The Apartment (Apartment #1) (35 page)

“So you were just his nursemaid for six straight months?” Ethan butted in again, forcing her eyes back to his. “That sounds lonely, especially in a small town where you don’t know anybody.” His tone was harsher than he intended, but his emotions were getting away from him.

“It was a bit… claustrophobic, yes, but I would do it again if I had to. He doesn’t have anybody else.” She didn’t even flinch when she answered him that time, and Ethan could tell that she was quickly shifting from uncomfortable to annoyed.

Richard reached out and covered her hand with his own, patting it lightly. “Of course you would, dear. He’s very lucky to have you.” Ethan watched his father give her the warmest smile he’d ever seen and had to fight from swearing out loud.

“Anyway, Lily, as I was saying,” Emma jumped back in, clearly trying to diffuse the strange mood that had settled over the table. She shot her brother a
what-crawled-up-your-ass
look before finishing, “The Quad Cities have some decent stores, but you should really come visit us in Chicago some time. They have the best shops!”

“Oh, yes!” Maggie clapped. “That would be so much fun! You could come over for a weekend sometime soon. One night at Emma’s and one night at my place.”

“Or we could just slumber party!” Emma squealed.

“Totally! And then go shopping in the daytime!” Maggie was practically hopping in her seat at that point.

“That might be fu—” she started to reply before Ethan couldn’t hold it in any longer and cut her off.

“I’m sorry—Lily, right? Could you please pass me the salt?”

“Son, that was rude. Besides, the salt is right in front of you.” Richard gave him a disapproving glare.

“Oh, so it is,” he said, reaching out and grabbing it, shaking it into his hand slowly before sprinkling it on his food and licking his fingers clean where some had stuck to his skin. Without taking his eyes from hers, he pulled his thumb slowly from between his lips and practically purred, “My apologies…
Lily
.”

She looked away quickly, not wanting to let him affect her in front of so many people.

The dinner was fairly uneventful after that, full of nothing more than the typical banal conversation Ethan was used to hearing at these get-togethers: shopping, sports, cars, history, and of course medicine. He kept his mouth shut for the rest of the meal, choosing instead to watch her in silence. After his little trick with the salt she refused to even look in his direction again, but he was certain that she could feel his eyes on her skin, and it was just as effective at making her squirm.

When everyone had finally deemed dinner to be over, Barbara announced that the men were in charge of clearing the table and cleaning the dishes. It was a routine trade-off in the Foster household: whoever spent time preparing dinner got to rest while the others cleaned up afterwards. Ethan was forced to watch as the women in his family dragged his mystery girl away to show her embarrassing old photo albums while he was left to scrape out serving dishes.

Maggie cracked another bottle of wine and joined all of the ladies in the family room, who were currently huddled around an old book that Barbara had shoved in Lily’s lap. “Oh Jesus, Mom, you’re going to bore the shit out of her and she’s never going to want to come back.”

Barbara held up her glass and waved her hand, shooing her away once the glass was full. “Oh, stop! I never get a chance to enjoy such lovely dinner guests. Lily, dear, am I boring you? Feel free to let me know, I won’t be offended.”

“No, of course not. I love looking at old photos.”

“Oh, now you’re just being nice.”

“No, really. I’m an only child, and my mom wasn’t the best photographer. She would lose rolls of film and forget to pick up others she had developed. If it wasn’t an annual yearbook photo, there just weren’t many in the house. I think it’s fun to look at candid moments and hear the stories that go with them.”

“Wow, I don’t know what’s worse,” Emma said, flipping over another page, “never having any photos to look at, or being forced to suffer through years worth on every major holiday.”

“I bet if you lost them all tomorrow you would miss them terribly,” Lily replied, looking wistful for a moment. “Just look at all of these amazing family memories.”

She looked over the page full of aged snapshots from the 70s, stopping on one that caught her eye. It was so washed out that it was sepia toned, and it had a thick white border. It showed a much younger Barbara, sitting on a loud-patterned sofa, holding two tiny babies in her arms while a toddler with huge dimples and brown curls played on the seat next to her with one of those old, brightly colored xylophones. It was obvious that the toddler was Eric—nobody else in the world had dimples that huge—but the two infants surprised her.

