Market Street (28 page)

James took her hand and they walked around the park, trying to pronounce the Latin names of their favorite plants. They bought a box of caramel corn from a street vendor and sat on a wooden bench.

“It’s hard being an only child,” James said out of the blue. “Your parents’ expectations land squarely on your shoulders.”

“What do you mean?” Cassie ate a handful of caramel corn.

“I only had two career choices that made my parents happy: architect or attorney. You only had one.”

“I like working at Fenton’s,” Cassie said coldly. “The emporium is important to me.”

“Your eyes light up when you talk about gardens. You’re like a child on Christmas morning.”

“My mother has spent her life building Fenton’s,” Cassie mumbled.

“It doesn’t mean you have to make it your life.”

“That’s what Aidan used to say.” Cassie pulled away from James.

“I just think you should give it some thought.” James put his arm around Cassie. “Like your fortune cookie said: plant a small seed of happiness and it will grow.”

“I can’t live my life based on a fortune cookie,” Cassie retorted, grabbing another handful of caramel corn.

“You can’t run away from happiness, it will find you,” James replied.

“More fortune cookies, or the back of
Mad
magazine?”

“That’s an original.” James turned and touched her cheek. “It’s my way of saying I’m falling in love with you.”

“James.” Cassie blushed, spilling the caramel corn on the ground.

“I’m a sucker for love, but this isn’t new, Cassie.” James tucked her hair behind her ear. “I thought you were gorgeous the night you walked into Boulevard. You’re like a fawn, you just seem untouched.”

“You’re leaving for Chicago.” Cassie stumbled on her words. “It’s too soon. I’m not even divorced.”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about this,” James said seriously, lacing his fingers through hers. “Why don’t you come to Chicago with me? I have a nice one bedroom downtown. You could figure out what you want to do. Maybe open an organic food store, nothing over the top, just a corner store with produce from your own garden.”

“James.” Cassie shook her head.

“We could stay on my grandparents’ farm for a while. You could plant a vegetable garden. I want to be together, Cassie.”

“We’ve been together one day!” Cassie objected. “We don’t know each other.”

“You’re beautiful and smart and care about other people more than yourself. You eat peas with a fork, and you put salt on French fries.” James put his hand under her dress. “And I know how to make you come.”

Cassie felt his fingers rub against her panties. She closed her eyes and tried to surrender to the luxurious warmth of his touch. She heard tourists walk by; a boy asked his mother for ice cream. She opened her eyes and pushed his hand away.

“Not here,” she whispered.

“Let’s go home.” James pulled her up and led her out of the park.

*   *   *

Cassie and
James took the bus to James’s apartment and ran upstairs. They took their clothes off standing up and he entered her as they hit the bed. Cassie came so quickly she had to catch her breath. She hung on to him, panting, waiting for the shudders to subside. James pulled her arms over her head and pushed harder, clasping her hands tightly, until they came together and rolled on the bed, soaked in sweat.

James rose naked and walked to the kitchen to get glasses of ice water. He came back into the bedroom and stood by the window.

“People in the street can probably see you.” Cassie sat against the pillows. Her cheeks were flushed and her hair was tangled.

“Cassie.” James sat on the bed and handed Cassie a glass of water. He traced the outline of her nipples with his fingers. “Come with me.”

Cassie drank her water and watched the sky turn pink outside the window. The fog had gone out past the Golden Gate Bridge and the sunset was a muted palette of colors.

“I can’t abandon my mother or the emporium.” Cassie shook her head. “I promised I’d watch over Isabel this summer.”

“I told you I know you.” He placed his glass on the bedside table. “You put others first.”

“We could try long distance?” Cassie looked at James’s damp hair curling over his forehead. She studied the lean muscles on his arms and the blond hair on his legs.

“Long distance didn’t work for me.” James shrugged. “I want to grow with someone. I want to design a house in the suburbs and have four kids and a golden retriever.”

“I should go.” Cassie got up and grabbed her dress from the floor.

“You could stay the night. Go to work from here in the morning.”

Cassie slipped on her dress and zipped up the back. Her neck was still damp and she smelled like sex. “It’s street cleaning tonight. I’d have to move my car anyway. It’s better if I leave now.”

