After the Reunion by Rona Jaffe Page B

who cheated, and she knew the marriage was over, so she ran away and got divorced. My mother has a very strong sense of morality, in her own way. She’s a decent person. When I was growing up she was very protective of me. Once, when I was in high school, she had a boyfriend who was much younger than she was—my mother likes younger men—and she caught him letting me try some pot he had, and she threw him out of her life forever. I think she felt badly about it too, because she liked him.”
    “She told you about the fireman?” Kit said.
    “Sure. We’re really good friends.”
    “Interesting,” Kit said. “My mother and I are not friends.” She realized how drunk she was getting and thought about what she was going to say next. Then she thought the hell with it. Nothing shocked Emma. “When my brother and I were very little we were drowning in our swimming pool, and my mother was sitting right there in a chair beside the pool, and when we screamed for help she didn’t lift a finger.”
    Emma looked aghast. “What do you mean?”
    “I mean she just sat there.”
    “She would let you drown ?” Apparently something could shock Emma; not sex—Kit could tell her anything—but betrayal.
    “You got it.”
    “But why?”
    “Apparently she was having a nervous breakdown. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s stupid really, to be so upset about something that happened when you were a child. But I always felt that if your mother wouldn’t save you then nobody would. I mean, who can you trust? I trust my brother, and I guess that’s it.”
    “You can trust me,” Emma said. She had round, innocent green eyes, and they were soft now with protectiveness and sympathy.
    Kit thought about it. “I know,” she said finally. “Are you hungry? Do you want some cheese or celery or something?”
    “Sure. Anything you’ve got.”
    They went rather unsteadily into the kitchen and piled the limited contents of Kit’s refrigerator onto two plates. The rest of the refrigerator contained a few diet sodas, which they left. Then they went back into the living room and sat on the floor. Kit reached over and made the music louder. She had rock music playing all the time, even quietly when she was going to sleep. It made her feel safe.
    They ate the food and drank some more wine and Kit began to feel better. “I want that part,” she said, again. “Nobody can do that part like I could. I know in the beginning I got parts because I looked sixteen when I was eighteen, but now I’ve worked hard and really learned a lot and I know I’m good. My agent says there’s a chance.”
    “You’ll get it,” Emma said encouragingly.
    “Thank you. My friend.”
    “And if I could get to be his assistant … Imagine, Zack Shepard’s assistant! I’d be his gofer, I’d be anything. As long as they gave me enough money to pay the rent.”
    “They’d be lucky to have you,” Kit said, and meant it.
    “ My friend.”
    They drank to friendship. The level of wine in the jug was considerably lower than it had been when they opened it. “I love sex,” Kit said. “If I was at college when your mother was I would probably have been like her and the other girls would have detested me too. I hate not having a boyfriend. I miss sex.”
    “But you were never really in love, were you?” Emma asked.
    “No, but sometimes we were friends for a while. I’ll put up with a lot of annoying traits in a man if he’s a good lover.”
    “What’s your concept of a good lover?” Emma asked.
    “I’ll tell you if you tell me.”
    “Okay.”
    “Considerate,” Kit said, thinking about what she liked. “Asks me what I want him to do. Inventive. Willing to try new things. And, although I don’t want to be gross … well-endowed. What do you like?”
    “The same.”
    “Did you ever do it in a Jacuzzi?”
    “No,” Emma said. “Is it good?”
    “Fantastic! You have to do it in a Jacuzzi. The water or something … it’s the greatest.