Chapter 86
She even sort of knew where the ring would be, if it was in with her other stuff. There was one box full of old high school memorabilia—yearbooks, photos, letters from old friends, stuff she had brought with her in case she ever felt nostalgic enough to sort through it and promptly forgot. If it wasn’t in there, then it was in her bedroom back at her parents’ house, or in their attic, and she’d just forget it.
It took some doing, clearing a spot on the closet floor where she could sit comfortably, but she managed to find a space and maneuver the box she wanted out into her lap. Looking at it now made her a little sad. Here was a Ziploc baggie filled with faded rose petals from the corsage she’d worn to prom. She had gone with her best male friend, Jeremy, who’d always claimed to love her but she’d known before he did that he was gay.
Here were her yearbooks, all four years, each page covered in ink. She’d never thought of herself as one of the popular girls, but the friend she’d had, she lost touch with after college. A few reconnected with her online years later—all of them mothers, posting pictures of their babies on their MySpace pages, which Dana found extremely boring. Almost all of them still lived back home. Every time she saw a new baby pic, she had to fight the urge to comment, I’m in New York, bitch! Living the lesbian life! Boo-yah!
Though, really, how different was “the lesbian life” from what those photos on her high school friends’ pages showed of heterosexual married life? Not much, really, Dana had to conclude. Sometimes she thought New York was just noisier, pricier, and more crowded than back home, nothing more.
She didn’t need this trip down memory lane. Digging deeper into the box, she found a few photo albums that she didn’t bother to look at and a small jewelry box. Bingo. Inside were an extraordinary number of pearl necklaces—that’d been her thing one year, pearls and blue jeans, for some strange reason. Only one of the necklaces had real pearls on it, though off-hand she didn’t know which. There were also a variety bracelets, mood rings, and earrings of every kind—studs with the Venus symbol, gold hoops in every size imaginable, dangling earrings it hurt Dana’s ears to look at. She couldn’t remember ever wearing such things.
Then, at the bottom of the jewelry box, nestled under a bunch of gold chains helplessly knotted together, she found the ring box her grandmother had sent her all those years ago.
Please be in here, she prayed, extracting the box. Please be in good condition.What if the ring looked nothing like she remembered? What if it had broken, or tarnished? What if—
But it wasinside, and it was perfect. The gold shone as if it had just been polished. Thank you, Mom. The diamond chip sparkled in its heart-shaped setting. She slipped it on her finger and it still fit, so she knew it would fit Bethany, too; they had the same ring size. She knew because she’d tried on Bethany’s college ring once and commented on it.
Out past the bedroom’s open door, she heard the faint sound of a key in the apartment’s front lock. Quickly she shoved everything back into the box and forced it back into its spot, then hurried from the closet. She tucked the ring into her pocket as she closed the closet door. Then Dana turned off the bedroom light and left the room, eager to greet Bethany as she came home.
Nowshe was ready to talk about marriage.
* * * *
The moment she saw Bethany, though, Dana could tell something was the matter. It was hard to put her finger on it, but she’d known Bethany long enough to know when something was wrong. Despite the way Bethany’s face lit up when she saw Dana, despite her welcoming kiss, her loving hug, somethingwasn’t quite right.
Dana took a step back and studied her. “What is it?” she asked, prepared for the worst.
Bethany gave her a funny look. “What do you mean? I just got in.” As if to prove her point, she shrugged out of her crossbody messenger bag and dropped it onto the floor by the wraparound counter that separated the foyer from the kitchen.
“I know that look,” Dana started, one hand propped on her hip.
Bethany countered with, “What look?”
Dana wasn’t buying it. “What’s wrong?”
With a shake of her head, Bethany said, “Nothing’s wrong.”
Dana waited a moment, then drawled, “But…?”
Letting out an exasperated sigh, Bethany walked around Dana, who turned to keep her in sight as she headed into the kitchen for a drink. Dana let her open the cabinet, take out a glass, and open the freezer for ice from the ice maker, but when she retrieved the pitcher of iced tea from the fridge, Dana asked, “So? Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you, or do I have to guess?”
Bethany poured a glass of tea, then drank half of it down in one long gulp. As she refilled it, she said, “I called my mother on the way home from work.”
“On your bike,” Dana said. It wasn’t a question.