Summer and the City (24 page)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

I open one eye and close it. Open it again. Where the hell am I? This must be one of those bad dreams when you think you’re awake but you’re still actually asleep.

I don’t feel asleep, though.

Besides, I’m naked. And it kind of hurts down there.

But that’s because . . . I smile. It happened. I am officially no longer a virgin.

I’m in Capote Duncan’s apartment. I’m in his bed. The bed with the plaid sheets his mother bought him. And the two foam pillows (why are guys so chintzy about pillows?), and the scratchy army blanket that belonged to his grandfather. Who got it from his father, who fought in the Civil War. Capote is very sentimental. I can hear Patsy Cline still crooning softly on the stereo. “I Fall to Pieces.” From now on, every time I hear that song, I’ll think of Capote and the night we spent together. The night he kindly took my virginity.

I guess I’m lucky, because it was pretty much the way I’d always hoped it would be. And while we were doing it, I honestly felt like I was in love with him. He kept telling me how beautiful I was. And how I shouldn’t be afraid. And how happy he was to be with me. And how he’d wanted to be with me from the beginning, but he thought I couldn’t stand him. And then, when I started dating Bernard, how he figured he’d lost his chance. And when I actually managed to write a play, he decided I’d think he wasn’t “good enough.” Because he hadn’t managed to write much of anything.

Yow. Guys can be so insecure.

Naturally, I told him he’d gotten me all wrong, although it is true—which I didn’t tell him—that I didn’t find him terribly attractive at the beginning.

Now, of course, I think he’s the most gorgeous creature on earth.

I peek at him. He’s still asleep, lying on his back, his face so peaceful and relaxed, I actually think I can detect a slight smile on his lips. Without his glasses, he looks shockingly vulnerable. Last night, after we kissed for a bit and he did the sexy librarian thing and took off his specs, we stared and stared into each other’s eyes. I felt like I could see his entire history in his pupils.

I could know everything about him in a way I’d never known anyone before.

It was a little eerie, but also kind of profound.

I guess that’s what I found most surprising about sex: the knowing. How you can understand a person completely and vice versa.

I lean over the edge of the bed, searching for my Skivvies. I want to get out while Capote’s still asleep. A deal’s a deal, and I said I’d leave first thing in the morning.

I raise myself slowly, sliding carefully off the bed so as not to jiggle the mattress. The mattress itself is about a hundred years old, left here by the original owners. I wonder how many people have had sex on this bed. I hope a lot. And I hope it was as good for them as it was for me.

I find my clothes splayed around the couch. The Chanel bag is by the door, where I dropped it when Capote grabbed my face and backed me up against the wall, kissing me like crazy. I practically tore his clothes off.

But I’m never going to see him again, so it doesn’t matter. And now I have to face the future: Brown.

Maybe, after four years of college, I’ll try again. I’ll storm the gates of the Emerald City, and this time, I’ll succeed.

But for now, I’m too tired. Who knew eighteen could be so exhausting?

I sigh and wriggle my feet into my shoes. I had a good run. Sure, I messed up a few times, but I managed to survive.

I tiptoe back to the bedroom for one last look at Capote. “Good-bye, lover,” I murmur quietly.

His mouth pops open and he wakes, pounding his pillow in confusion. He sits up and squints at me. “Huh?”

“Sorry,” I whisper, picking up my watch. “I was just—” I indicate the door.

“Why?” He rubs his eyes. “Didn’t you like it?”

“I loved it. But—”

“Why are you leaving then?”

I shrug.

He feels for his glasses and puts them on, blinking behind the thick lenses. “Aren’t you going to at least allow me the pleasure of giving you breakfast? A gentleman never lets a lady leave without feeding her, first.”

I laugh. “I’m perfectly capable of feeding myself. Besides, you make me sound like a bird.”

“A bird? More like a tiger,” he chuckles. “C’mere.” He opens his arms. I crawl across the bed and fall into them.

