21
On the following Thursday, I convinced Gloria and Xiaowen to come to hug therapy with me. I’d seen a flyer at Lala’s that morning and almost choked on my coffee. Hug Therapy from Hug Therapist Sharon Stuart, HT (for Hug Therapist, I presumed). All Are Welcome. Hugging Only, No Groping. 7 p.m. It must be serious if it cut into Wheel of Fortune time.
Mom’s little project, which she wouldn’t discuss with me, had mushroomed, apparently. She had to relocate to the basement of St. Mary’s of the Sea Catholic Church, where we all now stood, waiting for the recovering addicts—Luke not among them—to trickle out.
Poe was here as well, suffering mightily as demonstrated by heaving sighs and the gnawing of her fingernails. “Why are you here?” she asked. “I had to come to collect money, but you’re free and adults. You should be drinking cocktails somewhere.”
“Hear, hear,” murmured Xiaowen. “Then again, the pageantry, the splendor that is hug therapy.”
“Your mom is clearly onto something,” Gloria said. “There must be thirty people here.”
It was true. Not just Bob Dobbins looking for thrills, but Mrs. Krazinski, Mrs. Downs of the resting bitch face and a bunch of summer nuisance, looking for quaint thrills.
And also Amy (a regular, it seemed), who gave me a little wave but stayed on her side of the basement. I knew Audrey was back on the island; Sully had brought her in for a checkup today. He’d left with that half smile that did things to my girl parts and a call-you-soon parting message.
I liked him. I liked him a lot.
Mom walked past and scowled at me. “What are you doin’ here?” she hissed.
“I need a hug,” I said. “Also, hug therapist is not a real thing, and you should stop putting initials after your name.”
“Twenty-five bucks.”
“I see someone raised her prices.”
“Every hug lasts twenty seconds, so I earn it. And pipe down, by the way.”
“Love you, too.”
She rolled her eyes and clapped her hands. “All right, everyone, stop drinking AA’s coffee and have a seat. Let’s get stahted. Who wants to go first?”
“Me,” Xiaowen said instantly.
“Did you pay Poe there?”
“I did.” She went over to my mom and stood like a penitent.
I fished out my wallet and took out a twenty and a ten and shoved it at Poe. “The family rate,” I whispered. “We get charged extra.” She snorted.
“All right, sweethaht,” my mother said to Xiaowen. “Come here.” She opened her arms and hugged my friend—a long, firm hug. A hair stroke. Then she pulled back and said, “You’re a good person, Xiaowen.”
To my shock, Xiaowen wiped her eyes. “Thanks, Mrs. Stuart.” She came back to me. “Your mother has some serious fucking Hogwarts magic going on there. Damn.” She pulled a tissue from her bag and blew her nose.
Bob Dobbins was getting his fix, I saw. “You’re a good man, Bawb,” my mom said, extricating herself after the requisite twenty seconds had passed. Mrs. K was next, and my mom smiled. That hug seemed more natural. They were old friends, after all, and Mrs. K wasn’t trying to rub herself against my mother the way Bob did.
Amy was next. “It’s been a hard time for you, dahlin’,” Mom said. “Things are gettin’ better, though. You hang in there. You’re a good person.”
A summer person, clad in pink shorts printed with whales and a white polo shirt, was next. Mom worked her magic on him, and he asked if he could have a selfie with her. “For five more dollars,” my mother said.
I popped into the line. Mom sighed when she saw me. “I’m a paying customer,” I said.
“What are you, foolish in the head? Fine. Come here.”
She wrapped me in her arms and held me tight.
Xiaowen was right.
It had been a long time since I’d had anything other than a hard peck on the cheek. She felt so familiar—her strong shoulders, the smell of Head & Shoulders shampoo. My throat was tight, and I hugged her back tentatively. “You’re a good person, Nora. Now, get outta here and let me work.”
Ah, mothers. All sentimental mush, I went back to my pals. “Gloria? Are you getting one?”
“I’m good. My own mother wants me to move back into her uterus, and I have to pry her off me every time I leave.”
“Then let’s go back to my place. Our cocktails await.”
“I wish I was a grown-up,” Poe muttered.
“Tell you what,” I said. “Come over afterward, and I’ll make you a virgin drink, and you can hang out with us.”
Her face brightened, which she must’ve realized, because she immediately rearranged her expression back to ennui. “Maybe. Okay.”
Twenty minutes later, the three coolest babes on Scupper Island were slurping mojitos made with my homegrown mint and sitting on the top deck, cheese, crackers and grapes on the table. I’d picked flowers and added a few sprigs of rosemary for fragrance. The sun was still shining, and the air was clean and clear.