James followed her to the front door. They stood on the landing, listening to the sounds of people coming home from work. James brushed her hair behind her ears and kissed her slowly on the mouth.

“The invitation stands.”

Cassie ran down the stairs, crossed the street, and got into her car.

19.

“
Where have
you been?” Alexis demanded as Cassie crept into the house. “I got two texts in twenty-four hours. Did you have to sleep with the landlord to get an apartment?” Alexis sat in the living room brushing Poodles with a small wooden brush. She had a pile of magazines beside her and a leather album on the floor. She flipped through the magazines and tore out pages.

“What are you doing?” Cassie tried to change the subject. She felt like Alexis could see through her cotton dress. Sex hung around her like a curtain. Every nerve in her body was charged with sexual frisson.

“I’m creating an album for Princess Giselle of her magazine clippings. She’s concerned Victoria Beckham has more Twitter followers than she does.” Alexis put Poodles in his dog basket and looked closely at Cassie. “You did sleep with someone, you’re a walking George Michael song.”

“I had fun.” Cassie blushed. “I’m going to bed.”

“I’ve listened to you moaning about Aidan for four months and you’re not going to tell me the good stuff?” Alexis jumped up. She wore a light pink robe and pink satin slippers. Her face was scrubbed clean and her hair lay in a ponytail down her back.

“Okay, but I need a cup of coffee.” Cassie walked toward the kitchen.

“You look like you need a cold shower.” Alexis followed her. “I’ll make the coffee. Start from the beginning. No censoring, I want to hear everything.”

“I slept with James,” Cassie said after Alexis handed her a porcelain coffee cup.

“James?” Alexis looked up from the peanut butter and jelly sandwich she was making. “You didn’t tell me you were seeing him.”

“I ran into him by accident.” Cassie stirred sugar into her coffee. “My real estate agent was showing me apartments and she showed me his apartment. It’s in Cow Hollow, with a lovely view of the bay.”

“You fucked him to get his apartment?” Alexis bit into the sandwich, jelly oozing out of the crusts. “I told you, you could stay here. Carter likes a house full of guests. It makes him feel like one of those British lords on a BBC miniseries.”

“I stayed in the apartment to get a feel for the light and James just walked in.” Cassie grinned, remembering his face when he saw her. “Carrying Chinese takeout and a stack of
Mad
magazines.”

“Not exactly caviar and roses.” Alexis poured herself a glass of milk.

“He didn’t know I was there,” Cassie protested. “He’s a take-out junkie. He can’t cook.”

“Every guy has an Achilles’ heel, you can live with that. What happened next?”

“We ate in his kitchen and then we took our fortune cookies and ice cream into the living room. He read mine and I read his.” Cassie sipped her coffee. “I spilled ice cream on the floor and while I was cleaning it up we sort of…”

“Sort of what? This is better than
The Bachelorette.
” Alexis spread peanut butter on another slice of bread.

“Sort of ended up in the bedroom, in bed, making love.”

“Was he good?”

“Alexis!” Cassie’s cheeks turned red.

“You’re thirty-two and you’ve been out of the dating market for ten years. Performance counts,” Alexis said matter-of-factly. “You don’t want to date a dud.”

“We’re not dating,” Cassie replied.

“So he was a dud. Pity, I still think he looks like Hugh Grant. If he had a British accent I couldn’t resist him.”

“He was wonderful. He’s sweet and funny and we had so much fun. We pulled a Ferris Bueller today.”

Alexis stared at Cassie as if she was brain damaged. “
Ferris Bueller
as in the movie with Matthew Broderick and Charlie Sheen when they were seventeen?”

“I called in sick and we spent the day exploring the city. We rode cable cars and walked through Golden Gate Park and ate clam chowder at Fisherman’s Wharf. Then we went back to his apartment and made love again.”

Alexis put her sandwich on her plate and looked at Cassie carefully. “You have that ‘that was the best sex I ever had and I’m reliving it as I tell you’ look. What’s the problem?”

“James said he’s falling in love with me. He asked me to move to Chicago with him.”

“There are some good songs about Chicago, it must be a great town.”

“Very funny.” Cassie stood up and walked to the fridge. Her muscles ached and her throat felt dry. She took out a pitcher of lemonade and filled a glass with ice.

