Shade of Avocado - Part 43
A Growing Gathering (Avery)
Need to read an earlier chapter?
Josie and Tracy returned to Santa Fe on a clear day, with a hint of fall crispness in the air. Leaves on the trees were turning bright red and vibrant yellow, but clinging still to their twigs with tenacity.
The happy couple arrived early enough we could go to the County Clerk’s office near downtown to obtain their marriage license. We stopped to pick up Aunt Jo, who had flown in from Florida the day before. Now in possession of the required paperwork, we came back to the house to have dinner and complete the preparations for a wedding ceremony the next day.
Piper greeted us, opening the garage entrance from the laundry room. “Josie! Tracy! Wonderful to see you again. It’s so nice to meet you, Aunt Jo. Avery speaks so fondly of you. Avery, we have a visitor.”
“A visitor? What do you mean?” I asked.
Piper grabbed my hand and led me through the hallway into the living room. Seated on one end of the sofa was Brooke Linderman. She was straining to smile, but her red cheeks betrayed her true emotions.
I couldn’t think of anything better to do than to make introductions. “Hi Brooke…um, everyone, this my good friend Brooke. Brooke, this is my Aunt Jo from Florida. My sister Josie and her fiancée, Tracy…they’re getting married tomorrow. And…um…I guess you’ve met Piper.”
“Avery, I’m…so sorry,” Brooke stammered. “I tried calling you ahead, but you didn’t answer. I’m here for a conference and wanted the opportunity to come by. I shouldn’t have just dropped by.”
I reached in my back pocket and realized I had left it on my desk when I drove to the County Clerk’s office. “I forgot to take my phone, I guess. Don’t worry, Brooke. Of course, it’s such an unexpected pleasure.”
“I was going to leave,” Brooke explained. “Piper told me everything going on with your sister’s wedding, but Piper insisted I wait until you got back. I think Piper’s a lovely lady, Avery.”
I glanced over at Piper who looked back at me with feigned modesty and more than a little schadenfreude toward my current tension. While I was occupied with that, my family members exchanged pleasantries with Brooke.
I refocused myself and thought of what to say next. “I thought you were on sabbatical all year, Brooke. You still have to go to conferences?”
“Well, it came up suddenly,” she replied. “One of the keynote speakers had to back out due to a health issue. They called to ask if I would step in. Since I have a prepared presentation I’ve done elsewhere, I figured, why not? My talk isn’t until tomorrow night. It being in the area, I thought a quick visit with you was a bonus.”
“Well, Brooke,” I said. “I'm so glad you did…”
“I know, Avery,” Brooke interrupted. “I’m sure you all have too much to do before tomorrow. I don’t want to be in the way.”
Josie piped in. “Now, dear, don’t be so worried. Everything is all set for tomorrow. You’re looking at the entire wedding already, except the minister and photographer. If you’re not doing anything, we’d love for you to join us for the ceremony. We can handle one more friend of the family.”
I well knew Brooke’s tendency toward introversion. I wasn’t certain how thrilled Piper was having Brooke around. I wanted to come up with an idea to make everyone comfortable. Especially me.
“You’re so kind, Josie,” said Brooke, “but this should be your family time.”
“Oh, at least have some dinner with us,” Tracy suggested. “We’re just going to order some Italian food and relax this evening.”
“If I wouldn’t be imposing….”
I turned and sought out Piper’s thoughts on the matter.
“I think it would be...” Piper said. “I would love to have the opportunity to get to know your good friend better.”
“Okay,” I said. “I guess we should order some Italian food.”
As we discussed what to order and I punched our selections into my smartphone, another phone sounded its ringtone.
“Oh, that’s mine,” Brooke said reaching into her purse. “Excuse me a minute.” She stepped over toward the foyer and the rest of us continued to work out details about salad dressing and extra breadsticks.
Two minutes later, Brooke walked back into the living room, appearing absolutely stunned. Her expression drew the concern of all of us and Piper even got up to help Brooke sit down.
“Brooke,” I asked her, “what’s the matter?”
