Page 18 of Suddenly Dating
“I got a great assignment. I’m doing a story on this twenty-five-year-old teacher without any legs. She’s teaching inner-city middle school.”
Casey was a journalist for a Brooklyn magazine, and somehow always ended up with the most interesting stories. Lola ate while Casey talked excitedly about her piece. Of all her siblings, Casey was the go-getter and always had been—which was why Lola had put off her own college so Casey could go. When they were kids, five of them splitting a can of Chef Boyardee, Casey was dreaming up ways to make them rich. Lola had always known Casey woulddosomething. Something big. Lola had never had that confidence. The only thing she’d wanted to do as a girl and a teenager was write weepy love stories. So when it came time for college, Lola had saved the money they had from their grandparents and had deferred college so Casey could go. And Ben. And Ty. And Kennedy.
“Anyway, I went to check on Mr.Bagatti today,” Casey said.
Lola stopped shoveling food onto her fork. Mr.Bagatti was the old man who lived below Lola’s little walk-up studio in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. He had no one, and she’d worried about him once she decided to take Sara up on her offer. Who would check in on him? Who would make sure he had what he needed, was taking his meds, was eating? “Casey,thankyou!”
“I told you I would.” Her sister bit into something. “He has a new honey,” she said with her mouth full.
“A what?”
“A honey. Girlfriend.”
“You’re kidding,” Lola said flatly. Mr.Bagatti never left his apartment.
“Nope, not kidding. She’s the mother of the guy who runs the corner store. She was there when I stopped by. She’d brought him some candy and he was very happy. I told you he would be.”
“You never said that. What you said was that he should be in a home where they would at least wash his undershirts. And that coming to Lake Haven was crazy.”
“That was before I knew how hip it is to be on Lake Haven. My boss has a house there. And that, dear sister, is why I’m calling.”
“Because your boss has a house here?”
“No, because she told me that her house is next door to Birta Hoffman’s.”
Lola gasped and dropped her fork. Birta Hoffman, the German author and winner of the Man Booker Prize for her novel,Incomplete,was Lola’s all-time favorite author. “She has a house in theStates?” Lola all but shouted into the phone. She’d thought Birta lived in the Black Forest in Germany. Maybe she’d romanticized that part, but it just fit with her books.
“Apparently so. And get this—she’s going on a big book tour in the fall with her new novel. So she’ll be in East Beach all summer. I guess you were right, Lola—everyone who is everyone is in East Beach this summer.”
Lola’s heart was racing. To think she could run intoBirta Hoffmanin this tiny little hamlet! She was almost hyperventilating just thinking about it.
“Oh, and I almost forgot,” Casey continued after taking a bite of something. “Apparently she hangs out at the coffee shop there most mornings, working on her book. So pick up that fancy new laptop, girl, and start hanging out at the coffee shop.”
“Ohmigod, I can’t believe she ishere,” Lola said dreamily.
“You should totally go and meet her,” Casey said.
“Right. As if one could simply walk up to Birta Hoffman and say hello. I would never impose—”
“Jesus, you never want to impose!” Casey said loudly before Lola could finish. “Lola, for God’s sake, you’ve been taking care of everyone else for so long, including the douche bag you married—”
“Don’t bring up Will,” Lola said sharply. But it was too late—she could feel herself coloring at the truth in what Casey said. Shehadtaken care of Will’s every need. She’d subjugated all her wants and needs to his.
“Fine. But you get my point. Dad died and Mom turned into a full-time crack whore, and you took care of me and Kennedy and Ty and Benandyou kept child services off our doorstep. You never rocked the boat, you just kept up this facade that everything was okay so that people would leave us alone. But Lola, child services isn’t coming for us anymore, and yet, you’re still acting like everything’s A-OK. Will left, and you were all, ‘sure, if that’s what you need,’ instead of taking him to the cleaners like you could have done. You got booted to that job in Manhattan. You never went to college so that we could go. You’re toonice,Lola. You’re too giving, too generous, too helpful.”
“My God, I’m a monster,” Lola said with a roll of her eyes and picked up her fork.
“What I’m trying to say is that finally, you’re doing something foryou. You deserve it! So don’t let any opportunity pass you up. You took this chance on, now explore it to its full advantage. For once in your freaking life, go for broke, will you?”
Lola was set to argue, but something clicked in her brain. Casey was right. She wassoright. Lola had hidden grief and fear and uncertainty behind a wall of shame and placidity all her life. “How’d you get so smart, Casey?”
Casey snorted. “I had the best big sister in the history of the universe, and she taught me to go for broke while she kept up a front. Remember?”
“No,” Lola said with a laugh. “What I remember is trying to get through each day with some food and some heat. But you know what? I’m going to do it, Casey. I’m going to meet Birta Hoffman. Because I love her books and it’s all about me.”
“Yes!”Casey crowed. “But maybe first, take care of the rat problem.”
Lola’s thoughts were full of images of her and Birta Hoffman having coffee. “What?”
