“You’re right, of course. Now, let’s eat. I only have forty minutes left. Really, Judith, you should try to be on time for our lunches…”
They spent the next forty-four minutes making agonizing small talk; neither one really listened to the other. Long silences punctuated every comment, and in the quiet, Jude all too often recalled her lonely childhood. Years she’d spent waiting for a kind word from this woman. When it was finally over, Jude said good-bye and left the gallery.
Outside, she stood on the street, unexpectedly unsettled. Her mother had struck a nerve with that what will you do? sentence, and it irritated Jude that she even cared. She walked down the busy street toward her car. She was almost there when she glanced in a window and stopped.
There, in a glass display case, was a gorgeous gold ring.
She went inside, looked closer. It was stunning: a perfect combination of edgy and sophisticated, modern and timeless. The shape was slightly asymmetrical, with a triangular flap on the top edge. The artist must have somehow wrapped heated metal around a form and then twisted it just enough to give the wide band a fun little tail. The empty jewel prong was also slightly off center.
Jude looked up. In response, an elegantly coifed older woman made almost no noise as she crossed the store and stepped gracefully behind the counter. “Have you found something?”
Jude pointed at the ring.
“Ah. Exquisite.” The saleswoman unlocked the glass case and withdrew the piece. “It’s a Bazrah. One of a kind.” She offered it to Jude, who slipped it on her forefinger.
“It would make a beautiful graduation gift for my daughter. What stone would you suggest setting in it?”
The woman frowned in concentration. “You know, I don’t have children, but if I were buying my daughter a ring like this, I think I’d want to extend the experience. Perhaps you could choose the stone together.”
Jude loved the idea. “How much is it?”
“Six hundred and fifty dollars,” the saleswoman answered.
“Ouch.”
“Maybe you’d like to look at something less—”
“No. This is the ring I want. And could you show me some watches? For my son…”
Jude spent another thirty minutes in the store, waiting for the inscriptions to be finished, then paid for her purchases and left.
She drove down to the waterfront and caught the three o’clock ferry. At just before four, she was back on Pine Island, turning onto Night Road.
At home, she found Mia seated at the dining room table, with her laptop open, watching something on the screen.
“I overacted in Our Town,” Mia said miserably. “Why didn’t anyone tell me? USC will hate this.”
Jude went to Mia, stood beside her. “Go to that scene in Streetcar, when you were on the balcony. That’ll blow them away.”
Mia took out one CD and put in another.
“How was school today?”
Mia shrugged. “Mrs. Rondle gave us a pop quiz. So lame. And they announced the winter play. Romeo and Juliet, set during the Vietnam War. I can get the lead, which is cool. Zach is gonna take Lexi home after practice, but he’ll be home for dinner.”
Jude rubbed Mia’s back. “What do you think about Zach and Lexi being together?”
“I bet it’s killed you not to ask me that before.”
Jude smiled. “A little.”
Mia looked up. “It’s scary … and sorta cool, I guess.”
Jude thought about Mia before Lexi, when her daughter had been like a scared, fragile turtle with her head tucked deep inside her shell. Mia’s only friends had been fictional. Lexi had changed all that. “Whatever happens between them, you and Lexi have to stay honest with each other. You have to stay friends.”
“After Zach breaks up with her. That’s what you mean.”
“I’m just saying…”
“I’ve thought of it myself, believe me. But … I think he really likes her. He talks about her all the time.”
Jude stood there a minute longer, trying to figure out how to best bring up the other thing on her mind. Finally, she decided to just do it. “There’s one other thing…”
“What? You want to ask me again if Tyler and I are doing it? We’re not.” Mia laughed.
“I remember the first time I fell in love. Keith Corcoran. Senior year of high school. Just like you. I didn’t know until Keith kissed me how falling in love could be like riding a waterfall into warm water.” She shrugged. “No one talked to me about it. Grandma is a pretty buttoned-up woman. All she ever said to me about love was that it derailed a woman. So I learned on my own and, like everyone, I made some mistakes. And the world is more dangerous now. I don’t want you to sleep with Tyler—you’re too young—but…” She went over to the second drawer beside the stove, opened it. She took out a small brown bag and handed it to Mia. “These are for you. Just in case.”