My question shook her out of her trance. “I…uh, just learned I’m….”
“What is it, Brooke?” I asked again. “Are you alright?”
“I think so,” Brooke answered. “I just got the news...I’m...this year’s recipient of the Economics Prize. The No…the one in memory of Alfred Nobel.”
All of us gasped as she said the name, “Nobel.”
“Congratulations, Brooke,” I said. “Is this for the work on your book?”
She nodded. “I had no idea I was up for consideration. I’m completely shocked.”
“I understand they keep the Nobel nominations in strict secrecy,” Piper mentioned. “What an amazing honor, Brooke.”
“Thank you. Maybe I should head back to my hotel. You’ve all had enough of my attention.”
“Oh, you’re not going anywhere, dear,” Aunt Jo interjected. “What will you do, sit in a hotel room by yourself when you should be celebrating with someone? Might as well celebrate it with us.”
Brooke came out of her semi-stupor and laughed. “You know, that’d be wonderful. I won the Nobel Economics Prize!!”
All of us jumped up to give her the hugs she deserved. Piper pulled Brooke’s book off my shelf to show everyone else. “I’ll bet the publisher will want a new edition, at least to update your biography,” Piper told her.
Though it was not the typical pairing with pasta and bolognaise, I pulled out two bottles of the Sauvignon Blanc Siobhán was so kind to send me. Between my sister’s wedding and Brooke’s honor, this night was worthy of it.
Brooke informed us that technically the award was the “Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel,” endowed by the Central Bank of Sweden. Whatever, it was a big damn deal. We toasted to Brooke and her book, Risk Mitigation Against Strategic and Commercial Mineral Depletion, and to Josie and Tracy and their wedding we’d celebrate tomorrow.
We all managed to convince Brooke to be a friend of the family and attend the mid-morning wedding, since her presentation would not be until tomorrow evening. The encouragement from Piper seemed to pursuade her to agree.
“Going to the wedding tomorrow,” Piper explained to her, “with all the attention on these two beautiful brides will give you a decent break. I have a feeling your presentation tomorrow night will end up being a bigger deal than you thought it would be!”
As much as we all enjoyed visiting, we made it an early night to be fresh for tomorrow’s festivities.
I dropped off Aunt Jo, Josie, and Tracy at their hotel and returned home where Piper was loading the dishwasher. We sat down to talk before going to bed.
“Brooke is really the university professor who wrote that book?” she asked.
“She is. But I don’t think she’ll use the same author photo in the next edition or any new books she writes.”
“It was so unexpected. When you're with her in person and she’s…she’s beautiful. Once she relaxed, she was charming and warm, not at all condescending with all her intelligence. She listens even when you’re not the smartest person in the room. I can understand why you like her, Avery.”
“You have sized her up well, Piper. It sounds like you don’t hold any resentment about the past with her. I hope that the person you met tonight is the Brooke Linderman the whole world recognizes now. She struggled too long to get where she is now, professionally, by being the persona in the book photo. Now she has the Nobel Economics Prize and she has nothing further to prove.”
“I wasn’t sure I believed her when she showed up at the door,” Piper said. “She introduced herself and I sort of found a resemblance to the woman in the book. What a transformation. I did start wondering why you wouldn’t want to be with her instead of me.”
“There’s nobody I want to be with instead of you,” I stated. “Piper, nobody is more beautiful to me than you. Listen, while Brooke and I did explore our romance once, or a couple of times, she and I are much better friends than we could ever be as lovers. We can share about almost anything, but we couldn’t possibly share living with each other. The week we visited here was enough to show us it would never work. Looking back, even as far as college, Brooke wanted a different life than mine all along.”
“It doesn’t ring like a regret that I can hear,” Piper said. “It doesn’t bother you anymore how it turned out with her?”
“No, not at all,” I answered. “I’m incredibly happy for her and proud of what she’s achieved. But I’m far happier, Piper, you and I turned out with what we have.”
“I’m happy, too, Avery. I guess we haven’t had too much trouble living with each other.”
“Piper, I believe I could live with you the rest of my life.”