What the Neighbors Saw by Melissa Adelman

Author:Melissa Adelman [Adelman, Melissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Blair

SATURDAY / JULY 5 / 12:15 AM

I don’t bother to turn on the lights and just head straight for the sitting room to pour myself a drink. Teddy was the family bartender. But I know where everything is, because I designed every detail. A quartzite tray, with half a dozen cut crystal highball glasses, and a hammered-gold metal ice bucket sit on top of a lacquered wood cabinet that hides an icemaker. Teddy used to love this little parlor trick, opening up the cabinet to fill the ice bucket. Our guests would always exclaim in surprise, and then everyone would laugh at Teddy’s goofiness. Tonight nobody’s laughing. I just grab a fistful of ice cubes with my bare hand and pour some whiskey over it. A finger, a fifth, I never paid much attention. That part was Teddy’s job. But the bottle arrangement on the bar cart was mine. I always checked every few days, to make sure it looked right. When it didn’t, I’d switch out from the rest of our liquor collection in the butler’s pantry. I haven’t thought about this since Teddy died, and now I see that many of the bottles are nearly drained. Beryl’s been drinking again, and I was too distracted to notice.

She was at her finest tonight, icy and dismissive. I could have let it go. She was planning on leaving tomorrow anyway. But the way she treated my friends, and me, just made me so angry. It was as if I were in high school again and brought home the wrong sort of people. The second Sam slammed the car door behind him, I’d had to say something.

“You never cease to hit on new ways to insult me,” I sighed as we pulled into my driveway. I left the garage door open behind us, because I could feel the fight coming on and didn’t want to go into the house in case one of the kids was still up.

She waited until I parked and turned the car off before answering.

“Blair, I know exactly what you’re doing, and I’m ashamed of you,” she said leaning toward me, almost whispering it into my ear. Then she unbuckled her seatbelt, got out of the car, and walked out of the garage.

I watched her in the rearview mirror, standing there in my driveway staring up at the sky, as if she were expecting another round of fireworks. I knew she was waiting for me to react. I could have just reached up and pressed the remote, gone inside, and locked all the doors. Shut her out. But I didn’t. I followed her out onto the driveway, trying to keep my voice down.

“Mother, come inside. What the hell are you doing?”

She didn’t bother to look at me. “Didn’t you hear me Blair? I saw you tonight. This is disgusting. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

Her words are like fingers around my neck, tightening their grip. “I’m disgusting? Really?” I spit back. “I wonder where I get it from? If it weren’t for you—”

“No, don’t you dare.

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