He strokes my hair. He’s warm and snuggly and smells a little. Of man, I suppose. The scent is strangely familiar. Like toast.

He pulls back his head and smiles. “Did anyone ever tell you how pretty you look in the morning?”

At about two in the afternoon, we manage to make it to the Pink Tea Cup for breakfast. I wear one of Capote’s shirts over my rubber pants and we eat pancakes and bacon with real maple syrup and drink about a gallon of coffee and smoke cigarettes and talk shyly and eagerly about nothing. “Hey,” he says, when the check comes. “Want to go to the zoo?”

“The zoo?”

“I hear they have a new polar bear.”

And suddenly, I do want to go to the zoo with Capote. In my two months in New York, I haven’t done one touristy thing. I haven’t been to the Empire State Building. Or the Statue of Liberty. Or Wollman Rink or the Metropolitan Museum or even the Public Library.

I’ve been sorely remiss. I can’t leave New York without going on the Circle Line.

“I need to do one thing first,” I say.

I get up and head to the restroom. There’s a pay phone on the wall outside the door.

Miranda picks up after the first ring. “Hello?” she asks urgently, as if she’s expecting bad news. She always answers the phone like that. It’s one of the things I love about her.

“I did it!” I squeal triumphantly.

“Carrie? Is that you? Oh my God. What happened? How was it? Did it hurt? How was Bernard?”

“I didn’t do it with Bernard.”

“What?” She gasps. “Who
did
you do it with? You can’t go out there and pick up some random stranger. Oh no, Carrie. You didn’t. You didn’t pick up some guy at a bar—”

“I did it with Capote,” I say proudly.

“That guy?” I can hear her jaw drop. “I thought you hated him.”

I glance back at Capote. He casually tosses a few bills onto the table. “Not anymore.”

“But what about Bernard?” she demands. “I thought you said Bernard was The One.”

Capote stands up. “Change of plans,” I say quickly. “He couldn’t do it. I had to abort the mission and find another rocket.”

“Carrie, that’s disgusting. Did Samantha tell you to say that? You sound just like her. Oh my God. This is insane. What are you going to do now?”

“Visit the polar bear,” I say, laughing. I gently hang up before she can ask any more questions.

Have I ever been in love? Really in love? And why is it that with each new guy I think I’m more in love with him than the last? I think briefly of Sebastian and smile. What on earth was I doing with him? Or Bernard? I lean over the wall to get a better view of the polar bear. Poor Bernard. He turned out to be even more messed up than I am.

“What are you laughing about?” Capote asks, wrapping his arms around me from behind. We haven’t been able to take our hands off each other, leaning into each other on the subway, walking arm in arm as we strolled up Fifth Avenue, and kissing at the entrance to the zoo. My body has turned to butter. I can’t believe I wasted the whole summer pursuing Bernard instead of Capote.

But maybe Capote wouldn’t like me so much if I hadn’t.

“I’m always laughing,” I say.

“Why?” he asks sweetly.

“Because life is funny.”

At the zoo, we buy hot dogs and polar bear baseball caps. We run down Fifth Avenue, past the old man who sells pencils in front of Saks, which reminds me of the first time I met Miranda. We join a line of tourists inside the Empire State Building and ride the elevator to the top. We look through viewfinders and make out until we’re breathless. We take a taxi back to Capote’s.

We have sex again, and don’t stop until we both realize we’re starving. We go to Chinatown and eat Peking duck, which I’ve never had before, and we wander through SoHo and laugh about how Teensie took a pill at Barry Jessen’s opening and all the other crazy things that have happened to us during the summer. It’s pretty late by now—after midnight—so I figure I’ll spend one more night with him and go home in the morning.

