Page 6 of No One's Like You
"Your mother has been divorced three times, Ellie. I don't think she's going to be shocked because her daughter does it once."
"It's not that," Ellie smiles. "It's not about the divorce itself. It's that she adores Marcel and she's going to subject me to an endless, tedious interrogation that I don't feel like answering."
"I can go with you if you want," Ruby offers, attentive as always.
Ellie looks at her for a few seconds that seem to freeze time for both of them.
"Damn, Ruby, if you were a man, you'd be perfect," Ellie blurts out, unaware of what those words mean to her friend.
Ruby freezes in place, trying to get air into her lungs. It's not the first time Ellie has made a comment like that. They always hurt, they sting as if she's being pierced with a burning dagger, because she doesn't understand Ellie's inability to see her beyond her gender, but this evening she doesn't let it disturb her. She knows her friend is affected by the situation she's going through and pretends not to have heard it.
"How's your mother doing?" Ellie asks when the conversation changes direction.
"The same," Ruby sighs. "Every time I tell her she needs to leave the house, she burns me with her killer stare."
Thomas Hebert, Ruby's father, died eleven months ago from a massive heart attack. Mother and daughter were devastated by the sudden loss, but while Ruby gradually accepted it and finally overcame it, Adele Hebert has sunk into grief and doesn't leave her house. At 55, she's already retired, but she's gone from being an active woman who volunteered for charitable organizations to remaining locked within the four walls of her house, feeling sorry for herself while life passes by. She doesn't have many friends; in fact, the bond that united her with the Trahan family broke when Ellie's father made the fatal mistake of courting Adele. Fortunately for the girls, their relationship didn't suffer consequences because their mothers were mature enough not to separate them.
Ruby has allowed her to grieve in her own way, but she feels it's not healthy for her mother to have stopped socializing and that the farthest place from the house she travels to is her backyard.
"Something must be done. We can't let her continue like this. We could try to convince her to go to therapy," Ellie suggests.
Ruby lets out a laugh loaded with irony.
"Maybe later, but now it would be impossible to convince her," Ruby comments. "I have to think of something, Ellie. She seems like the living dead, and I can't let her go on like this."
"We'll think of something, be patient," Ellie says, stretching her hand across the table to grasp Ruby's.
Chapter 4
"Where's Ellie?" Jerome Caldwell asks as he closes the door of the shop and puts on enormous lilac-colored glasses.
Ruby raises both eyebrows and makes a fake gesture of disbelief.
"If you want, we can cancel this meet-up and reschedule for when she's available," the girl replies with a sarcastic tone while bobbing her head like a Bronx native.
Jerome rolls his eyes, then smiles. He approaches his friend, hugs her, and plants a loud kiss on her cheek. They walk toward a bar on the corner near Jerome's hair salon and quickly order two beers with a bowl of peanuts.
Jerome Caldwell can be considered the third leg of their group. They met in school after the boy moved with his family to New Orleans from Arizona. Jerome spent his days alone in the schoolyard, too black and effeminate for his classmates, who never stopped picking on him. One day, after gym class, Ellie noticed some jerks insulting him and didn't hesitate to stand up to them. Ruby followed suit and, like two genuine tough girls, they threatened anyone whoeven looked at Jerome the wrong way. They took him under their wings, and they've been inseparable since. He's not as close as Ruby and Ellie are, but every two weeks they meet at this same bar, talk about everything and nothing, and set another date.
"You didn't answer me," Jerome says after taking a long swig of his beer. "Damn, this is good," he mutters and takes another gulp. "Where's Ellie?"
Ruby chews with satisfaction on about ten peanuts she's stuffed in her mouth. When she swallows, she drinks half her glass and wipes her mouth.
"She's with her lawyer."
Jerome leans closer to her, driven by curiosity.
"I guess she'll give you more details, but she's separated from Marcel," Ruby says, and the corner of her lips automatically lifts. She tries to hide it by bringing the glass to her lips.
Jerome whistles and opens his eyes wide. He's always had his theories about why none of Ellie's relationships work out. He noticed it when she lost interest in that cute rugby player who was head over heels for her, and confirmed it on her wedding day with Marcel when, instead of focusing on the groom, her gaze kept drifting to her left, to the person holding her bouquet.
"I didn't know they were having problems," the stylist says, just to contribute something. It's what everyone says when they hear news like this.
"Neither did I," Ruby answers, remembering she said the same thing to Ellie.
A strange silence falls that starts to become uncomfortable. When those two are together, all you usually hear is their incessant chatter, always sharing news or laughing at some silly thing. Now the situation is different; Ruby doesn't feel very comfortable with the topic, especially because of what Jerome knows. A few years ago, when Ellie announced she was getting married, it was her friend who picked up the pieces of Ruby's shattered heart.
"And what do you think about that?"
