finally came back with my drink and said – and you won’t believe this –’ Bina mimicked Jack’s deep Brooklyn baritone voice. ‘“I looked at you from across the room. You looked good from over there.” Was that a compliment or a diss?’
Kate pursed her lips but refrained from speaking. It seemed clear that her theory was right – Jack needed distance in both senses to see Bina. But up close and intimate his anxiety paralyzed him. If only he could have stayed at the bar and proposed by cell phone, Kate thought ruefully. He could have sent the waitress over with the ring and everyone would be happy. Instead, here Kate was, stuck with an immovable object on her sofa, trying to stave off an irresistible force. And uptown at Andrew Country Day there were children who wouldn’t get to see her while she practiced adult psychology in her cramped living room.
‘What did you do?’ Kate asked.
‘I just gave him a look,’ Bina said.
‘And what did he do?’
‘Well, I think Jack saw my reaction. He asked if something was wrong. He sounded so sincere, so concerned, that I felt bad and figured I had to let up on the poor guy. I thought he was a nervous wreck about proposing. Also, to tell the truth, Jack has never been … well, let’s just say he’s careful with his money.’
‘Oh hell,’ Brice said. ‘Let’s say he’s cheap.’ Bina opened her eyes wide, and for a moment Kate thought her friend was going to giggle.
‘Go on,’ Kate said.
‘Well, I just shook my head and suggested that we make a toast. And all he said was “To us”. I waited for more, you know like “and to our future as Mr and Mrs Jack Weintraub, the perfect married couple”, but there was nothing more.’ A tear slid down her cheek and Brice took her hand.
‘So?’ Kate prompted. She wondered what time Jack’s plane was actually taking off, whether Jack planned to be on it, whether he had called the Horowitz household, whether he had called his cousin Max across the hall.
‘Then he said he really wished he didn’t have to take this trip, but said some of that stuff about markets misbehaving. So I suggested that in the future maybe we’ll make the trips together.’
‘What did he say to that?’ Kate asked.
‘Well, of course, then the waitress shows up before he can answer. Just my luck. And you know it takes Jack a long time to order. And then he has to make sure none of the things on his plate are going to touch any of the others.’
Kate had forgotten about that phobia. She nodded to Bina.
‘So we had our drink and it seemed that the dinner was going fine until I told him how much I was going to miss him. I mean that’s okay to say, right? The guy is going away for months and it’s halfway around the world. Jack and I haven’t been separated by more than ten miles since we first started dating.’
‘Really?’ Brice asked. ‘That’s so romantic!’
‘It’s true, right, Kate? She was there the night Max, you know, Kate’s neighbor from across the hall, had the party where I met Jack.’ Kate rolled her eyes. Bina had the habit of playing what her friends called ‘Jewish geography’. Kate had gotten her apartment because Bina’s brother knew Max from summer camp and he had told Kate about it. Kate got the place and Max invited her to one of his parties to which Bina had also come – on one of her few sallies across the East River – and Max’s cousin Jack had … well, it could go on endlessly, between Hebrew schools, summer camps, bar mitzvahs, weddings, cousins, and on and on and on. Kate didn’t know the Yiddish word for six but there seemed to be fewer degrees of separation between the Jewish communities than the six in the John Guare play and film. Thankfully Bina didn’t overindulge. ‘The weird thing is we had both grown up in Brooklyn just six blocks from each other but we were introduced for the first time that night, and we haven’t been apart since. I mean, he took me out for a drink after the party and asked me out for the next night. And that weekend he came over for dinner with my parents and brother and … well, there we were, saying goodbye to each other for a very long time. So I thought it was appropriate to say I would miss him. And I thought it would be good to kind of, you know, get him started. I mean, we were finished with our appetizers and entrées. Did I have to wait until he popped the question?’
‘Men spook easily,’ Brice offered. ‘I remember the time when Ethan Housholder told me …’
‘Not now, Brice,’ Kate interjected.
‘Right, sorry. Continue, honey.’ Kate had to admit that Bina couldn’t have had two more sympathetic listeners than Brice and Elliot. And sometimes simply talking was the best therapy. But then, just when Kate thought they had safely gotten out of the water, Bina began to cry again. Elliot’s soft pats and Brice’s coos of sympathy only made it worse.
‘Well, it was like all the color drained out of his face. And then he said, “Bina, you know I have to be in Hong Kong for almost five months and that’s not going to be easy.” He kept touching his breast pocket and the tension was almost overwhelming. I couldn’t help but think “here it comes”. Then he just sat there. I wanted to scream, “Why don’t you just take the damn thing out of there and ask me to marry you?” But, nothing. The man just sat there and then looked down and finished eating his fucking Chicken Rangoon.’
‘What did you do?’ Elliot asked.
Kate was afraid that she would hear that Bina had become hysterical, attacked Jack physically, made a huge scene, or something even more dramatic. But Bina surprised her.
‘I went to the ladies’ room, of course.’
‘Of course,’ Brice agreed. ‘I can’t tell you how many times I wished I could go there myself.’
‘So, anyway …’ Bina continued. She opened her eyes wide and they glazed over as if she could see the scene replaying itself.
Kate, Elliot and Brice all held their breath, as if at last they were to find out what had actually happened. Then the phone rang. ‘Shit!’ Kate said and grabbed for the receiver, peering at the number. ‘It’s your mother again,’ Kate said. ‘I think you better talk to her.’
‘Kill me first!’ Bina pleaded. Kate froze for a moment. She couldn’t bear to explain the situation to Myra Horowitz and she didn’t have the heart to give the phone to Bina. But she couldn’t refuse the call again …
‘I’ll take it,’ Elliot said.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Kate told him, realizing he was getting deeper and deeper into her Brooklyn life. She pressed the ‘answer’ button.
‘Katie! Thank God! Listen, do you know where Bina is?’
‘She’s fine. She’s right here with me,’ Kate told Mrs Horowitz, only telling one lie, not two.
‘Well, put her on.’
Bina was wildly shaking her head, her hands in front of her face as if to ward off a blow.
Kate was grateful for every moment she had spent at the Horowitz house because
