Uptown Girl. Olivia Goldsmith
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personal,’ Elliot said, cutting Brice and God only knew what story off.
‘Focus, darling,’ Kate said, touching Bina’s face gently. Kate was quickly losing hope that a simple phone call before Jack got on the plane might put things right.
‘Okay. So he excused himself and headed for the men’s room. I watched him walk away from the table. I couldn’t help thinking he was so handsome.’
‘I know. Men are so cute from behind,’ said Brice.
Bina nodded her agreement. ‘I mean, people are like “Jack is just ordinary”, but that’s what I like about him,’ she continued, paying no heed to the sexual orientation of Brice’s comment nor being the slightest bit shocked. It seemed to Kate as though Bina was bonding with Brice the way she did with her girlfriends. ‘Jack reminds me of the Goldilocks story,’ Bina went on. ‘He’s not too tall or too short, he isn’t too skinny or too fat, he isn’t too handsome or too ugly. He’s just right,’ she said. ‘At least just right for me.’ Then she realized anew where she was and what had happened. ‘He was just right, but I wasn’t just right for him. Maybe it’s me that’s ordinary.’
‘Oh, Bina,’ Kate said and put her arm around the girl, squeezing tightly. ‘You’re not ordinary.’ That might not have been totally true, but that she was Jack’s equal was a sure thing. Kate had never met anyone more ordinary than Jack. ‘What happened then?’
‘Jack was gone for a little while. So finally that stupid hostess came back and asked me if I wanted a drink. I told her that my boyfriend was getting me something, and she said, “Your boyfriend? He said this was a business meeting. Otherwise I would have given him a more private table.”’
‘The bitch!’ Elliot and Brice said simultaneously.
‘Yeah. The beautiful, thin, exotic bitch,’ Bina agreed bitterly.
‘This is not productive,’ Kate said. No matter what the story was, Kate was going to be sure they didn’t criticize Jack too much, because when he and Bina patched things up – and they would – Bina would forever remember Kate’s criticism. Kate had learned that lesson the hard way with Bev, before she married Johnnie.
‘Bina, you are so beautiful. Any guy in the world would be lucky to share the same air as you,’ Kate told her friend and meant it. Every bit of Bina’s soul was generous and giving. Her heart was loyal and loving. And she had an adorable, round little face, and a curvy figure. Kate stroked Bina’s dark shiny hair. What the hell was wrong with Jack? It must have been a panic attack. Commitment was a very frightening prospect. ‘Didn’t you tell me just last week that Jack said he found you beautiful in so many ways?’
‘Honey,’ Brice said with a tilt of his head, ‘greeting cards can tell you that.’
‘No, he said I was too beautiful and too good for him,’ Bina corrected.
‘Uh oh,’ Brice and Elliot said, again in unison, and exchanged a look.
Kate gestured to them behind Bina’s head, then focused on Bina again. ‘Well anyway, Bina, you are beautiful and I am sure Jack still feels the same way.’
‘Yeah? You haven’t heard the end of the story,’ Bina said.
‘We’re trying to,’ Kate told her, attempting not to snap.
‘Go on. Get it all out,’ Elliot advised.
‘Well, of course I was hating this … woman.’ Bina paused and Kate was pleased that she didn’t stoop to any slur. ‘So I told her to go away. Jack finally came back with my drink and said – and you won’t believe this –’ Bina mimicked Jack’s deep Brooklyn baritone voice. ‘“I looked at you from across the room. You looked good from over there.” Was that a compliment or a diss?’
Kate pursed her lips but refrained from speaking. It seemed clear that her theory was right – Jack needed distance in both senses to see Bina. But up close and intimate his anxiety paralyzed him. If only he could have stayed at the bar and proposed by cell phone, Kate thought ruefully. He could have sent the waitress over with the ring and everyone would be happy. Instead, here Kate was, stuck with an immovable object on her sofa, trying to stave off an irresistible force. And uptown at Andrew Country Day there were children who wouldn’t get to see her while she practiced adult psychology in her cramped living room.
‘What did you do?’ Kate asked.
‘I just gave him a look,’ Bina said.
‘And what did he do?’
‘Well, I think Jack saw my reaction. He asked if something was wrong. He sounded so sincere, so concerned, that I felt bad and figured I had to let up on the poor guy. I thought he was a nervous wreck about proposing. Also, to tell the truth, Jack has never been … well, let’s just say he’s careful with his money.’
‘Oh hell,’ Brice said. ‘Let’s say he’s cheap.’ Bina opened her eyes wide, and for a moment Kate thought her friend was going to giggle.
‘Go on,’ Kate said.
‘Well, I just shook my head and suggested that we make a toast. And all he said was “To us”. I waited for more, you know like “and to our future as Mr and Mrs Jack Weintraub, the perfect married couple”, but there was nothing more.’ A tear slid down her cheek and Brice took her hand.
‘So?’ Kate prompted. She wondered what time Jack’s plane was actually taking off, whether Jack planned to be on it, whether he had called the Horowitz household, whether he had called his cousin Max across the hall.
‘Then he said he really wished he didn’t have to take this trip, but said some of that stuff about markets misbehaving. So I suggested that in the future maybe we’ll make the trips together.’
‘What did he say to that?’ Kate asked.
‘Well, of course, then the waitress shows up before he can answer. Just my luck. And you know it takes Jack a long time to order. And then he has to make sure none of the things on his plate are going to touch any of the others.’
Kate had forgotten about that phobia. She nodded to Bina.
‘So we had our drink and it seemed that the dinner was going fine until I told him how much I was going to miss him. I mean that’s okay to say, right? The guy is going away for months and it’s halfway around the world. Jack and I haven’t been separated by more than ten miles since we first started dating.’
‘Really?’ Brice asked. ‘That’s so romantic!’
‘It’s true, right, Kate? She was there the night Max, you know, Kate’s neighbor from across the hall, had the party where I met Jack.’ Kate rolled her eyes. Bina had the habit of playing what her friends called ‘Jewish geography’. Kate had gotten her apartment because Bina’s brother knew Max from summer camp and he had told Kate about it. Kate got the place and Max invited her to one of his parties to which Bina had also come – on one of her few sallies across the East River – and Max’s cousin Jack had … well, it could go on endlessly, between Hebrew schools, summer camps, bar mitzvahs, weddings, cousins, and on and on and on. Kate didn’t know the Yiddish word for six but there seemed to be fewer degrees of separation between the Jewish communities than the six in the John Guare play and film. Thankfully Bina didn’t overindulge. ‘The weird thing is we had both grown up in Brooklyn just six blocks from each other but we were introduced for the first time that night, and we haven’t been apart since. I mean, he took me out for a drink after the party and asked me out for the next night. And that weekend he came over for dinner with my parents and brother and … well, there we were, saying goodbye to each other for a very long time. So I thought it was appropriate to say I would miss him. And I thought it would be good to kind of, you know, get him started. I mean, we were finished with our appetizers and entrées. Did I have to wait until he popped the question?’
‘Men spook easily,’ Brice offered. ‘I remember the time when Ethan Housholder told me …’