“Big news, ladies,” I said. “I have a date with Sullivan Fletcher at an undetermined time and place in the future.”
“Which one is he again?” Xiaowen asked.
“Not your lab partner. The other one.”
“He’s so nice,” Gloria said. “I like his vampire teeth.”
Xiaowen laughed. “My thoughts are so dirty right now. So, Nora, you gonna do him?”
I felt my cheeks warm. “It’s just a date. He’s really sweet.”
“But his brother is lava hot,” Xiaowen said.
“Except for being a dick and all,” I added.
“Yeah, I hate when they speak and ruin the fantasy,” she said. “My ex-fiancé was the same way.” Sadness flickered across her face. “Whatcha gonna do?”
“Why did you guys break up?” Gloria asked.
“He cheated on me. On me, can you believe it? On this.” She gestured to herself.
“What an idiot,” I said. But I reached over and squeezed her hand, anyway. She shot me a grateful look. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Shit, no. Gloria, how’s Slytherin?”
“I think Slytherin and I are taking it to the next level,” Gloria said.
“Does he want to Slytherin to your chamber of secrets?” I asked.
“Was that a wand in his pocket, or was he just happy to see you?” Xiaowen added.
“Come on over here, sweetheart, and I’ll show you my patronus.”
“You two are funny,” Gloria said, “in a juvenile, idiotic way.” She sipped her drink. “Actually, we did play a little Quidditch, if you know what I mean. God. I can’t believe I’m sinking to your level.”
“Did he capture your Golden Snitch?” Xiaowen and I said at the same time. We high-fived each other, giggling like the tweens we were channeling.
“Not exactly. Still early days, you know? But I told him my last name, and I’m thinking of letting him know where I live.”
“Is that first base these days?” Xiaowen asked.
Gloria smiled. “Well, after my old boyfriend turned out to be a stalker, yeah. But Slytherin’s nice. I even told him we called him Slytherin, and he thought it was great.”
“So he’s read Harry Potter,” I said. “Thank God we can check that box. What does he do for work?”
“He’s a doctor at Boston City,” Gloria said.
“That’s where I worked!” I said. “What’s his name? Maybe I know him!”
“Robert Byrne.”
I sucked in a breath—and a bit of mint leaf, which my airway most assuredly didn’t like. I choked and coughed and coughed and wheezed.
“Heimlich her,” Xiaowen ordered.
“If she can cough, she can breathe,” Gloria said, and rightly so, but it was hard to care, as tears were streaming down my face.
Also, she was dating my ex-boyfriend.
I managed to get the leaf up (so genteel, so classy) and wiped it on my jeans. “Robert Byrne,” I said, wheezing. I took a napkin and blotted my eyes. It could be Robert Burn. Or Burns, like the poet. “Is he an emergency room doctor? Blue eyes, tall, lives on Beacon Street?”
“That’s the one! So you do know him!”
I took a breath. “I dated him. Uh...he and I broke up just before I came out here.”
There was silence. Xiaowen’s eyes darted back and forth between us as she sucked on her straw.
“Well, shit,” Gloria said.
“I mean, it’s okay, but...how did you not know? How did he not know that you and I work together?” Had I told Bobby I worked with a nurse named Gloria? I didn’t think I had.
Gloria closed her eyes. “I’ve been really vague with him. I mean, seriously, I didn’t tell him my last name until Friday. He knows I’m a nurse and I live near Portland and my family’s from outside Boston.”
“I take it he never mentioned me. Or Boomer.” Not so long ago, there’d been a picture of Boomer and me on the fridge.
“He said...” She broke off. “He said his ex-girlfriend took their dog, and he was thinking about getting a new one. We went to the pound together on Saturday to look at puppies.”
“We share Boomer,” I said. “That’s where he is right now. With Bobby.”
“He goes by Robert now.”
“Does he?” I was pissed, all right. Not because Gloria was dating him...but because he clearly hadn’t told her about me.
What about asking me to stay over the other night when my ferry was canceled? I was pretty sure that wasn’t an I’ll-take-the-couch offer. What about how he still cared about me? The hints that he wanted to get back together?
He hadn’t told Gloria a thing about me, that was clear. And not for nothing, but I was a pretty damn good story. Home invasion. Hit by Beantown Bug Killers.
“I should go,” Gloria said.
“No, no,” I said automatically, aware that I’d been silent. “It’s just a surprise, that’s all.”
“I...I think I’ll go, anyway. This is a lot for us both to wrap our brains around, so...yeah. I’m sorry.”
“You haven’t done anything wrong,” I said. “I’ll see you at work.”
“You bet.” Her face was troubled. “Okay. Thanks. Bye, Xiaowen.”
“Bye.”