But when morning comes, we still can’t manage to tear ourselves apart. We go back to my place and make love on Samantha’s bed. I change my clothes, stick my toothbrush and a change of underwear into my carpenter’s bag, and we head out to be tourists again. We do the Circle Line and the Statue of Liberty, climbing all the way to the top and laughing about how small it is once you finally get up to the crown, then we go back to Capote’s.

We eat hamburgers at the Corner Bistro and pizza at John’s. I have my first orgasm.

The hours pass in a fuzzy, dreamlike way, mingled with a thread of despair. This can’t last forever. Capote starts a job at a publishing company after Labor Day. And I have to go to Brown.

“Are you sure?” he murmurs.

“I don’t have a choice. I was hoping something would happen with my play and I’d be able to convince my father to let me go to NYU instead.”

“Why don’t you tell him you changed your mind?”

“I’d need a pretty big excuse.”

“Like you met a guy you’re crazy about and want to be with him?”

“He’d have a heart attack. I wasn’t raised to base my decisions on a guy.”

“He sounds like a tough old nut.”

“Nah. You’d like him. He’s a genius. Like you.” Three days with Capote have taught me that what I thought was Capote’s arrogance was simply due to his deep knowledge of literature. Like me, he has a searing belief that books are sacred. They might not be to other people, but when you have a passion, you hold on to it. You defend it. You don’t pretend it isn’t important at the risk of offending others.

And suddenly it’s Wednesday morning. Our last class is today. I’m so weak with sadness I can barely lift my arm to brush my teeth. I’m dreading facing the class. But like so much in life, it turns out I needn’t have worried.

No one really cares.

Ryan and Rainbow are chatting outside the building when Capote and I arrive together. I drop Capote’s hand, thinking it’s not a good idea for people to know about us, but Capote has no such compunction. He takes back my hand and drapes my arm over his shoulder.

“Ho, ho, are you guys an item now?” Ryan asks.

“I don’t know.” I look to Capote for confirmation.

He answers by kissing me on the mouth.

“Gross,” Rainbow declares.

“I was wondering how long it would take for you two to get together,” Ryan says.

“There’s a new club opening on the Bowery,” Rainbow remarks.

“And a reading at Cholly Hammond’s,” Ryan says. “I’ve heard he throws a great party.”

“Anyone want to go to Elaine’s next week?” Capote asks.

And on and on they go, with no mention of the fact that I won’t be around. Or of my play. They’ve probably forgotten it by now anyway.

Or, like me, they’re too embarrassed to mention it.

When in doubt, there’s always plan C: If something really horrible happens, ignore it.

I follow the group inside, trudging my feet. What was it all for, anyway? I made friends with people I’ll probably never see again, dated a man who turned out to be a dud, found a love that can’t be sustained, and spent all summer writing a play that no one will ever see. As my father would say, I didn’t use my time “constructively.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“What’s going to happen with you and Capote?” Miranda demands. “Do you actually think you’re going to have a long-distance relationship? Sounds like a case of the deliberate subconscious—”

“If it’s deliberate, how can it be subconscious?”

“You know what I mean. You choose the end of the summer to fall in love with this guy because secretly,
you don’t want it to last
.”

I fold the white vinyl jumpsuit and press it into my suitcase. “I don’t think my subconscious is capable of being that conniving.”

“Oh, but it is,” Miranda says. “Your subconscious can make you do all kinds of things. For instance, why are you still wearing his shirt?”

I glance down at the light blue shirt I took from him after our first night. “I forgot I was wearing it.”

“You see?” Miranda says victoriously. “That’s why it’s so important to have analysis.”

“How do you explain Marty, then?”

“Subconscious again.” She flicks her shoulders in dismissal. “I finally realized he wasn’t for me. Even though my conscious was trying to break the pattern, my unconscious knew it wouldn’t work. Plus, I couldn’t go to the bathroom the whole time I was with him.”

“Sounds like your intestines were the problem and not your subconscious.” I yank open a drawer and remove three pairs of socks. Which I haven’t seen since I put them there two months ago. Socks! What was I thinking? I throw them into the suitcase as well.

