev yelled. ‘Look who’s here.’

  For a moment Kate thought she was being greeted, but Bev was staring past her. Kate turned to see Billy Nolan join the wedding party at the head table. Bunny looked down from the dais and gave Kate a quick wave and a big, proud smile while taking Arnie’s arm. Kate waved back but her eyes strayed to Billy, talking earnestly to the groom, then laughing with him. Well, there would be no laughs at table nine, Kate reminded herself. She forced herself to turn back to her own companions.

  ‘Wow, Kate, you look great!’ Bev said. ‘Of course, you’re a Scorpio and your ruling planet has come out this month, so no wonder.’

  ‘Yeah, there’s that. And the sale at agnès b,’ Kate said with a smile. Kate’s simple dress, sleeveless and high-collared, with a placket that covered the buttons, was the antithesis of all the overdone outfits of her old friends. If she but knew it, she was easily the most elegant woman in the room. It was always curious to Kate that while her Brooklyn crew never missed an issue of Vogue, Allure or Cosmopolitan, they never seemed to dress any differently than they ever had. Or, if there had been a change, it seemed merely to be that blouses had gotten tighter and patterns had gotten louder. Bev, despite her belly, was wearing a black and lemon tiger-striped Lycra thing. Barbie wore a tight, strapless dress in a Hawaiian floral print, all banana leaves and toucans wreathing (and writhing) around her torso. Kate could never quite decide if their taste was unbelievably bad, or whether hers had been permanently repressed by the nuns at Catholic grade school, when she’d worn a uniform.

  ‘You could use some accessorizing,’ Barbie opined by way of a hello. ‘A scarf, or maybe a pendant.’ Barbie herself was wearing an emerald – no doubt real – that was suspended just above her cleavage.

  ‘I have to wait until I get the chest and the gem for it,’ Kate said smoothly.

  ‘You are so cynical,’ Bev snorted. ‘Such a Scorpio.’ Since she had become pregnant, Bev, always a horoscope reader, had really gotten into astrology. Hormones, or something, Kate thought. Or perhaps the feeling of being out of control and the comforting compensation of a system to predict the universe. Kate turned to face the wedding hall again to try to spot Bina and the guys. She was getting nervous about them. At last she saw Elliot making his way across the room. He arrived carrying three drinks.

  ‘For you, and you, and you,’ he said and gave each of the women a Cosmopolitan.

  ‘Ooh. Thanks,’ Bev said, ‘but I can’t.’

  ‘What a gentleman,’ Barbie said appreciatively, then dug Bobbie in the ribs.

  ‘This is my friend Elliot.’ Kate took Elliot’s arm.

  ‘We’ve already met,’ Elliot said. Kate raised her eyebrows. ‘Out in the reception area. Your friends are as unique as you are, Katie.’

  ‘Oh, we’re very unique,’ Bev said.

  ‘Where’s Bina?’ Kate asked Elliot out of the corner of her mouth. She scanned the room and saw Brice and Bina making their way toward the table.

  Bev tugged on Kate’s elbow. ‘Hey, that guy with Bina, is he her date or what?’

  Barbie raised her highly waxed eyebrows. ‘I love the tuxedo,’ she cooed. ‘Armani.’

  Kate had to smile. If Judaism was a religion to Bina, fashion had always been Barbie’s creed. And Kate remembered that Brice had predicted the impression he would make.

  ‘But do you think Jack would approve?’ Barbie asked. ‘I mean he’s gone only a week or so and she’s…Does he know?’

  Kate shrugged. Let ‘em guess. Keep ‘em busy and distracted.

  ‘His name is Brite, or something,’ Bev said, rubbing her belly.

  ‘Brice,’ Kate corrected.

  ‘So, what’s this guy Brice’s sign anyway?’ Bev asked.

  ‘I think he’s a Sagittarius; you’ll have to ask him,’ Elliot said, holding out a chair for Kate, who was grateful to sit down. It was going to be a bumpy ride.

  ‘Oh, Katie, a Sagittarius! Not for Bina!’ Bev complained. ‘Dangerous while her fiancé is gone.’

  ‘Oh, he’s a dangerous man,’ Elliot agreed.

  ‘Is he on the cusp?’ Bev added, hopeful.

  Kate didn’t need or want to explain that Brice was way over the cusp as a mate for Bina. ‘I think they’re just friends,’ she said.

  ‘That’s not what it looks to me,’ Barbie said as she sat down next to Kate, ‘and he’s gorgeous. Like a GQ model. He’d be perfect for my cousin Judy. What does he do?’

  ‘He’s an attorney,’ Kate told Barbie.

  ‘In a big firm or a sole practitioner?’ Barbie asked.

  ‘You’ll have to ask him,’ Kate sighed. Same old Barbie. Putting everyone in boxes, then fixing them up with one another. She turned to watch Brice and Bina, who were caught in the Electric Slide on the dance floor. She couldn’t help but smile a little at Brice’s artful steps as he sidestepped between the slides, dragging Bina behind.

