Then
Ethan rolled out of bed and stepped into a pair of shorts before stumbling into the bathroom. He stared at his face in the mirror as he brushed his teeth, but his eyes didn’t see anything. His mind was elsewhere, still in the night before, in the park on a blanket with Ruby, a canopy of stars spread out above. He swallowed the ghost of a smile before spitting out his toothpaste. He knew if his father saw him grinning like an idiot, he’d never stop giving him shit.
He trundled downstairs, grabbing a banana from the kitchen before heading into the shop. He glanced at the clock: 11:13. His father was on his fifth car of the day already, and he was only just surfacing. ‘Morning,’ he called as he walked into the garage.
‘Morning, kid,’ his father called from underneath a 1996 Pontiac Bonneville that was in the process of getting new shock absorbers. ‘Can you hand me the PB Blaster?’
He rolled out from under the lift and Ethan handed the can to him. He was already covered in grease, though it was hard to determine the fresh grease from the old, caked-on grease. For as long as Ethan could remember, his father had black half-moons of embedded grit under his fingernails. He used to soak them for hours and go at them with a nail brush, but it never made any difference. When Ethan’s mother left, he stopped trying. ‘Take me as I am,’ he’d say with a shrug, and surprisingly enough, a few women actually took him up on that, though Ethan was never sure if it was because they actually liked him or just felt bad that his wife had left him with a kid. That was the hard thing to determine when you were a small-town single father, or a motherless boy: the line between affection and pity was thin and often blurred. Ethan thought of Ruby’s face in the moonlight, the smile that lit up her face whenever he took her hand, and smiled. The line was clear with her, thank God.
His father caught Ethan’s smile. He sat up on the mechanic creeper – which was just a couple of boards of plywood he’d glued to an old set of rollerskate wheels, ever-resourceful – and gave him a long, hard look. ‘What are you looking so happy about?’ he asked, before sliding back beneath the Pontiac.
‘Nothing.’ Ethan busied himself with organizing the tire valve caps, sorting them first by make, then by size, then by color.
‘Cut the shit,’ his father called out from under the car. ‘I can tell when you’re happy, so there’s no point in trying to hide it from me. What are you all goofy-eyed about? Let me guess: it has something to do with that girl you’ve been seeing.’
The grin made an involuntary reappearance on Ethan’s face. ‘Maybe.’
‘Don’t play coy with me – I know a man in love when I see one. Hand me the rag on top of the table, will you?’ Ethan passed the dirt-smeared cloth down. ‘So that’s – what? – three nights in a week? Must be pretty serious . . .’
‘She’s cool.’ He tried to keep his voice casual, but the catch of excitement in it gave him away.
‘It’s love all right. So what’s this girl’s name?’
This was the moment Ethan had been dreading. ‘Ruby Atlas.’
‘Alec Atlas’s daughter?’ The incredulity in his voice was clear even from underneath a Pontiac.
‘Yeah.’
‘Well, look at you,’ he said, shimmying out from under the car and tossing the rag back at him, ‘wining and dining Mr Country Club’s girl. Now I know why you bought that fancy rotten cheese yesterday. Next thing I know, you’ll be eating Grey Poupon.’
‘It’s called blue cheese, and you know the mustard thing is just an ad, right?’
‘I never thought I’d see the day when my son was eating blue cheese and dating Alec Atlas’s daughter. He sold you a shitty house yet? Called something like Gypsy Bungalow or Pocahontas’s Lighthouse?’
‘No, but he did tell me to tell you that he’d be happy to sell this place for you.’
‘Over my dead body. Alec Atlas has been selling the whole town out from under our noses for the best part of a decade. If he thinks I’d sell him my family’s heritage so he could build another bullshit Disney World crap house on it, he’s got another thing coming.’
‘That’s basically what I told him.’
‘Good. The goddamn vulture.’ There was a pause while they both waited for his blood pressure to return to normal. ‘But this daughter of his – Ruby? You like her?’