“Let’s face it, Carrie,” Miranda sighs. “It’s
all
hopeless.”

Men, or the fact that I have to leave New York? “Isn’t that what they call wish fulfillment?”

“I’m a realist. Just because you had sex once doesn’t mean you have to fall in love,” she mutters. “And I never thought you and Samantha would turn out to be those dopey types who moon over their wedding dresses and the smell of their man’s shirt.”

“First of all, Samantha didn’t even show up for her wedding dress. And secondly—” I break off. “Do you think you’ll visit me in Providence?”

“Why would I want to go there? What do they have in Providence that we don’t have in New York?”

“Me?” I ask mournfully.

“You can visit me anytime,” Miranda says firmly. “You can sleep on the couch if you don’t mind the springs.”

“You know me. I don’t mind anything.”

“Oh, Carrie,” she says sadly.

“I know.”

“Got anything to eat in this place? I’m starving,” she asks.

“Maybe some peanut butter crackers left over from the blackout.”

Miranda goes into the kitchen and returns with the last of the blackout food. “Remember that night?” she asks, tearing open the package.

“How can I forget?” If only I’d known then what I do now. I could have started seeing Capote. We could have been together for two weeks by now.

“What’s Samantha going to do with this place anyway? Now that you’re leaving and she’s getting married?”

“Dunno. Probably find someone like me to rent it.”

“Well, it’s a shame,” Miranda says. I’m not sure if she’s referring to my leaving, or the fact that Samantha wants to hang on to her apartment when she has somewhere much better to live. She munches thoughtfully on a cracker while I continue to pack. “Hey,” she says finally. “Did I tell you about this course I’m going to take? Patriarchial Rituals in Contemporary Life.”

“Sounds interesting,” I say, without much enthusiasm.

“Yeah. We study weddings and stuff like that. Did you know that everything leading up to the wedding—the showers and the registering and picking the ugly bridesmaid dresses—was solely designed to give women something to do back in the days when they didn’t have careers? And also to brainwash them into thinking that they had to get married too?”

“Actually, I didn’t. But it makes sense.”

“What are you going to do? At Brown?” Miranda asks.

“Dunno. Study to be a scientist, I guess.”

“I thought you were going to become some big writer.”

“Look how that turned out.”

“The play wasn’t that bad,” Miranda says, brushing crumbs from her lips. “Have you noticed that ever since you lost your virginity, you’ve been acting like someone died?”

“When my career died, I died along with it.”

“Bullshit,” Miranda declares.

“Why don’t you try standing in front of a room full of people while they laugh at you?”

“Why don’t you stop acting like you’re the biggest thing since sliced bread?”

I gasp.

“Fine,” Miranda says. “If you can’t take constructive criticism—”

“Me? What about you? Half the time your ‘realism’ is just another word for bitterness—”

“At least I’m not a Pollyanna.”

“No, because that would imply that something good might happen—”

“I don’t know why you think everything should be handed to you.”

“You’re just jealous,” I snap.

“Of Capote Duncan?” Her eyes narrow. “That’s be-neath even you, Carrie Bradshaw.”

The phone rings.

“You’d better get it,” Miranda says tightly. “It’s probably
him
. About to declare his undying
love
.” She goes into the bathroom and slams the door.

I take a breath. “Hello?”

“Where the hell have you been?” Samantha shrieks.

This is very unlike her. I hold the phone away from my ear. “Were you worried? You’re going to be so proud of me. I lost my virginity.”

“Well, good for you,” she says briskly, which is not the reaction I was expecting. “I’d love to celebrate, but unfortunately, I’ve got a crisis of my own on my hands. I need you to get over to Charlie’s place immediately.”

“But—”

“Just come, okay? Don’t ask questions. And bring Miranda. I need all the help I can get. And could you pick up a box of garbage bags on the way? Make sure they’re the big ones. The kind those pathetic people in the suburbs use for leaves.”

