Brendan pulled her in towards them. “Ladies, this is Caroline, my sister.”
Elizabeth wouldn’t have guessed the relation if they hadn’t been told. Brendan rounded his edges where Caroline sharpened hers. Only her voice stayed soft, rolling with a warm purr and touched with a thicker English accent than her brother’s. Elizabeth suspected it, like her lipstick, had been overapplied.
“You shouldn’t make promises that you can’t keep,” she said to him. “He doesn’t like to stay in one place too long, you know. Like the proverbial dandelion.”
“I don’t know the proverbial dandelion,” Elizabeth replied.
Brendan made their introductions as Jade’s daughters.
“That’s the woman you’ve been dealing with?”
“Yeah,” he said. “The broker or the owner’s representative or something. She wasn’t very clear about the whole thing.”
“I can imagine,” Caroline said, eyes flicking over their outfits.
Elizabeth bristled.
“I suppose he’s told you we’ve never been to New York before,” she replied. “I’ve heard a lot about it, you know, but I don’t understand the appeal, la. So dirty, and the noise! And not much special at all.” Lowering her voice to a whisper, she hissed, “You know, this morning, we saw . . . rats running in the street.”
“They do that,” Elizabeth said.
Brendan rolled his eyes. “It’s not that bad, Caro.”
Caroline exaggerated a shudder, pressing a bony hand to her sternum. “Well, I couldn’t stay outside as soon as I saw them. Maybe you can manage.”
Jane smiled. “Aside from the rats, how’s your stay?”
Caroline whimpered. “Abominable,” she said. “But we had the chance to spend some time yesterday on Madison Avenue. You’d expect more from a fashion capital like New York, given its reputation—wouldn’t you think?—but we couldn’t find anything.”
“Caroline,” laughed Brendan. “You found more than your fair share. I remember the bags.”
Caroline gave him a half-hearted shove. “He’s always scolding me, aaaa,” she sighed. “As if I’m not his older sister. So rude with our new friends here too.”
“By the way, Brendan,” Elizabeth said. “If you have any time, I’d love to hear what you’re thinking of doing with the rec now that you’re taking over.”
“P-lease don’t make him talk about business,” Caroline said, “He and Darcy get into it and it’s all I ever hear about. So boring.”
Jane pointed at Elizabeth. “I can sympathize.”
Caroline simpered, taking her hand in her own limp grip. “Thank you.”
“Who’s Darcy?” Elizabeth said.
Brendan waved vaguely towards the door. “My business partner.”
“I thought you were a sole investor,” Elizabeth said.
Caroline scoffed. “In his dreams.”
The DJ grunted another unintelligible rally to the crowd, hopping and jerking on the dance floor in a stiff “Macarena.” They answered with a weak cheer.
“Come on,” Jane said with a pointed look at Elizabeth. “We’ll leave Brendan and LB to their business talk, and go dance.”
As they watched their sisters disappear, Brendan turned his attention to the dance floor, smiling as Jane twirled and dipped Caroline into the next song. Away from his sister and his other friends, he seemed shyer than she first thought. She wondered if it wasn’t all put on for their benefit—the persona of the gracious social butterfly, the easy party acquaintance. Maybe he couldn’t think of anywhere else he wanted to be less than the wedding either.
Caroline waved at them from the floor, her tall heels clomping offbeat.
“You look like you have a lot of questions,” he said. “But I’m afraid it’s Darcy who really knows what he’s doing.”
She glanced over him. “I see.”
“I’m still learning the ropes. Real estate is new for me, and Darcy makes sure my excitement doesn’t lead to bad decisions.”
“Keeps your eyes from being too big for your stomach?”
His eyes wrinkled with humor. “Or my wallet,” he said. “Exactly.”
On the floor, Jane shrieked as Caroline accidentally tripped her with a flourish of a kick. Elizabeth loved her sister, but as a dancer, she made up in enthusiasm what she lacked in grace. Better than the aunties, but not by much.
Caroline formed wide shapes with her arms, looking like a flight controller.
“What is she doing?”
Brendan howled. “I think she’s trying to vogue.”
Elizabeth squinted into the strobing light of the dance floor and tried to see it. “What made you decide to do this anyway?” she said. “The rec?”
He adjusted his cuff links. “I want to do something that helps people.”
She flashed him her best salesperson grin. “Then you couldn’t have picked a better place! Ask anyone here. With the right kind of attention, I know you can bring it back to what it used to be.”
He coughed. “I know a pitch when I hear one.”
“I’m part of a community group . . .”
“What, like ‘neighborhood watch’?”
She blushed. “More like the tenants association.”
“In that case,” he said, reaching into his pocket for his wallet. He extended a business card. When she reached to take it, he didn’t let go. “Elizabeth. It’s great to meet you. Everything that you’re saying sounds great and important, but I’ve had some champagne and so have you. What do you say we celebrate, and talk about it during regular business hours like regular business people?”
She softened, and took the card. “Yes, you’re right,” she said. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Besides, that way I can make sure that you’re talking to the people who know what they’re talking about,” he said. “And not the guy that signs the checks.”
Leave it to people with money to hate thinking about money.
“Haven’t you heard my mom? The guy who signs the checks is the most important.”
He bowed, extending a hand towards her. “Then shall we dance, Miss Chen?”
She grinned and nodded.
They made their way out onto the dance floor as the song faded out. An accordion warbled into life then, polka-esque.
I don’t want to be a chicken. I don’t want to be a duck . . .
Perfect timing.
5
Later on, after everyone abandoned their shoes, handbags, and dignity at the table, Elizabeth resigned herself to babysitting duty. Kitty sulked, draining orphaned champagne flutes from nearby tables until she staggered and swayed on her feet. Mary draped herself across four dining chairs, head drooping off of the end as she napped. Lydia, forcibly separated from an indecent dance with one of the waiters, returned to steal another abandoned drink, wave at Brendan in greeting, and disappear into the crowd. From across the room, Jade’s shrill voice periodically announced her triumph. “Fifty thousand over asking!”