‘Looks like it,’ Ethan said. And then, more seriously, ‘Yeah, I do. A lot.’
‘Well, Alec’s a nice enough guy, I guess. Kind of a jackass sometimes, but who isn’t? Sad what happened to his wife.’
‘Ruby hasn’t really talked about it much.’
‘Cancer,’ he said, wiping his hands on the front of his trousers. ‘She went pretty quick, thank God, but she was heartbroken to leave those two little girls behind. Nice lady.’
‘Jesus,’ Ethan said quietly, ‘poor Ruby.’
‘Yeah, it was pretty hard on all of them. Man, my son and Ruby Atlas. This really is the land of opportunity. So, you think it’s serious? Because you sound serious.’
‘It is serious. I’m heading over to hers for dinner, actually. With the, uh . . . whole family.’ He swallowed nervously.
‘No shit,’ his father said with a grin. ‘I hope you can remember how to use a knife and fork. I don’t think you’re going to be getting a burger over there. There’ll probably be a goddamn cheese course, knowing Atlas.’
Ethan shrugged. ‘Ruby said it would be casual.’ Not that it mattered. His stomach had been twisted up with nerves all morning – he doubted he’d be up to eating much of anything.
‘Son, I’m guessing Ruby has a different idea of casual than you do. Make sure you bring flowers,’ he said, chuckling to himself. ‘And wear a shirt with a collar for once!’
Shirt buttoned (well, not all the way up) and flowers in hand, Ethan pulled into the Atlas driveway that evening and killed the engine. He’d been there a few times now to pick up Ruby, but he still hadn’t adjusted to the size of the place. It loomed over the top of the hill like a giant wedding cake. The rest of the houses in the development looked tiny in comparison, even though even the smallest house was twice the size of his father’s. The lights were on in the windows and Ethan could see into the dining room, where Candace and Ruby were laying the table. Oh Christ, he thought before stepping out of the car, a tablecloth and everything.
He raised his hand to knock, but Ruby pulled the door open before he made contact. ‘You made it!’ she said, throwing herself in his arms, as though he’d traveled from across the country rather than down Main Street.
‘Here,’ he said, pushing the bunch of flowers towards her.
‘Save them for Candace,’ she whispered. ‘She’ll love you for ever if you give her flowers. That’s basically the only reason she’s still married to my father – he has the florist on speed dial for every time he screws up. Which is pretty much all the time.’ That last remark tossed over her shoulder as she led him into the kitchen. He’d never made it this far into the Atlas compound before, and was astonished – truly – at the amount of marble everywhere. The floors, the countertops – even the refrigerator appeared to be somehow made of marble.
He let out a low whistle. ‘Hell of a place,’ he said, and felt immediately like his father.
‘I know, it’s a little much,’ she said, rolling her eyes. ‘They kind of got carried away during the design process. I didn’t grow up here,’ she added hastily. ‘The house I grew up in was’ – she looked around despairingly – ‘normal.’
‘Are you kidding me? This place is incredible!’ He looked around at the shiny gadgets lining the counters. ‘I don’t even know what half these things are,’ he said, gesturing towards something that looked like it could either be an espresso machine or a remote control helicopter.
‘Neither do I.’
‘Ruby!’ A woman’s voice called from another room. ‘Do I hear the sound of a handsome man?’
‘In the kitchen!’ she called back. She turned to him and took both his hands in hers. ‘Are you ready?’
‘Always,’ he said, though standing in the middle of this marble palace, he felt more nervous than ever.
‘They’re going to love you,’ she whispered as Candace walked into the room.
It took a minute for his eyes to adjust. Her dress was gold – bright, glittering gold – and she was wearing a pair of stilettos with heels so thin and so high it looked like she was levitating. She came towards him and wrapped him in a hug, crushing the flowers between them in the process. ‘Ethan!’ she cried. ‘It is so lovely to meet you, sweetheart!’
‘These are for you,’ he said lamely, holding the slightly mangled bouquet out to her.