“Enjoy it,” Samantha says, gesturing to her face as she opens the door to Charlie’s apartment. “This is the only time you’re ever going to see me cry.”

“Is that a promise?” Miranda says tartly. We’re still a bit edgy from our almost-fight. If it weren’t for Samantha’s crisis call, we’d probably be at each other’s throats.

“Look,” Samantha says, dabbing her eye and holding out her finger for inspection. “That is an actual tear.”

“Could have fooled me,” I say.

Miranda looks around in awe. “Wow. This place is
nice.
”

“Check out the view,” Samantha says. “It’s the last time you’ll see it, too. I’m leaving.”

“What?”

“That’s right,” she says, strolling to the sunken living room. There’s a stunning vista of Central Park. You can practically see right into the duck pond. “The wedding’s off,” she declares. “Charlie and I are
over
.”

I look at Miranda and roll my eyes. “Surely, this too shall pass,” I murmur, heading to the window for a better view.

“Carrie, I’m serious,” Samantha says. She goes to a glass tray on wheels, picks up a crystal decanter, and pours herself a healthy dose of whiskey. “And I have you to thank for it.” She slugs back her drink and turns on us. “Actually, I have both of you to thank.”

“Me?” Miranda asks. “I’ve hardly even met the guy.”

“But you’re the one who told me to tell him.”

“Tell him what?” Miranda says, mystified.

“About my condition.”

“Which is?”

“You know. The thing,” Samantha hisses. “The lining . . .”

“Endometriosis?” I ask.

Samantha holds up her hands. “I don’t want to hear that word. Ever again.”

“Endometriosis is hardly a ‘condition,’” Miranda remarks.

“Try telling that to Charlie’s mother.”

“Oh boy.” I realize I could use a drink too. And a cigarette.

“I don’t get it.” Miranda goes to the Plexiglas case that contains Charlie’s collection of sports memorabilia. She leans closer. “Is that a real baseball?”

“What do you think? And yes, that really is Joe DiMaggio’s signature,” Samantha snaps.

“I thought you were picking out China patterns,” Miranda says, as Samantha gives her a look and disappears down the hallway.

“Hey, I just figured something out. You know how Samantha always says Charlie wanted to be a baseball player and his mother wouldn’t let him?” I ask. “Maybe Charlie secretly thinks he’s Joe DiMaggio and Samantha is Marilyn Monroe.”

“That’s right. And remember how Joe DiMaggio always resented Marilyn’s sexuality and tried to turn her into a housewife? It’s practically textbook.”

Samantha returns with a pile of clothes in her arms, which she dumps onto the Ultrasuede couch as she glares at me. “And you’re as much to blame as Miranda. You were the one who told me to be a little more real.”

“I didn’t mean it though. I never thought—”

“Well, here’s what real gets you in New York.” She runs back to the bedroom and returns with another pile, which she drops at our feet. Then she grabs the box of garbage bags, rips one open, and begins frantically shoving clothes into the bag. “This is what it gets you,” she repeats, her voice rising. “A kick in the teeth and fifty cents for the subway.”

“Whoa. Are you serious?” I ask.

She pauses for a moment and thrusts out her arm. “See this?” She indicates a large gold Rolex encrusted with diamonds.

“Is that real too?” Miranda gasps.

“Hold on,” I caution. “Why would someone who’s breaking up with you give you a giant Rolex?”

“You could probably buy a small country with that,” Miranda adds.

Samantha rocks back on her heels. “Apparently, it’s a tradition. When you break off an engagement, you give your ex-fiancée a watch.”

“You should get engaged more often.”

In a fury, Samantha rips off the watch and throws it against the Plexiglas case, where it bounces off harmlessly. Some things are simply indestructible. “How did this happen to me? I had it all figured out. I had New York by the balls. Everything was working. I was so good at being someone else.”

