When they sat at the diner with their cheeseburgers deluxe and milkshakes, Kerry took over the conversation and gave Doc the details of the story she had summarized on the station platform on Thanksgiving when they were waiting for Annie’s train. In the end, all Andi could say was, “I can’t believe the two of you were so fucking stubborn. You were, like, born to be together. But her leaving law school? Wow.” And that was all that was said about that and they spent an hour walking up and down the street, bumping against each other as they did, and stopping in stores, comparing notes of their similar upbringings—both having done the whole Westchester Catholic grammar/high school thing. Driving home, they were quieter than they had been heading north but they savored it too, as one or the other kept trying to find a decent radio station, much as Suzanne and Annie had done on their trip to New York.
The silence was broken when Andi suddenly said, “Should we?” and in a moment Kerry understood. “Why the hell not?” and five minutes later she got off the parkway and ten minutes after that the two were knocking at the door of the Chappaqua house afraid of what they might have stumbled upon. If they were disappointed that Andi’s father was fully clothed when he opened the door or that Kerry’s mother was fully clothed when they saw her in the living room they gave no sign of it, except for a slight giggle and shove the two children exchanged with one another.
So, the two girls walked right in and made themselves right at home. It was nice, the first impromptu dinner that just the four of them shared and it was another of those dinners in which no one recalled the specifics of what was said but they all recalled how pleasant it was. And after they left because Kerry had to drive Andi into the City, Tom and Eileen were amazed at how easily it had been and how, well, like sisters those two had become. And Eileen got a laugh out of Tommy with “Now if only your Andi can find a nice girl,” neither the wiser to what the older girl had said to the younger girl on the topic on the way to Millbrook. And after cleaning up Eileen and Tommy went upstairs to do what was part of their normal Sunday routine.
Las Trois Amigas
Suze found all this talk about Kerry’s gromance—or whatever the female equivalent of a “bromance” is—with Andi amusing. And, yes, Kerry had, with Andi’s consent, made Suze the wiser about the topic that came up on the way to Millbrook.
Suze thought the four’s dinner in Chappaqua sweet and understood that the fortuitousness of her being in Dublin was an opportunity for the parents and their daughters to bond. Plus now both she and Kerry could live the dating life vicariously through Andi. When they could, they headed into the City and picked Andi up in Washington Heights before going to the Village, East or West, or to SoHo and the three of them would wander and have a ball. And again the girlfriends rolled their eyes at Andi’s latest so-so-close-to-being-the-one conquest, all knowing or at least thinking that Andi was far from being in anything-but-conquest mode, still enjoying her love-’em-and-leave-’em life.
Both knew, though, that for all of her talk, Andi was a romantic and not nearly as “experienced” as she let on. It was a bit of surprise, then, when on one of these trips, Andi goaded the other two into entering a sex shop in the West Village. The younger two’s eyes nearly popped out when they were through the door, and Andi stifled a chuckle at their naiveté. Kerry and Suzanne found each new section more amazing than the last. Finally, Andi pulled them aside.
“Look ladies. I’ll stay with you or give you some quiet time, but for the love of god just have some fucking fun. And I mean that literally.”
And after Suze and Kerry looked and nodded at each other, Kerry said, “I think we’d both appreciate your, er, guidance—not that we’re saying you have a lot of experience—but this is all way too much for us to handle alone” and Suze slowly nodded as her hand tightened its grip on Kerry’s. Andi got between them, an arm around each of their shoulders and announced, “Ladies, let’s have some fun, shall we?”
Two hours later, Andi put two plain bags into the Camry’s back seat and they headed up to drop Andi off before Kerry and Suzanne were safely home. And it was, after a sterilization party, a fucking good night—during which “why was I not told this before?” and variants thereof were spoken several times. Exhausting and eye-opening. But a very good night.
And, no, Andi never did learn the specifics of the whirlwind she had sown but, yes, she did enjoy the thank-you gift Kerry and Suzanne ordered for her online, delivered straight to her place in Washington Heights.
The Tuckahoe Party
Things were going smoothly, especially for Eileen, when Kerry and Suzanne hosted a multi-family get-together in Tuckahoe in mid-May. It was bursting at the seams, everyone far more comfortable than they had been six months before on Thanksgiving: Kerry and Eileen; Suzanne, Mary, and Betty; and Tom, Andi, James, and Jennie. A local caterer provided the food and Eileen felt comfortable with the drink and after dinner they sat on all available surfaces in the living room. Matters were moving smoothly enough until Kerry interrupted.