‘Aren’t you just the sweetest thing?’ She plucked them from his hands and immediately began arranging them in one of the enormous vases lining the ornate French dresser in the corner. She finished and stepped back to admire her handiwork. ‘They are absolutely beautiful,’ she said, ‘the prettiest I’ve ever had. Thank you so much!’
‘You’re welcome, Mrs Atlas.’
‘Please, call me Candace. Mrs Atlas makes me sound ancient. Now, I’ll just call Alec down and then we can sit down to supper. I hope you’re hungry!’ She bustled out of the room, the back of her dress winking as she went.
‘So that’s your stepmother, huh?’ He suddenly felt a newfound respect for Ruby’s father.
‘Yeah, that’s her,’ she said, rolling her eyes. ‘I never thought I’d have a stepmother who was hotter than me, but there you go.’
‘She’s not hotter than you,’ he said.
‘You’re a terrible liar,’ she said, reaching up to kiss him. ‘Okay, ready for round two?’
They walked into the dining room (solid walnut table draped in a lace tablecloth, full silver table setting including tureen – though no one, including Candace, knew what that was for – and windows draped inexplicably in heavy red velvet), where Candace and Ruby’s father were arguing quietly over the drinks trolley. ‘Alec, I really don’t think that’s a – Ethan!’ Candace beamed at him. ‘Meet my husband, Alec!’
‘We’ve already met,’ Ruby’s father said. He fastened Ethan’s hand in a vice-like handshake and pumped with abandon. He was wearing a pair of jeans with creases ironed into them and alligator-skin shoes, and had the look of someone who was in a constant battle against being too well fed. His face was as pinked and plump as a ripened peach. ‘Good to see you again. How’s that father of yours?’
‘Still kicking,’ Ethan said, wincing as the pain in his hand traveled up his arm.
‘I’ll bet, I’ll bet. Would you like a drink? I was just about to make myself another Manhattan. I did thirty miles on the stationary bike this morning so I think I deserve a little reward, though my wife here disagrees.’ He winked at him here, a real, honest-to-God, non-ironic wink. Ethan nodded mutely: he felt powerless to protest in the face of such persuasive winking. ‘Excellent! You all just have a seat and I’ll play bartender. Though I guess I should be letting you do the honors, since you’re the professional!’ He let out a roar of laughter, but stopped himself when he saw the looks on Ruby and Candace’s faces. ‘Only kidding,’ he added, but Ethan wasn’t entirely sure what he was kidding about – the fact that Ethan was a professional bartender (which was true and, to his eyes, not a joke) or the fact that he should be letting Ethan mix the Manhattans (also true, though Ethan knew enough not to point this out). Instead he just smiled benignly, sat down at the table, and watched him mix (badly, as suspected) a shaker of Manhattans.
‘So Ethan,’ Candace said as she placed a platter of artfully arranged king prawns on the table, ‘Ruby tells us you’re a computer genius!’
‘Not really,’ he said, scratching the back of his neck. ‘I like to play around with them and stuff, but I definitely wouldn’t call myself a genius. I didn’t go to school for it or anything.’
Ruby’s father handed him a drink and sat down across from him. Ethan took a sip: it was blisteringly strong. ‘What did you go to school for?’ he asked. ‘Cheers, by the way.’
‘Cheers,’ he murmured. He took another sip and felt a layer of skin slough away from the back of his throat. ‘I didn’t go to school for anything,’ he said. ‘I mean, I didn’t go at all.’
‘Oh? Why’s that?’ Ethan saw him shoot Ruby a sideways look.
‘I had to get back to the shop to help out my dad,’ he said, which was partly true. He didn’t want to tell the whole truth, which was that, after graduating high school by the skin of his teeth, the last thing he’d wanted to do was to set foot in a classroom again. Not that many classrooms would have had him.
Ruby’s father raised his glass to him, and Ethan wondered, irrationally, if he was about to throw his drink in his face. ‘That’s very noble,’ he said. ‘I took a few years off before going to college myself.’