If only we could all put our hearts in a Plexiglas case, I think, as I kneel down next to her. “You weren’t so good about showing up at Kleinfeld,” I say gently.

“That was an exception. One slipup. And I made up for it by telling Glenn I’d be happy to use her decorator to redo the apartment. Even if it meant living with chintz. What’s wrong with a few flowers here and there? I can do roses if I have to—” And suddenly, she bursts into tears. Only this time, they’re real.

“Don’t you get it?” she sobs. “I’ve been rejected. For having faulty fallopian tubes.”

In the annals of dating, being rejected for your fallopian tubes has got to be right up there with—well, you name it, I suppose. But maybe dating in New York really is like what Samantha always says: everything counts, even the things you can’t see.

And what you
can
see is usually bad enough.

I mentally count the number of garbage bags strewn around Charlie’s apartment. Fourteen. I had to run out and get another box. Two years in a relationship and you can really accumulate a lot of stuff.

“Baggage,” Samantha says, kicking one of the bags out of the way. “All baggage.”

“Hey!” I exclaim. “There are Gucci shoes in that one.”

“Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci? Who cares?” She throws up her hands. “What’s the difference when your entire life has been ripped away?”

“You’ll find someone else,” Miranda says nonchalantly. “You always do.”

“But not someone who will marry me. Everyone knows the only reason a man in Manhattan ever says ‘I do’ is because he wants children.”

“But you don’t know that you can’t have children,” Miranda points out. “The doctor said—”

“Who cares what he said? It’s always going to be the same old story.”

“You don’t know that,” I insist. I grab a bag and pull it toward the door. “And do you really want to spend the rest of your life pretending to be someone you’re not?” I take a breath and gesture at the Plexiglas furnishings. “Surrounded by
plastic
?”

“All men are jerks. But you knew that.” Miranda retrieves the watch from under the coffee table. “I guess that’s the last of it,” she says, holding out the Rolex. “Don’t want to leave this behind.”

Samantha carefully weighs the watch in the palm of her hand. Her face scrunches in agony. She takes a deep breath. “Actually, I do.”

She places the watch on the table as Miranda and I look at each other in bewilderment.

“Where’s the bag with the Gucci shoes?” she orders.

“There?” I ask, wondering what’s come over her.

She rips open the bag and dumps out two pairs of loafers. “And the Chanel suit. Where’s that?”

“I think it’s in here,” Miranda says cautiously, pushing a bag into the center of the room.

“What are you doing?” I ask anxiously, as Samantha extracts the Chanel suit and places it on the table next to the watch.

“What do you think I’m doing?”

“I have no idea.” I look to Miranda for help, but she’s as mystified as I am.

Samantha finds a tennis dress, and holds it up, laughing. “Did I tell you Charlie wanted me to take tennis lessons? So I could play with Glenn. In Southampton. As if I would actually enjoy hitting balls with that mummy. She’s sixty-five years old and she says she’s fifty. Like anyone’s going to believe
that
.”

“Well—” I sneak another glance at Miranda, who shakes her head, stupefied.

“Do you want this, Sparrow?” Samantha tosses me the tennis dress.

“Sure,” I say hesitantly.

I’m wondering what to do with it, when Samantha suddenly changes her mind and rips it out of my hands. “On second thought,
no
,” she shouts, hurling the dress onto the pile. “Don’t take it. Don’t make the same mistake I did.”

She continues on in this vein, tearing through the bags and removing every item of clothing from her life with Charlie. The pile gets bigger and bigger, while Miranda and I watch in concern. I bite my lip. “Are you really going to leave all this stuff?”

“What do you think, Sparrow?” she says. She pauses and takes a deep breath, hands on her hips. She tilts her head, and gives me a fierce smile.

“It’s baggage. And even if I’m not the most real person in the world, I’ll tell you one thing about Samantha Jones. She can’t be bought. At
any
price.”