“I knew he was in love with you.” Alexis nodded wisely. “He was practically carrying a sign.”

“I said no.” Cassie poured a glass of lemonade.

“Did you take time to think about it?” Alexis dunked her sandwich in a glass of milk.

“There’s nothing to think about.” Cassie sat at the table. “I can’t just pick up and move.”

“You were about to move,” Alexis replied. “You were apartment hunting.”

“In San Francisco! I can’t abandon the emporium even if I wanted to be with James.”

“Do you want to be with him?” Alexis clasped her hands together and leaned her elbows on the table.

“You’re not Dr. Phil.” Cassie frowned. “He’s lovely to be around. But I can’t leave my mother and the emporium. I promised to keep an eye on Isabel this summer.”

“If you didn’t have those commitments, would you go?” Alexis prodded.

“I do have them!” Cassie stood up and paced around the room. “I can’t add quitter to my résumé.”

“Cassie, no one would call you a quitter. You’ve launched the emporium. It’s wonderfully stocked; you’ve created great relationships with the suppliers. Someone could take it over.”

“My mother has been waiting for me to join Fenton’s since I was six years old.”

“Your mother wants you to be happy,” Alexis said.

“She tried to set me up with a millionaire playboy.” Cassie grinned. “She doesn’t want me to be an old maid. It would be bad for her image.”

“Then she’d approve.” Alexis nodded. “She loves James. I think she has a secret crush on him.”

“It’s too soon.” Cassie shook her head. “I don’t know how I really feel about him. I’m not going to pick up and move cross-country. What if he sings in the shower, or puts Tabasco on his eggs?”

“Carter sings in the shower,” Alexis mused. “He actually sounds a lot like Sting.”

“I think I should spend some time alone. Get my own apartment, work at Fenton’s, keep my feet on the ground.”

Alexis drummed her nails on the table. “You don’t want to end up a member of the Spinsters. They are the cattiest women at social functions.”

“I’m not going to be a Spinster.” Cassie giggled. “Maybe I’ll join one of your book clubs or take cooking classes at night. I’ve always wanted to learn how to make a soufflé.”

“You can’t make love with a soufflé.” Alexis ate the last bite of bread and washed it down with milk.

“Life isn’t sex and shopping,” Cassie retorted.

“It is about trying to be happy,” Alexis said slowly.

“I don’t need a man to make me happy. Aidan made me unhappy. Aidan broke my heart.” Cassie drained her glass. Suddenly she felt tired. She wanted to climb in bed, pull the comforter over her head, and sleep.

“Don’t run away from the possibility of happiness.” Alexis swept breadcrumbs from her lap.

“You and the fortune cookies!” Cassie pushed her chair back. “I don’t need any more advice, I’m going to bed.”

*   *   *

When Cassie
came down to breakfast the next morning, Alexis was already at work. She left an invitation to a cocktail party Princess Giselle was hosting to save the baby whales.

“Since when has Princess Giselle had an interest in whales?” Cassie called Alexis on the phone. She propped the phone under her ear and stirred a pot of oatmeal on the stove.

Cassie woke up feeling guilty for snapping at Alexis. She remembered how Alexis took her in when she appeared at her door, sopping wet and burning up with fever. Alexis allowed her to stay for months, encouraged her to swim in her pool and sit in her steam room. She listened to Cassie and never criticized Aidan until the marriage was truly over.

Cassie spooned the oatmeal into a bowl and thought about James. She missed his smile, and the easy way he carried himself. She pictured him leaning out of the cable car, crooning a verse of “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” and giggled. He seemed to enjoy himself and it was contagious. She felt lighter when she was with him, like a college coed.

“Whales swim under the Golden Gate Bridge and they get stuck in the bay,” Alexis explained. “Boats have to turn them around and lead them back out to sea. It’s a real problem.”

“It sounds like a noble cause.” Cassie looked out the window. She knew she should go to work. She had dressed in her favorite Pucci dress and sling-back sandals and brushed her hair back with an enamel clip. She wanted to be excited about going into Fenton’s, about driving through the city on a warm summer day. But sitting by herself in Alexis’s kitchen, thinking about Aidan and James and her mother, she was tempted to lock herself in Alexis’s entertainment room and watch
The Wedding Planner
and
The Proposal
.