Xiaowen waited till we heard Gloria’s car start, then poured me another drink from the pitcher. “Small world?”
“He didn’t tell her about me,” I said.
“Yeah, I got that.”
What was I, invisible? First, high school. No, first, my father. Then high school, then when I was allowed to visit Lily in Seattle and more than one person said, “I didn’t know Lily had a sister!” Then I came here, and half the town thought I was my sister, since apparently she was the only daughter my mother talked about.
Now Bobby had erased me. And said I took the dog, when I’d been bending over backward, taking Boomer back and forth since I’d been here.
Xiaowen fumbled in her bag and pulled out an iPad. “What’s his middle name?” she asked.
“Kennedy,” I said automatically.
“Of course,” she murmured. “So original.” She tapped a few keys. “Whoomp, there it is. He posted a picture of him and Gloria.”
She held out the iPad, and there they were, smiling, wearing sunglasses, right there on Instagram, which I still didn’t belong to.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“So who are you mad at? Him or her?”
“Well, this sure would’ve been easier if she’d used his name like an actual grown-up,” I said, taking a sip of my drink.
“I think we’re the ones who gave him the nickname.”
“Shit. You’re right.” I took a deep breath and looked out over the cove. “Xiaowen, he was kind of hitting on me this past weekend. Asked me to stay over.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Nope.” I closed my eyes. “Do I tell her?”
“Oh, I think he’ll have some explaining to do. Bet she’s on the phone with him right now and not real happy, either.” She stood up. “Come on. Let’s go swimming.”
“Why?”
“To wash off the stink of your ex-boyfriend polluting your mind.”
“The water’s probably about fifty-three degrees.”
“You grew up here. I’m a marine biologist. We can handle it.”
“Do you have a bathing suit?”
“No. Can I borrow one?”
“One that will fit you? No. One that maybe won’t fall off if I tie it on with string? Yes.”
Xiaowen was right. Ten minutes later, we were laughing as we made our way down the rocky shore to the edge of the cove to a rock that jutted out. The tide was in, and the water looked black and deep. “On the count of three,” she said, taking my hand. “One...two...three!”
We jumped, and the water bit us with icy teeth. I popped up immediately, my skin burning with cold. Xiaowen swam a ways out, then popped up, her dark head like a seal’s. “Holy Christmas, it’s cold without a wet suit!” she said, and I laughed. Our voices bounced against the rocks and the reddening sky. I ducked under the water again, the cold clamping my head, but it was a clean hurt, cooling off my angry heart. I was over Bobby. The fact that he was an eel...well, I knew that already. I’d just put it aside, hadn’t I?
There was Poe, standing like Lily’s ghost on the rock Xiaowen and I had just jumped off. “Nora? Are you guys swimming? Are you crazy?”
“Come on in, Poe!” I said.
“Not gonna happen,” she called.
“Don’t be a pussy!” Xiaowen yelled, though her teeth were starting to chatter.
I swam to the edge and climbed out carefully, not wanting to slip and end up in the hospital for the third time in a year.
Poe reached down and helped me up. “You’re freezing!” she said.
“Give Auntie Nora a hug,” I said, wrapping my arms around her. She shrieked and pulled away.
She was wearing shorts and a tank top and little flip-flops. “Come on in, chickadee,” I said. “The water’s beautiful. I’m a doctor. I won’t let you die.”
“Super reassuring.”
“Come on. Live a little.”
She looked at me for a second. “That’s what my mom says.”
It was the first time she’d mentioned my sister without my prodding. She took her phone out of her pocket and set it down.
“Count of three,” I said, echoing Xiaowen, and we jumped, holding hands. My niece clutched me tight when we surfaced. “Holy crap, that’s cold!” she said, then pushed my head underwater. I tickled her and popped up, completely numb now. Poe’s smeared eyeliner made her look like a ghoul, but she was laughing.
The sound hugged my heart, and I seized the moment and smooched her on the cheek, then dunked her. Xiaowen swam over, and the three of us laughed and splashed and shivered and laughed some more.
It was almost completely dark when we got out, shaking with cold.
“Hot showers and food at my place,” I said. “And you can both sleep over. In fact, I insist.”
“Like I was going back to Cape Elizabeth soaking wet,” Xiaowen said, linking her arm through mine.
“I’ll call Gran,” Poe said. “She probably could use the alone time after giving out all those hugs.”
Just as we got onto the dock, something made me glance into the woods.
There among the dark of the pines, a tiny dot of orange glowed as Luke Fletcher took a drag on his cigarette.
If he thought he was scaring me, he was wrong.
“Go home, Luke!” I yelled. “And get a life, how about that?”
But the orange glow stayed put.