“Your chaperone?”
“Oh yes. Aunt Theodora insisted we had to have one while we were here.”
“Aunt Theodora?” And now he was the one laughing at me. But not unkindly. Just enough so that I knew that he had a sense of humor, which is very, very important. “What does a chaperone do, anyway?”
“I guess it might sound kind of silly, but she’s teaching us how to be young ladies. Now we wear dresses all the time. We didn’t used to, back in San Francisco. Aunt Theo wants us to learn how to live Life with a capital L.”
“Oh, I get it now. This is supposed to be your sentimental education,” he said.
“What?”
“Flaubert.”
“Oh, right. We haven’t read him yet. Valentine and I go to French school,” I added.
“Ah! French. Would you believe it? I study Greek and Latin.”
“In Boston?”
“Uh-huh. My parents are professors. We always come to New York to see exhibits. We came this weekend to go see this one at the Frick on the Turkish influence in—”
“I was just at the Frick!” I said. “We sat for hours by the fountain.”
“Didn’t you look at any of the artwork?”
“Well, some.”
“Didn’t you get to look at any of the porcelains and bronzes, at least?”
I paused. Was now the time to tell him that really I preferred paintings? Would I have been so self-conscious if I’d been talking to another girl? Probably not.
“We spent a long time in the Fragonard Room,” I said. “That’s Clover’s favorite.”
By now the weather had started to clear. It was still raining but only very lightly, and as if reading my mind, Alexander closed the umbrella. I saw drops of water fall. They were this delicate lilac color.
“Shall we?” he said.
I thought of hesitating, but decided against it. With a stranger, you don’t have to act shy; you can act like anybody you want to be. That’s what I was trying to do right now, when I said simply: “Yes.”
And then he led me toward the water—the Hudson. New York City seen from this view was timeless; I thought of movie openings and postcards. There was a big white ship in the distance.
“That’s the Queen Mary 2,” said Alexander, sounding knowledgeable and all of a sudden much older than a teenage boy. “The original Queen Mary is retired. She’s moored somewhere in Long Beach, with nowhere to go.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“I know a lot about ships. I even build ship models.” And now he was blushing again, but there was this kind of defiance mixed in with the blushing, as if actually he was dying for me to be impressed.
“Oh, how—” I began.
“I always wanted to be a naval architect,” he said. “But the thing is, the age of the really beautiful ships is past. They don’t build them like that anymore. So now I think I’ll probably be a regular architect.”
“My mother’s an architect!” I exclaimed, and had this pleasant feeling of the two of us having things in common.
“What kind of buildings does she do?”
“Oh, wineries and stuff. We live in San Francisco, so—”
Alexander was looking at me with this deep focus, almost as if he were playing an instrument, and I thought all of a sudden of Julian being a cellist. I thought: This is what Valentine must have felt when she was with him. All of this exciting attention. I forgot where we were in the conversation. I was still thinking about lilac-colored raindrops.
Then suddenly I was conscious that the heat wave had lifted. The city was cooling. The flowers along the High Line were blown open and damp. I could still see that big white ship, swaying in the distance.
Alexander Austin, I thought to myself, stealing a glance at him from underneath my lashes. Why couldn’t I see him again, anyway? After all, I had the perfect invitation in mind …
“How long are you in town?” I asked him. “Do you want to come to this party I’m having on August 14?”
19
An Omelet and a Bottle of Champagne
I decided against telling Valentine or even Clover about meeting Alexander on the the High Line. For one thing, I liked having a secret. For another, I figured that they would get to meet him at Aunt Theo’s party, and when they did, wouldn’t they be surprised!
But I thought that Aunt Theo would like to know. (When you have a crush, you do want to confide in somebody! Otherwise it doesn’t feel quite real somehow.) So I went back to that Italian stationery store on Lexington and chose a card with delphiniums on it because I was feeling all romantic and because delphiniums are some of the prettiest flowers. And I wrote her:
Dear Aunt Theodora,
I just thought you’d want to know. It happened: I found an admirer who interests me. You can look forward to meeting him at the party, as I look forward to finally meeting you. He will be my mystery guest.
Safe travels and see you soon__
XXX