Uptown Girl. Olivia Goldsmith

when your entire life is ruined.’ She purposely kept her voice low and looked over at Bina to make sure she went unheard. What good was an apology, she thought, if it was followed by a further injury?

      ‘I’ve done it again, haven’t I?’ Michael asked. He might not be empathetic but he wasn’t stupid, Kate reflected. ‘Look, let me take you out to dinner one night this week,’ he said. ‘Let’s talk about it. I know I can do better.’

      Fair enough, Kate thought. But it couldn’t be in a restaurant. There should be a lot of talking, a lot of negotiating, and maybe some reconciliatory sex. ‘Why don’t you come over for dinner?’ she proposed. ‘But not tonight.’ She looked over at the sofa again. Bina was just raising her head. ‘Gotta go,’ she said. ‘Let’s talk later.’

      ‘I’ll call you this evening,’ Michael promised and Kate hung up. She returned to Bina’s side.

      Bina, her eyes red, but not as red as her nose, looked up at her. ‘How can we fix it?’ she asked.

      Kate sat down and the wicker creaked. ‘Well, to know that, first I have to know what happened. Exactly what happened.’

      ‘So I go over to the table, and Jack is laughing and the Chinese woman – who was smaller than a size two and taller than I am – looks at me like I’m the bus boy. But Jack, he jumps and pulls his hand away. “Hey, Sy Lin was just teaching me how to say hello in Mandarin. Nee-how-ma!” So I look at him and say, “Nee-how-ma, right back atcha.” Then I turn to Sy Lin and say, “How do you say goodbye?” So she just gives me this smile, does one of those look-overs – you know the way Barbie does when someone is dressed really badly – and then looks at Jack and says, “Enjoy your dinner.” Oh, and just to make it a really bad omen, she was wearing the color nail polish you picked out. I should always listen to you.’

      ‘Bina, don’t be silly. This isn’t about manicures. So what happened next? Did you pitch a fit?’

      Bina began to cry again. ‘That’s the worst part,’ she gulped. ‘I didn’t do anything. It was Jack, Jack who …’

      The phone rang again. Kate stepped over and looked at the handset and saw that it was Elliot’s cell. ‘Wait a minute,’ she told Bina, who just ignored her anyway. Kate picked up the phone.

      ‘Okay. Don’t worry about a thing,’ came Elliot’s voice. ‘We’ve got the situation under control. Brice and I will be there with bagels, cream cheese and lox. We also have two pints of hand-packed Häagen-Dazs,’ he added. ‘Rocky Road – Brice figured Bina was on one – and Concession Obsession. Maybe that was because this is all like a bad movie. And that’s not all. I have a couple of ten-milligram Valium that Brice “borrowed” from his mother’s medicine cabinet. We’re the rescue squad. Don’t try to get in our way.’

      ‘Elliot, this is serious,’ Kate admonished.

      ‘That’s why Brice and I took half a day off from work. Well, that and intense curiosity.’

      ‘The two of you are gossipmongers,’ Kate said.

      ‘You betcha. Don’t let Bina say another word until we get there because even though I’m a social idiot, Brice knows how to fix up anything that’s interpersonal. I hang the shelves.’

      Kate found herself holding a dead phone and looking at her almost-dead friend. Maybe some food, ice cream, muscle relaxants and diversions were just what she needed. But first she had to find out the rest of the story.

      ‘Was that Jack?’ Bina asked.

      ‘No,’ Kate admitted. She sat down again. ‘Tell me what happened next.’ And then the door bell rang.

       9

      ‘It’s Jack!’ Bina shouted and virtually levitated off the sofa. ‘Ohmigod! It’s Jack and look what I look like!’

      ‘It isn’t Jack,’ Kate told her and watched Bina struggle with both relief and disappointment simultaneously. ‘It’s Elliot. He’s the only one who can get into the building without me having to buzz. He has a key to the downstairs door.’

      Kate went to the tiny foyer and looked through the safety peephole. There, scary in the fish-eye lens, was Elliot, smiling and gesturing to Brice, who was holding up the promised goodie bag. Reluctantly, Kate turned the knob and opened the door. If she didn’t do it, the guys would come in anyway – Elliot had a spare pair of keys for emergency purposes (like the time Kate locked her purse in the office and got halfway home before she noticed) and he wouldn’t hesitate to use it.

      Elliot and Brice almost tumbled in, the three of them crowded into the tiny four-foot by four-foot entrance hall. ‘Is she okay?’ Elliot whispered.

      ‘No,’ Kate told him.

      ‘Well, is she better?’ Brice asked.

      ‘No,’ Kate repeated.

      ‘Then it’s a good thing we came,’ Elliot said.

      ‘I told you,’ Brice responded and then all three of them stepped into the living room, like all those clowns emerging from a tiny car at the circus. At least it felt like a circus to Kate.

      ‘Oh, Bina! You poor girl,’ Elliot said and flew across the living room to sit down beside her in Kate’s good chair.

      ‘Don’t worry about a thing,’ Brice said and began unpacking the shopping bag onto Kate’s coffee table. ‘What’s the last thing you ate? And when was it?’

      Bina, a bit dazed, tried to answer him. ‘Well, I thought I was going to eat last night with Jack but then I never finished the meal. I was too upset. Then I couldn’t find Kate. I remember having some vodka …’

      ‘Well, you need one of these,’ Elliot said and took out a waxed paper parcel and handed it to her.

      She opened it up. Kate winced at the poppy seeds that went rolling off the bagel and onto the sofa, the floor, the rug, and places that she would vacuum for months to come. ‘Oh, I can’t eat,’ Bina said.

      ‘You have to keep up your strength,’ Elliot told her.

      Kate nodded. ‘It would be good for you to have some breakfast,’ she coaxed. ‘Just take a bite.’

      Brice nodded, moved to the foot of the sofa, sat down and rearranged Bina’s feet so they were on his lap and covered with the quilt. ‘Now, just tell Uncle Brice all about it,’ he said, his voice a combination of mockery and sincerity.

      ‘I can’t believe yesterday was supposed to be your big night and nothing happened,’ Elliot said. ‘You must be distraught.’ At that point Kate realized she was fairly distraught herself, and taking a throw pillow from the sofa, sank down to the floor on it beside the coffee table.

      ‘Tell me about it! I thought Jack was nervous. Like he was making sure the ring was still safe. Jack Weintraub was finally going to propose to me and he was nervous. You know, he’s such a perfectionist – Barbie said he insisted on a perfect stone: Flawless D color.’

      ‘Flawless D!’ Brice said approvingly.

      ‘Right. See? I love him for a reason. He knows things. He wants things right. And I thought he wanted me to be happy. So I was happy and I decided to forget about Tokyo Rose.’

      ‘Yes, forget the hostess,’ Kate pressed. ‘Unless he asked her to marry him. You didn’t fight over her, did you?’

      ‘We didn’t fight at all,’ Bina protested. ‘I was a little upset about the dragon lady – it just isn’t like Jack to flirt with strange women – but I couldn’t have loved him more. Anyway, he raised his glass of champagne and I think he was about to make a toast when he realized I didn’t have a glass. So he tried to get a waiter or a waitress and they were nowhere to be seen. So Jack says he has