“Just the guys in my foursome today,” he said, rattling off the names of his usual golf buddies. “I didn’t want to brag…but I couldn’t help myself.”
His expression mirrored the way I felt—a mix of pride and disbelief. Finch was a good student, and had gotten into Vanderbilt and Virginia earlier that winter. But Princeton had been a long shot, and his admittance felt like a culmination and validation of so many parenting decisions, beginning with applying Finch to Windsor Academy, the most rigorous and prestigious private school in Nashville, when he was only five years old. Since then, we had always prioritized our son’s education, hiring private tutors when needed, exposing him to the arts, and taking him to virtually every corner of the globe. Over the past three summers, we had sent him on a service trip to Ecuador, to a cycling camp in France, and on a marine biology course in the Galápagos Islands. I recognized, of course, that we were at a distinct financial advantage over so many other applicants, and something about that (especially the check we’d written to Princeton’s endowment) made me feel a little guilty. But I told myself that money alone couldn’t gain a kid admission to the Ivy League. Finch had worked hard, and I was so proud of him.
Focus on that, I told myself. Focus on the positive.
Kirk was looking at his phone again, so I pulled mine out, too, checking Instagram. Finch’s girlfriend, Polly, had just posted a photo of the two of them, the caption reading: We’re both Tigers, y’all! Clemson and Princeton, here we come! I showed the picture to Kirk, then read aloud some of the congratulatory comments from children of our friends who would be in attendance tonight.
“Poor Polly,” Kirk said. “They won’t last a semester.”
I wasn’t sure if he meant the distance between South Carolina and New Jersey or the mere reality of young love, but I murmured my agreement, trying not to think of the condom wrapper that I’d recently found under Finch’s bed. The discovery was far from a surprise, but it still made me sad, thinking of how much he had grown up and changed. He used to be such a little chatterbox, a precocious only child regaling me with every detail of his day. There was nothing I hadn’t known about him, nothing he wouldn’t have shared. But with puberty came an onset of remoteness that never really cleared, and in recent months, we’d talked very little, no matter how hard I tried to break down his barriers. Kirk insisted it was normal, all part of a boy’s preparation to leave the nest. You worry too much, he always told me.
I put my phone back in my bag, sighed, and said, “Are you ready for tonight?”
“Ready for what?” he asked, draining his bourbon as we turned onto Sixth Avenue.
“Our speech?” I said, meaning his speech, though I would be standing beside him, offering him moral support.
Kirk gave me a blank stare. “Speech? Remind me? Which gala is this, again?”
“I hope you’re kidding?”
“It’s hard to keep them all straight—”
I sighed and said, “The Hope Gala, honey.”
“And we are hoping for what, exactly?” he asked with a smirk.
“Suicide awareness and prevention,” I said. “We’re being honored, remember?”
“For what?” he asked, now starting to annoy me.
“The work we did bringing mental health experts to Nashville,” I said, even though we both knew it had much more to do with the fifty-thousand-dollar donation we’d given after a freshman at Windsor took her life last summer. It was too horrible for me to process, even all these months later.
“I’m kidding,” Kirk said, as he reached out to pat my leg. “I’m ready.”
I nodded, thinking that Kirk was always ready. Always on. The most confident, competent man I’d ever known.
A moment later, we pulled up to the hotel. A handsome young valet swung open my door, issuing a brisk welcome. “Will you be checking in tonight, madame?” he asked.
I told him no, we were here for the gala. He nodded, offering me his hand, as I gathered the folds of my black lace gown and stepped onto the sidewalk. Ahead of me, I saw Melanie chatting amid a cluster of friends and acquaintances. The usual crowd. She rushed toward me, giving me air kisses and compliments.
“You look amazing, too. Are those new?” I reached up to her face, my fingertips grazing the most gorgeous chandelier diamond earrings.
“Newly acquired but vintage,” she said. “Latest apology from you know who.”
I smiled and glanced around for her husband. “Where is Todd, anyway?”
“Scotland. Boys’ golf trip. Remember?” she said, rolling her eyes.
“That’s right,” I said, thinking that it was hard to keep up with Todd’s boondoggles. He was worse than Kirk.
“Will you share this fella with me tonight?” Melanie asked with a shimmy of her shoulders as Kirk rounded the car and joined us.
“I’m sure he has no objections,” I said, smiling.
An accomplished flirt, Kirk nodded, giving Melanie a double-cheek kiss. “You look stunning,” he told her.
She smiled and thanked him, then shouted, “Omigod! I heard the fabulous news! Princeton! You must be so over-the-moon proud!”
“We are. Thanks, Mel….Has Beau made a final decision?” Kirk asked, shifting the attention to Melanie’s son. His friendship with Finch, going all the way back to the first grade, was really the reason Mel and I had become so close.
“It’s looking like Kentucky,” Melanie said.
“Full ride?” Kirk asked.
“Half,” Melanie said, beaming. Beau was an average student but an amazing baseball player, and had similar offers from a handful of schools.
“That’s still really impressive. Good for him,” Kirk said.
For years I’d had the uncomfortable feeling that Kirk had been jealous of Beau’s baseball career. He often accused Melanie and Todd of being obnoxious, bragging too much about all-star this and that. But now it was easy for Kirk to be gracious; Finch had won, after all. Princeton trumped baseball. At least that’s how I knew my husband saw it.
As Melanie flitted off to greet another friend, Kirk announced that he was going to find the bar. “Do you want a drink?” he asked, usually quite chivalrous at the start of the evening. It was the end of the night that sometimes got iffy.
“Yes. But I’ll go with you,” I said, determined to spend quality time together, even in a crowd. “Can we please not make it a late night?”
“Sure. That’s fine,” Kirk said, slipping his arm around my waist as we walked into the glittering hotel lobby.