A Certain Age by Tama Janowitz

she should have inquired as to the price first: they were two hundred and eighty dollars apiece. But she would be damned if now that the salesperson was ringing them up, she would make an idiot of herself and tell her to undo the charge. Besides, it wasn't all that much money; she would rather have three really good pairs of sunglasses that she could wear for years, and that would average out to be inexpensive, than to buy something she didn't like and would never use. As the salesperson was putting each pair into a fancy stainless-steel case and wrapping it in tissue, she heard someone calling her name. "Florence?"
    It was Allison Thomas, with a stroller and moony-faced baby. "Allison? What are you doing in town on a Sunday in July?"
    "Oh, Archie's taking us on a canal boat through France for three weeks. We're leaving tonight. It's the only vacation he could think of that his parents might enjoy. So I came back from the country on Friday to get ready. What are you doing?"
    "I was staying with Natalie and John—you know them, the de Jonghs?"
    "Sure."
    "I had a big fight with Natalie. She threw me out."
    "You're kidding." Allison had always resembled a B starlet. Now, she looked at Florence inquisitively. "Do you want to go and get a coffee?"
    "Okay," Florence said.
    "What about if we just went down to the basement? You know, they've opened that Japanese teahouse downstairs."
    "Did you finish your shopping?"
    "I was looking for a new bathing suit. But I didn't see any I liked. What did you get?" Florence pointed to the sunglasses in the display cabinet. "Oh, those are nice. Maybe I should get a pair. Do you think those would look good on me?"
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    "Try them on." Allison could buy whatever she wanted without thinking twice. "I think you should try on those round ones. They would go with the shape of your face better."
    Allison put them on. "Do you think? I don't know."
    "I like them. I think the blue glass is a nice color for you."
    "What about these? Do you think they would look good on Archie?"
    She could barely remember what Allison's husband looked like. "Is it the kind of thing he would wear?"
    "I don't know. He's always telling me to buy him things when I shop, but then he never ends up wearing it. Actually, I think he only likes Ray «Bans, this one particular style." Allison handed the glasses back to the salesclerk. "Oh, forget it." She bent over the red-headed infant. "Plum-bun, we're going to go down and have some cake and cookies now, if you behave yourself."
    "Where are your other kids?" Florence held open the elevator door.
    "The nanny took them to the circus. Thank God she's coming on the trip. Archie's sister is coming with her two kids, one of them is bringing a friend, that's six kids all together under the age of nine; I begged Sara to bring her own nanny, but she said her nanny was going on vacation—I know it's just her way of getting a free nanny out of the situation."
    "How many will be on this boat?"
    "The six kids, Archie and I, Sara and her husband, Archie and Sara's parents, the nanny—how many is that?—and then the crew of the boat, which also has a chef and a couple of people from the tour company. Supposedly this trip is really fabulous. They do everything for you—the boat just goes along up the canals, very slowly—and if you want to get out and bicycle, they arrange bikes for you, and a picnic lunch; or if you want to go sightseeing, they take you by van and you meet up with the boat later in the day farther down the canal. It was the only kind of vacation thing Archie could think of that all the different generations would enjoy. It is expensive, but not all that much—I think we figured it at about five hundred dollars per person per day for
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    the three weeks, plus the first-class airfare, but that includes everything."
    The Japanese teahouse was in a glass structure in a kind of underground center atrium. Florence felt as if she were in an aquarium: a sheet of running water