  ‘What happened to Michael?’ Bev asked. ‘Is that all over?’ Except Bev pronounced it ‘uvah’. They all dropped final ‘Rs’ and added inappropriate ones at the ends of words that didn’t have them.

  Kate didn’t have time to consider diction because Bina and Brice arrived at the table at that moment. Bina said, ‘Hi there, everyone,’ limply and sat down immediately without making eye contact. In fact the only contact she seemed interested in was grabbing what would have been Jack’s waiting glass of wine with her right hand and pinning down Kate’s hand with her left. To Kate’s astonishment, she knocked back the entire glass.

  ‘Hello,’ Barbie said, but not to Bina. She leaned over the table and extended her hand to Brice while exposing more breast than most foldouts did and a lot more than Brice needed or wanted to see. Well, maybe she was trying to scoop him for her cousin, Kate thought charitably.

  Meanwhile Bina picked up Kate’s wine glass and drank off half of that. Before Kate could say something to slow her down, eagle-eyed Bev noticed. ‘Since when do you drink? Cancers don’t drink!’ she cried.

  ‘Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,’ Kate said, perhaps because of her encounter on the terrace.

  ‘What?’ Barbie and Bev asked in unison. Kate just smiled and shrugged. No time for French class now.

  ‘Bobbie, Johnnie, this is my friend Elliot and this is Bina’s friend Brice,’ Kate said to the men, interrupting a deep conversation about the pros and cons of moving some football team to Dallas. ‘Elliot, Brice, meet Bobbie and Johnnie.’ The husbands nodded a greeting in unison.

  ‘What do you boys think of them moving the Rangers to Dallas?’ Bobbie asked.

  ‘I’m not really into spectator sports,’ Elliot said.

  ‘Oh, I love football. Tight ends, wide receivers. You know,’ Brice said, smiling at them.

  For a moment the two husbands looked confused. ‘You a Jets or a Giants fan?’ Johnnie asked, a little suspicion in his voice.

  ‘Definitely a Giant. Love a Giant…’

  ‘Brice!’ Elliot said, trying to interrupt.

  ‘…a Giant game,’ Brice finished, and Kate let her breath out.

  Bev and Barbie, now also totally confused, stared across the table and looked the two men over more carefully. But, as Kate hoped, they were at least temporarily distracted by their looks.

  ‘What’s your sign?’ Bev asked Brice.

  ‘Do Not Enter,’ Brice replied, raising his eyebrows and smiling innocently.

  Elliot, always ready with a peacemaking lie, smiled at Bev. ‘Oh, he’s a bull,’ Elliot told her and gave Kate a nudge under the table, as if she didn’t get the joke without it. On the other side, Bina was still clutching Kate’s right hand with her ringless own.

  ‘Hmm. A Taurus,’ Bev reappraised, Elliot’s innuendo sailing right o
ver her over-gelled hair.

  Meanwhile, Bina reached out and picked up the Cosmopolitan Bev had refused. In another moment she’d gulped it down.

  ‘Bina!’ Barbie exclaimed. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Yeah, you have to pace yourself,’ Bobbie advised.

  Brice nudged his chair closer to Bina and took away her empty glass. They had created a Bina sandwich, insulating her from her friends. Bina reached out for Brice’s glass of wine. He paused for a moment, then shrugged and handed it over to her. She downed it in a few breathless gulps. Bev and Barbie stared at Bina. Kate could see Barbie reevaluating Brice as a candidate for Judy.

  There was a moment of complete silence. Then Barbie asked the dreaded question. ‘Bina, you have to tell us about Jack’s proposal. Let’s see the ring.’ Kate clenched Bina’s hand and tried to change the subject.

  ‘Look at the bracelet Michael gave to me,’ she said hurriedly, holding her wrist up for them to see the sad little silver chain and the thin charm that hung from it. Despite the contempt they’d feel for it, she’d do anything to distract them from Bina’s sorry state.

  They barely glanced at Kate’s wrist. With her usual amount of discretion, Bev opened her mouth. ‘Yeah, what happened to Michael the doctor?’ she wanted to know. ‘Bina told me about him.’

  ‘Why isn’t he here? Is he gone already?’ Barbie asked.

  Kate shook her head. ‘He’s away at a conference. Elliot is a nice change.’ Elliot and Kate exchanged looks of love. Barbie raised her eyebrows.

  ‘What is Michael’s sign, anyway?’ Bev continued questioning.

  ‘Well, I’m not sure, but I think it might be…’ but that was as far as Kate got when Barbie interrupted her.

  ‘Wait a minute. What’s going on here?’ Barbie said. Kate watched suspicion bloom on her face. ‘Bina, the ring!’ she exclaimed. Then suddenly, without a moment’s notice, Barbie reached across the table and grabbed Bina’s wrist, yanking her hand from Kate’s grip. There was a moment of total silence at table nine. Bina’s naked hand, still French manicured, lay like a dying whitefish on the hot pink tablecloth.