Read Online Remember the Time by Annette Reynolds - Free Book Online
Authors: Annette Reynolds
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marriage, when she’d say things to Paul like, “I don’t want to try that new restaurant. Can’t we just go home?” Or she’d make excuses not to meet a new team wife. When the team fired one of the coaches she had been more upset about it than Paul. That had been the year they’d bought a very expensive, very luxurious condominiumwith a panoramic view of San Francisco and the Bay.
It wasn’t Kate’s idea. She didn’t mind the apartment they rented for the season. They occupied the top floor of an Italianate row house on Bush Street. The landlords, an unobtrusive gay couple who lived below them, always held the rooms for them at the beginning of the season. Kate loved the house, dressed in slate blue with white and cinnamon trim. She loved being able to walk out the door and catch the electric streetcar to all her favorite junk shops. Far from home, she really loved the sense of stability the neighborhood gave her.
But Paul was a star, making money they couldn’t have imagined the first couple of years they were married. One afternoon, on an off day, he’d driven her downtown on the pretext of sightseeing near the wharf. They’d ended up in front of a towering glass and steel monstrosity called the Pier 51 Towers.
“Why are we stopping here?” Kate asks
.
“The Breedens bought one of these and they invited us up to see it,” he replies, walking her to the entry
.
A doorman dressed in a maroon jacket and matching cap opens the heavy glass door for them. The lobby is all marble and brass. Two of the biggest ficus trees she’s ever seen flank the elevators
.
“Pretty fancy,” she whispers, as the elevator doors silently slide open. What she is thinking is
, Pretty pretentious.
They enter the glass box that takes them to the thirty-fourth floor while giving them a view of the harbor. Paul and Kate don’t speak during the short ride
.
Sue and Jimmy Breeden greet them at the door, eager to give them the grand tour of their new home away from home. Secretly hoping this won’t take long, Kate makes all the appropriate admiring noises. She loathes the cold feeling the glass and marble and granite give her. The kitchen reminds her of anoperating room, with its stainless steel sterility. Yes, the view is spectacular, but can a person really live here?
As the door closes behind them, Paul asks, “So, what do you think?”
She shrugs. “It’s all right for some people, but it’s not me.”
“You didn’t like it?”
The expression on his face gives her the first warning sign
.
“No. I didn’t. Did you?” They stand in the middle of the echoing hallway. Kate turns to face Paul. “Did you?” she repeats
.
“Yeah, I did. A lot.”
“Really?”
He tries a different tack. “Look, Kate. I think it’s time for us to buy some property.”
“And you think this is where you’d like to live?” She is incredulous
.
“Let’s go have lunch and talk about it.”
Sitting in one of the many seafood restaurants along the wharf, they have their first real argument as husband and wife. In the end, tired and angry, Kate gives in when Paul says, “It’s my money and I say we buy it.”
They had moved in three weeks later.
That had been a bad year for Kate. She’d blamed it on the condo. It didn’t feel right. It wasn’t “home.” She remembered how she’d yearned for the familiarity of Staunton. And of Mike. His phone calls always seemed to come at the moment she was at her lowest. But her calls to him were only made when she felt really good. It would have been too humiliating to complain about her life. Even to Mike.
She had to mask something she was growing more afraid of as the years went by: that she had made a mistake in marrying Paul. The niggling thought that maybe they weren’t the perfect couple bored into her brain like a small worm that had found its way into an apple. Itcouldn’t be seen from the outside, but the damage was done.
Feeling displaced made her cling to Paul,
It wasn’t Kate’s idea. She didn’t mind the apartment they rented for the season. They occupied the top floor of an Italianate row house on Bush Street. The landlords, an unobtrusive gay couple who lived below them, always held the rooms for them at the beginning of the season. Kate loved the house, dressed in slate blue with white and cinnamon trim. She loved being able to walk out the door and catch the electric streetcar to all her favorite junk shops. Far from home, she really loved the sense of stability the neighborhood gave her.
But Paul was a star, making money they couldn’t have imagined the first couple of years they were married. One afternoon, on an off day, he’d driven her downtown on the pretext of sightseeing near the wharf. They’d ended up in front of a towering glass and steel monstrosity called the Pier 51 Towers.
“Why are we stopping here?” Kate asks
.
“The Breedens bought one of these and they invited us up to see it,” he replies, walking her to the entry
.
A doorman dressed in a maroon jacket and matching cap opens the heavy glass door for them. The lobby is all marble and brass. Two of the biggest ficus trees she’s ever seen flank the elevators
.
“Pretty fancy,” she whispers, as the elevator doors silently slide open. What she is thinking is
, Pretty pretentious.
They enter the glass box that takes them to the thirty-fourth floor while giving them a view of the harbor. Paul and Kate don’t speak during the short ride
.
Sue and Jimmy Breeden greet them at the door, eager to give them the grand tour of their new home away from home. Secretly hoping this won’t take long, Kate makes all the appropriate admiring noises. She loathes the cold feeling the glass and marble and granite give her. The kitchen reminds her of anoperating room, with its stainless steel sterility. Yes, the view is spectacular, but can a person really live here?
As the door closes behind them, Paul asks, “So, what do you think?”
She shrugs. “It’s all right for some people, but it’s not me.”
“You didn’t like it?”
The expression on his face gives her the first warning sign
.
“No. I didn’t. Did you?” They stand in the middle of the echoing hallway. Kate turns to face Paul. “Did you?” she repeats
.
“Yeah, I did. A lot.”
“Really?”
He tries a different tack. “Look, Kate. I think it’s time for us to buy some property.”
“And you think this is where you’d like to live?” She is incredulous
.
“Let’s go have lunch and talk about it.”
Sitting in one of the many seafood restaurants along the wharf, they have their first real argument as husband and wife. In the end, tired and angry, Kate gives in when Paul says, “It’s my money and I say we buy it.”
They had moved in three weeks later.
That had been a bad year for Kate. She’d blamed it on the condo. It didn’t feel right. It wasn’t “home.” She remembered how she’d yearned for the familiarity of Staunton. And of Mike. His phone calls always seemed to come at the moment she was at her lowest. But her calls to him were only made when she felt really good. It would have been too humiliating to complain about her life. Even to Mike.
She had to mask something she was growing more afraid of as the years went by: that she had made a mistake in marrying Paul. The niggling thought that maybe they weren’t the perfect couple bored into her brain like a small worm that had found its way into an apple. Itcouldn’t be seen from the outside, but the damage was done.
Feeling displaced made her cling to Paul,
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