HER MOTHER WAS less convinced that Alison’s chance meeting with Kyle was as insignificant as all that. “Oh, Alison,” she murmured, her hand to her breast in simple and yet utterly melodramatic acknowledgment of the heartbreak Alison must be feeling.
“Mom, it was really no big deal,” Alison informed her.
“I would love for that to be true, I really would,” Rose replied. “But might I remind you, the last time you saw him, what was it, more than three years ago? You flew out of Cincinnati like a bat out of hell.”
“I needed to get back to New York.”
“And we haven’t seen you since!”
“And I’ve been really busy.”
“That’s what you said,” Rose sighed.
“Mom—seriously. I have not been avoiding the entire city of Cincinnati just because one of my ex-boyfriends happens to live here. That would be ridiculous.” Her nerves were too frayed for her to tread into these waters. But the frayed nerves might have had more to do with the eight phone calls she had not returned to her alarmist agent who wanted to know where the hell she was.
“How did he look?”
“Who?”
“Kyle!”
“Oh. He looks good. Tired, but you know, he has two little babies and a full-time job, so of course he’s tired.”
“She doesn’t work, I heard.”
“She just had two babies!”
“A lot of women work these days. You made it very clear, you were not going to give up your career to have a family.”
“Only an idiot would ask me to give up my career to have a family.”
“Well, that was apparently important to him.”
“Mom, maybe she quit her job because she wanted to quit her job. Some women want to quit their jobs.”
“That’s what I’m saying. He wanted to marry you.”
“Mom—he didn’t marry me, and he never asked, by the way.”
“He would have.”
“Didn’t beats would have.”
“You know very well—”
“Mom, we’re not talking about whether or not I should have married Kyle! That’s a nonstarter, it’s a different life, come on.”
“You said he looked tired,” Rose noted, suddenly concerned about Kyle’s health.
“As I believe I just mentioned, he has two little babies and a full-time job.”
“But the wife stays at home.”
“Her name is Van.”
Rose ignored this. “Has he put on weight at all?”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Why are you jumping all over me?”
“I’m not jumping all over you, I’m just asking why you would ask that. That is such a terrible thing to ask, like it would be so awful to put on a few pounds.” Alison sounded defensive for a reason; she had put on six pounds since arriving in Cincinnati just four days ago. How, you had to ask yourself, was it possible to put on weight that fast when it took so damn long to shed it?
“The last time I saw him I thought he looked a little heavy, that’s all.”
This was news. “When did you see him?”
“I don’t know when that was, a couple months ago. Your father and I bumped into him at a baseball game.”
“You didn’t tell me.”
“Alison, it is impossible to get you on the phone. And you have made it crystal clear, might I add, that you are not at all interested in hearing about Kyle Wallace. You have made that crystal clear.”