filming her? That would be my worst nightmare.”
Her trip sounded incredibly glamorous to me. The idea of having two days to myself to luxuriate in a posh hotel, ordering room service and watching mindless television shows sounded like sheer decadence. I couldn’t remember the last time I had traveled without my husband or children.
“Total nightmare,” I agreed.
“Anyway—” Kat sighed and took a large sip of her drink “—New Year’s Eve is my least favorite holiday. I much prefer the cozy ones like Thanksgiving and Christmas, when you can curl up and relax at home all day.”
“Me, too,” I said, although I wasn’t sure about the relaxing part. Every year, the weeks that stretched from mid-October to late December devolved into a marathon of shopping, cooking, baking, sewing costumes and wrapping endless piles of presents, all while having to attend a never-ending series of school performances and holiday parties for every extracurricular activity the children were involved in.
There was another pause in our conversation as my children’s food arrived. A hamburger and fries for Liam, fried chicken tenders and fries for Bridget. Not a vegetable in sight. But then, my view on airport food was much like my view on airport electronics: anything goes. I took a moment to open Liam’s ketchup packs and cut Bridget’s chicken up with the dull plastic knife provided. By the time they were settled in, munching happily, and I turned back to Kat, she was grinning at me.
“What?” I asked.
“I just ordered us another round,” she said, tapping a short manicured nail against her martini glass.
“You didn’t!”
She giggled, and her girlishness surprised me. I almost demurred. My head was already starting to swirl from the first drink. But then I felt an uncharacteristic rush of recklessness. Why shouldn’t I have another cocktail? My children were safe and accounted for. I wasn’t driving.
“If we’re going to have another round, let me get it,” I said, digging out my wallet.
Kat waved me away. “Too late. Besides, you’re doing me a favor. I was bored to tears sitting here by myself before you came along.”
Over our second round of drinks, which I was careful to sip much more slowly, Kat and I got to know one another. She grew up in Palm Beach, and her parents and brother still lived there. She had studied art history at Tulane, and after graduation, she had landed a plum job with the Hirshhorn Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. She had worked there for two years before returning home to Florida to open her small art gallery near Worth Avenue in Palm Beach. She’d met her husband, Howard—who, she said with a dismissive wave of her hand, did “something in finance”—when he came into the gallery looking for a painting.
“He didn’t have any interest in art. He just had blank walls in his condo and was looking for investment pieces to hang there,” Kat explained.
“Did he end up buying one from you?”
“Yes, but at that point, he was more interested in trying to impress me than he was in the art.” Kat smiled, again displaying her straight white teeth. “It didn’t work, of course. But he eventually wore me down.”
“How long have you been married?”
“Eighteen wonderful years,” Kat answered, holding up her martini glass. “Or more like two wonderful years and sixteen mediocre ones. Oh, well. How about you?”
I thought Kat was probably kidding, since her tone was light, and I could already tell she had a sardonic sense of humor. But I had the feeling there was some truth hidden inside the joke.
I told her that I’d grown up in Syracuse and gone to the university there and then Cornell for graduate school. After I graduated, I accepted a job as an assistant professor at the University of Miami. Unlike Kat, I didn’t have a cute story about how I’d met my husband. Todd certainly didn’t woo me by buying expensive artwork, or whatever the equivalent would be in my line of work. Instead I’d met him at a rather pedestrian birthday party for one of my work colleagues. We chatted over plastic cups of boxed red wine and paper plates of previously frozen lasagna. A week later, Todd called and asked me out. On our first date, we went to the movies.
“Sometimes I wonder if the concept of marriage to one person for the rest of your life is unrealistic,” Kat mused.
I glanced at my children. They were both immersed in their electronic handheld games and weren’t paying any attention to us.
“I know what you mean,” I said, making sure to keep my voice low. “Everyone always says that marriage is something you have to work at. But I don’t think it’s possible to grasp what that means until you’ve been married for a while. The constant grind of it.”
“On my wedding day, my mother told me the secret to a happy marriage is to develop a blind eye and a forgiving heart,” Kat said. She rolled her eyes dramatically. “As you can probably imagine, that gave me all sorts of unwanted insights into my parents’ marriage.”
“She told you that on your wedding day?” I laughed. “I’m surprised you went through with it.”
“I know, but I really liked my dress,” Kat confessed. “I thought it was fabulous. It had this high neck and huge puffy sleeves.” She demonstrated by drawing circles in the air away from her arm. “Looking back, it was hideous, of course.”
“We are ready to begin boarding Flight 523 to West Palm Beach,” a female voice announced over the loudspeaker. A cheer went up from the ragged horde of travelers waiting by the gate. “We would like to invite our first-class passengers to board now.”
“That’s me,” Kat said, hopping off her stool and shouldering an expensive-looking orange leather handbag along with her designer carry-on. She was shorter than I had expected, even in high-heeled boots. Kat looked at me expectantly. “Are you coming?”
I laughed. “Oh, no. We’re not in first class. The Campbell family always flies steerage.”
“What a bummer,” Kat exclaimed. “I was hoping we’d be sitting near each other. It’s been fun talking to you.”
“You, too,” I said, feeling incredibly flattered by her warm words. “Bye.”
Kat strode off, seemingly unaffected by the alcohol. The two martinis had made me light-headed, and I fumbled with our bags as I got the children organized to board. When we walked onto the plane, Kat was comfortably ensconced in her plush first-class seat, studying a magazine. She didn’t look up as we passed by.
* * *
I probably would never have seen Kat again if not for a mishap at baggage claim when we reached Palm Beach International Airport.
Todd met us at the security checkpoint, kissed me hello and hugged Liam and Bridget. The family Campbell made our way to the baggage carousel just as it ground into motion and began spitting out suitcases. I noticed Kat on the other side of the carousel, standing alone while she waited for her bag. I wondered why her husband hadn’t met her but shrugged it off. Maybe he was out of town, or she had a car waiting to pick her up. Either way, it really wasn’t any of my business.
I watched as Kat grabbed her suitcase off the conveyor belt, snapped the pull handle up and turned to stride