“Twins?” she gasped.

“Oh, yeah. Ethan and I are twins,” Emma stated matter-of-factly, as if anyone in the world would be able to tell.

“Wow, I don’t see any resemblance. You look much more like Eric.”

“Well, I have his coloring, but Ethan and I both have green eyes. We got those from Mom, and he got her hair color. Everything else he seems to have gotten from Dad.”

“Oh, my little mix-n-match of genetics!” Barbara cooed before hugging Emma tightly.

“Okaaay, Mom, I think that’s enough wine for you,” she teased.

Lily continued to flip through the pages, seeing the children progress in age. Plaid dresses and corduroy pants switched over to denim jackets and tight-rolled jeans. Emma had gone through a very large bangs phase, while Eric had apparently gone through a Metallica period.

The only one who didn’t seem to change very much was Ethan. His clothing changed with the fashion of the times, but he always looked like a poster boy for that year’s “American Teen.” There was picture after picture full of Izod, Polo, Abercrombie, Old Navy, and Lacoste. His hair always looked a little bit unruly, no matter the length, and for some reason he always appeared bored. He epitomized the brooding smart guy who just knew he was meant for better things.

She knew without a doubt that if she had gone to high school with him, he would have been the golden boy that she always fantasized about but never had the nerve to speak to.

“Hey Lily,” Maggie said, draining the last of her wine. “What do you say I give you a proper tour of the house?”

“Okay, sure.” She handed the album off to Emma, who was still being cuddled by her tipsy mother, and followed Maggie out of the room.

“Let’s start at the top and work our way down, shall we?”

Maggie led her up to the third floor first, pointing out a guest room that was lavishly decorated, followed by another room that had the door closed. “That’s Ethan’s old room. He still uses it from time to time, but Barbara redesigned it a while back. It’s really lovely now, no cheesy old trophies and pennants like the ones my husband refuses to pack away. I’d show you, but he gets really moody when people mess with his things.”

“I understand,” Lily whispered, feeling her eyes drawn to the closed door, as if it held some long-hidden secrets about her beautiful stranger. “He seems like he gets moody easily,” she added, still unable to shake off the effect of his antics over dinner.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “That’s just Ethan. I have no idea why he was being such a prick to you earlier, but I’ve known him since he was a teenager, and he was always a moody little shit. He’s very sweet deep down, but it takes a while for him to warm to anyone. Shit, he still barely knows Brandon, and he’s been married to Emma for almost eight years now.”

“Wow, don’t they get along?” Brandon seemed like a perfectly likable guy from what she could tell.

“No, that’s not it. You have to actually know someone to not get along with them. They’ve barely spoken more than a few times.”

“Why?”

“Well, Ethan’s been gone for so many years, I don’t think he’s ever made time for it. And he’s been so preoccupied with his nasty breakup lately that I doubt anything else has seemed very important to him yet.”

Lily stopped in her tracks. “His… breakup?” She vaguely remembered Barbara telling her something at the hospital about her other son recently ending a bad relationship, but she had barely been paying attention at that moment, eager to flee the scene of so much heartache.

“Yeah,” Maggie frowned. “About a month ago now, maybe a touch longer. I guess it was really ugly,” she whispered, as if they weren’t completely alone in the hallway. “I don’t know all the particulars and he isn’t sharing yet, at least not with me. I get the feeling that he told Eric some stuff, and I’ve been itching to pry it out of him. Anyway, I guess that explains why he was such a grouchy fucker tonight. I’m sorry you got caught in the crossfire.”

“I guess I understand,” Lily said, not really understanding at all.

“You know, it’s funny, I was actually thinking of trying to set you two up sometime, before you told me about your little
situation
. How’s that going, by the way?”

“Oh, it’s still going—I think.” Lily wanted to laugh at the circumstances that had led her to that moment in time, having a conversation about her secret lover with said secret lover’s sister-in-law. “I haven’t really had the chance to make any major changes yet, though. But I hope to soon.”

