“Are those… diamonds?” I asked, not quite believing that they were even as I reached my finger up to touch them. The stones were cool and sharp, and too sparkly to be anything but diamonds.
“You’d better believe they’re diamonds,” she said. “Tom only buys me the best, Cath.”
“Tom?” I repeated his name, and it felt unexpected on my tongue. Sharp and cold like the illicit diamonds in her hair.
“Why are you frowning?” Myrtle pouted. “I’m finally happy.”
I forced a smile. “I’m glad you’re happy. But… a married man?” My voice faltered a little. I felt this new fear for my sister rising up inside of me, creeping and spreading in circles in my chest like a spider methodically building a web. “And what if George finds out?” It frightened me to think of what he might do to her if he did.
“He won’t,” she said, vehemently. “He thinks I come to the city for you, Cath. How would he ever know?”
I bit my lip, trying to force myself not to speak again until I could think of something cheerier to say. “Those hairpins are real pretty, Myrtle,” I finally said.
“They are.” She sighed, happily. “Aren’t they?” She ran her fingers across them, then paused for a moment. “You know, I’ll give you a key for my apartment and you can come in and borrow them anytime you like. Borrow anything you want, Cath. I’ve got a whole collection of nice things now.”
I thanked her, but I knew I’d never do it. What use did I have for diamond hairpins anyway? And nice things, bought for her by her married lover? They felt… tainted. “So fill me in, how’d you even meet Tom?” I asked her. Myrtle didn’t get out of Queens much, except to visit me, and I certainly hadn’t introduced them.
“It was the funniest thing, Cath. And really, I guess I owe it all to you.”
“Me?” I shook my head, not understanding.
“Yes, your friend, in the fancy yellow car. He set us up.”
* * *
IT HAD BEEN months since I’d seen Jay.
On a chilly evening at the end of last January, he’d climbed up the fire escape, knocked on my window. I’d gone to open it and noticed a creamy yellow convertible sitting in the alleyway below. “You bought a car?” I’d asked, laughing at the sheer impulsiveness of it, as I’d opened the window for him to climb in. He hadn’t telephoned first, just showed up. And when I’d seen him last, at his place, he had not even owned a car. Certainly not an expensive yellow one.
“Rolls-Royce. I just bought her,” he said, breathless from the cold. He climbed in through my window, his face ruddy with excitement. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she, Cath? Any girl would love her, wouldn’t she?”
I nodded, though I couldn’t care less about a car. But I was happy to see him. I’d had a long day, my feet ached, and I’d just taken off my shoes before he’d shown up. “Sure,” I murmured. “Your car is lovely.” I stood on my stockinged tiptoes to kiss him. But he gently pushed my face away, and he offered me a cool smile instead. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing’s wrong,” he breathed out slowly, his voice still quivering with excitement. “Everything is right. Daisy is moving to East Egg.”
Daisy. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. “Just Daisy?” I asked gently, instead. “Not… her husband, too?”
“No, no. Him, too. But I can deal with him.” Deal with him? I let out a nervous laugh. “She’s going to be so close, Cath,” he said, still talking excitedly. “I can see her again. I can make her love me again. I have money now. I can make her happy now.” His voice was higher than usual; he spoke faster than usual, and he reminded me suddenly of a desperate rat trying to claw its way up the sewer grate before it drowned.
“Oh, Jay.” I put my hand on his cheek. His soft, familiar cheek. Daisy had married another man several years ago; Jay hadn’t seen her since before the war. There was no way she still pined after him the way he pined after her. Or else why would she have gotten married at all? But poor Jay would never believe me if I told him that. He was going to have to find that out for himself. Still, my heart ached for him, for the pain he was about to feel when she rejected him. Again.
“I know I promised you I was going to help your sister,” he was saying now. “And I’ll still try to find some way, Cath. But I just used almost all my savings to purchase a house in West Egg. It’s beautiful and grand and quite impressive. And right across the water from where Daisy will be in East Egg.”