The Dinner List: A Novel by Rebecca Serle

Author:Rebecca Serle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Women, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Visionary & Metaphysical, Coming of Age
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Published: 2018-09-11T05:28:15+00:00

FOURTEEN

THAT SUMMER AFTER HE CAME BACK, when we were living on Eighth Street, rivaled our first year together for our happiest stretch of time. We rode around the city on bikes, ate ice cream from Big Gay on the High Line, spent whole afternoons on a blanket under the shade of a tree in Prospect Park. When I look back on it now, it’s as if we were alone in the city, but of course that wasn’t true. I had my job, and I was starting to find that children’s publishing might be where I belonged. I had pushed for a middle-grade manuscript about an eleven-year-old Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife, that my boss had bought and fast-tracked. I felt like maybe I had a knack for it.

Matty was dating a grad student at the New School, a writer by the name of Beth Sterns, and the four of us spent a lot of time together. She had an odd obsession with sunflower seeds. She was never without them. Subways, museums, even restaurants. There was a trail of shells wherever she went. She was nice. Whip-smart, too. Matty was still at the bank and was now considering a turn at a hedge fund, a pivot Tobias was, of course, against. But he had begun to share his thoughts less and less with Matty. “He doesn’t want to hear it,” he’d say after voicing a concern.

“I know he’s disappointed in me,” Matty said to me one night in August. We were in the kitchen of Matty’s apartment, a new place in Midtown with sleek appliances and a wide view. He held the trash bin up as I shoveled empty takeout containers into it. Beth and Tobias were in the living room, setting up a board game.

“He’s not,” I said. “You know Tobias, he has impossible expectations.”

Matty nodded. “It’s not like he’s out there on his own. He’s doing ads for air freshener.”

I winced. I hated being reminded of the reality of Tobias’s career. The one where he was sacrificing his artistic merit to be here, to be with me.

“I worry about him sometimes,” Matty said. Some curry had gotten on my hand, and I went to the sink to run water over it and to put some space between Matty and me. We were still in that perfect summer. I didn’t want to know what he saw. The dinner I’d shared with Matty nearly two years ago flashed in my mind. How proud he’d looked. How he’d told me that maybe it was for the best.

“He’s good,” I said, my back still turned. “The job is temporary.” I believed that it was. Tobias was too talented. Something else would come along, and this time, it would be here. I shut the water off. “Beth is great.”

The pivot was not lost on Matty, who sighed deeply and handed me a dish towel. “Yeah,” he said. “She is. Kinda wish she’d switch to almonds, though.” We both laughed.

Matty and I went back to the living room.

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