Ruby stopped dunking a prawn in a dish of cocktail sauce and looked up in surprise. ‘You did?’
‘Sure. There was no way my father was paying for my college tuition. Even if he could have afforded it – which he couldn’t – he made it pretty clear that he expected me to be out of the house and paying my own way just as soon as I tossed my graduation cap in the air.’
‘I can’t believe Grandpa Joe would be such a jerk,’ Ruby muttered.
‘Those were just the times,’ he said with a shrug. ‘Real men went out to work, they didn’t sit around reading books all day.’
Ethan felt a little fizz of pride at being classified as a real man. ‘So what did you do?’ he asked.
‘I worked on building sites for a few years,’ he said. ‘Learned everything there was to know about the trade. I can tell a dovetail joint from a tongue and groove at fifty paces. I can tell you when a foundation’s been poured crooked just from eyeballing it. And, most important in my business, I can tell when a builder is trying to Mickey Mouse me out of some money.’
Ruby looked astonished. ‘Dad, I have never seen you pick up a hammer in your life.’
‘That doesn’t mean I can’t. It just means I don’t want to and can afford to pay someone else to do it for me. And that, son, is the definition of success.’ He leaned back in his chair and took a triumphant sip from his Manhattan.
Ethan wasn’t sure if that was his own definition of success – he actually enjoyed working with his hands, and more importantly, he couldn’t imagine getting to a point in his life when he was able to pay anyone to do anything for him, ever, but he admired the sentiment nonetheless.
‘Yep,’ Ruby’s father said, swiping a prawn off the platter and tossing it into his mouth, ‘I’ve always thought it was a good idea to get out in the real world, get a sense of what work is like before you commit to an education.’
‘You never said that to me!’ Ruby said. A prawn was dangling from her hand in mid-air and was now dripping cocktail sauce onto the tablecloth.
‘Why would I? Your heart was set on going to college from the time you stopped wearing diapers. I used to call her Little Einstein,’ he said to Ethan, shooting him another one of those winks. ‘Besides, your mother would have killed me if I hadn’t encouraged you to go to a good university. That’s the one thing she made me promise her before she died.’
A silence fell on the table. Ethan wondered what the correct response was. Should he offer his condolences? Was it too late, considering how long she’d been gone? Would Candace be upset by it? In the end, he took another sip of his drink – still like battery acid on the stomach, but tasting a little better now – and stared down at his lap.
‘Well,’ Candace said brightly after a few beats had passed. ‘I’ll go get dinner plated up.’ She pushed back from the table and tottered into the kitchen.
‘I can’t believe I didn’t know that about you,’ Ruby said. The prawn had finally made it into her mouth and she was chewing it contemplatively.
‘I’ve still got a few tricks up my sleeve,’ her father said. ‘Anyway, Ethan, my point is that we’re not all like my beautiful daughter here. Some of us were put on this earth to do something other than stick our noses in books all day.’
‘Dad! I did more than just read books all day at college! I wrote papers! I got a business degree! I have a job lined up with one of the best advertising firms in New York!’
‘I know, sweetheart, and I’m very proud of you. I know you worked your butt off, too – I’m not taking that away from you. I’m just saying there are many paths in this world, and I’m sure Ethan will find his one day.’
‘Thank you, sir.’ Ethan didn’t want to point out that he was already on his long-destined path, one that would see him working at the bar until his dad was ready to retire, at which point he’d take over running the garage. He’d stay in Beechfield, probably in the same house that he grew up in, and get drunk with the same people at the same bars. Even as he sat there in that glittering dining room with its fancy curtains and crystal platter full of shellfish, he could felt their world receding from him. Ruby would go to New York and start her real life, one that would be bigger and more important than his could ever hope to be. And soon she would recede from him, too, like a star fading in the early-morning light.
‘Another Manhattan?’ Ethan looked up to see her father standing over him, holding out a hand for his empty glass.
‘I’d love one,’ he said, and reached over and plucked the last prawn from its bed of chipped ice.