“Laurel, I suppose they can’t. You know, I see a problem and I just feel compelled to try and solve it.”
“Well,” Laurel’s daughter chimed in here, “we saw it and were very impressed. If this is how you troubleshoot and you’re just a guest…”
Dick walked towards them, but not before grabbing a fresh cocktail off a passing waiter’s tray. Olga reached for his free hand, tightly squeezing his fingers. He was momentarily delighted. Just momentarily. The rest of the afternoon was a blur. Perhaps they were there for another hour, or maybe it was four. Olga was by his side, then she was gone. Then they were together again. Then they were waiting for the car, and he could hear that the party was still going full swing.
“Why are we leaving?” he asked her.
“Because if we stay any longer, you’ll be drunk. Or drunker, I should say.”
“It’s my cheat day.”
She didn’t say anything.
“Did you enjoy talking to Nick? He’s very interested in Puerto Rico, you know.”
Olga laughed. “Is he now? He seems mainly interested in money.”
“Well,” Dick said, “isn’t everyone?”
She didn’t say anything.
“Anyway,” Dick continued, “I was happy you two met because he invited us down for a retreat of sorts next weekend—for investors on the island. I think it would be wonderful to go to your motherland together, don’t you?”
“My motherland,” she said flatly as she scrolled her phone, “is a neighborhood in Brooklyn, which your friend Nick and his family have slowly begun to destroy.”
Dick laughed.
“Let’s not be dramatic, Cherry. Anyway, it’s a little time at the beach together. I can show you how to surf.” He tried to nuzzle her neck, but she was unresponsive. “We’d fly down Friday, maybe Thursday, if you think you can—”
“I can’t,” she replied without skipping a beat. “I have my cousin’s wedding that weekend.”
“Your cousin is getting married? Which one? Why didn’t you tell me? I don’t have to go to this thing with Nick, you know. He has these little gatherings all the time.”
“I didn’t tell you,” Olga said, some distance in her voice, “because it doesn’t concern you.”
“But it concerns you, so then I’m concerned. I want to go and meet your family.”
Olga paused for a moment. “No, Richard, you don’t. Not really.”
Dick considered this. The truth was, if her family was anything like her brother, he didn’t want to meet them, but he didn’t want her being embarrassed of them, either.
“Olga.” He cupped her two hands in his and looked her in the eyes. “I love you. There is nothing I could find out about your family that would send me running away.”
Olga looked at him and let out a cackle. Not her public laugh, but not her bedroom giggle, either. It was, he felt, a cruel laugh.
“That’s fantastic.” She shook her hands free of his grasp. “Of course you think I’m worried about your impression of them. Why would you ever consider that I’m worried about their impression of you? Who would ever not like you?”
It took him a second to register her sarcasm, which was more a result of the multiple mojitos he’d consumed, not because her voice wasn’t thick with it. Dick’s car pulled up in front of them, but neither moved to get in. He could not believe that after the day he’d had, that she had put him through, she was now insulting him to his face.
“Let’s change the subject,” he said sharply. “Why did you do that today?”
“Do what?”
“Why did you embarrass me?”
“Excuse me? I embarrassed you?”
“I brought you here as my guest and you were off acting like a maid, in front of all of my friends.”
“Like a maid?”
“Yes. There were some very prominent people here. People I know and do business with, and you were down on your knees helping that waiter off the ground, directing people with mops. It was embarrassing—”
“That embarrassed you? That embarrassed you. Okay. Well, you know who didn’t find it embarrassing? The hostess! There is no way that I don’t get hired for Laurel’s daughter’s wedding.”
“Well, that’s exactly my point! This was a party, not an audition. You acted like a maid and now you’ll be hired as one.”
“So, that’s how you see me?” Olga said to him.