“Well, I hope it all works out for you. You deserve some happiness.” And then Maggie did something completely unexpected. She hugged her.

Lily was surprised to find herself blinking back tears.

“Okay, that’s enough sappy girl time,” Maggie teased. “Let’s go downstairs.” They went back down another level, Maggie pointing out rooms as they walked by. “That’s Emma’s old room, they stay there whenever they visit, and of course you remember the football hall of fame that is our room. Richard and Barbara sleep down there at the end of the hall.”

They continued down the hall until they reached a back stairway, which led them down into the kitchen. Maggie chattered away happily as they walked into the room, not paying any attention to the men who were still scraping and washing the dishes. Lily tried to concentrate on what she was saying, but she couldn’t help noticing when Ethan straightened up and spun around, tracking her movements like a hawk. She felt his eyes boring into her back as they crossed the room, stopping at yet another door.

“Now this,” Maggie paused for dramatic effect as she opened the door. “This has been my favorite room since I first came home with Eric to visit.” She started down yet another set of stairs into what had to be the basement. At the bottom, there was simply a small area with a fancy washer and dryer set and a folding table set up next to a drying rack.

“The laundry room?” Lily said, unable to hide the disbelief in her voice.

“No silly, through here.” She opened a door to the left that Lily just assumed was for storage, and when they both walked through it she could barely keep her mouth from hanging open in shock.

It was an enormous rec room that spanned the entire length of the house, complete with a pool table, an air hockey table, a pinball machine, and three full-sized arcade games. There was an area set up for watching movies, along with about three different gaming systems.

“Oh my God!” Lily said, feeling lightheaded as she took it all in. “I thought they played video games upstairs. Why would they bother when this is down here?”

“Well, that’s just for killing time. This room… this is for getting serious. When we hang out down here, we can go missing for days. That’s why the kids lucked out and inherited the room from Richard. Barbara got tired of him never leaving his man cave.”

“This is Dr. Foster’s?”

“It was, but he would spend long hours at the hospital and then every waking hour down here when he was home. Barbara can only handle so much air hockey before she starts yelling. Once the kids hit high school she convinced him to hand it over, thus skyrocketing them into superstardom for the best parties practically overnight.”

“Wow. I just… I could never imagine having this kind of stuff at my disposal growing up.”

“Yeah, it’s a lot to take in at first. When I first met Eric I was worried that his family was going to be a bunch of stuffy, rich pricks, but they sooo aren’t!”

“I know, they are so sweet,” Lily agreed, turning to look at her hostess. “You all are.”

Maggie blushed slightly before socking her on the arm. “Hey, don’t get all mushy on me, Blake. I am fully prepared to beat your ass at any game here.”

“Oh, bring it!” Lily laughed, and it was the best she’d felt all day. “I haven’t played air hockey since college, but I’m sure I remember enough to send you home crying.”

The gleam that ignited in Maggie’s eyes at Lily’s words was almost scary. “Oh, it is fucking on!” She started to walk across the room toward the machine in question, only to be interrupted by Eric’s voice at the top of the stairs.

“Baby!” he called down, making them both jump.

“What?” she yelled back, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

“What’s the best container for all of this lasagna?”

“Jesus, Eric, ask your mother!”

“I can’t. Emma said she fell asleep on the couch.”

“Then ask Emma!” she huffed.

“Are you kidding me? I want to
store
leftovers, not give them a makeover.”

“Ugh, fine!” she snapped before turning back to Lily. “I’m sorry. I better get up there before he finds a way to blow up the kitchen. I’ll be right back.”

“Of course, take your time,” Lily said, still laughing at their exchange.

“Okay, feel free to check out anything you like while I’m gone. They’re all rigged to play for free, so you don’t need any quarters.” She disappeared through the door and stomped loudly up the stairs.

Lily made her way over to the pinball machine, laughing when she noticed that it had a cheesy, dated vampire theme. There was a large black coffin inside that looked as if it popped open to let the ball drop down into it for extra points, as well as little bats that lit up when they were hit. She’d always loved playing pinball on the few occasions when her mother would let her go to the arcade while they were shopping at the mall, so she eagerly stepped up and started a game.