Mom and Dad arrive early Friday evening looking fresh and polished. You’d never guess they just spent six hours winding through the mountains in their silver Acura. Liv is already out with her own parents, so she doesn’t have to perform for mine. Mom and Dad like her okay, but she’s yet to really wow them. Not like Zander has. They fell in love with him when he visited for a mere weekend last summer. He’s like the son they already have. He and my brother Jamie are both business majors, both presidents of their fraternities, and both lacrosse players. Seems like my parents have a type.
They invited Zander to go to dinner with us tonight because, in Mom’s words, he’s “already family.” He makes a rare appearance at my dorm room door only a few minutes after Mom and Dad show up. His hair is slicked back and he’s dressed in khakis and a button down. Wearing a broad smile, he shakes Dad’s hand and returnsMom’s hug. They’re getting Alexander O’Leary Jr. tonight, the business mogul’s son, the president of O-Chi and big man on campus. When he kisses me, Mom and Dad beam.
Because all the restaurants in Alderford smell like spilled beer, Dad does some googling and finds us an upscale Italian restaurant in Asheville. We drive over thirty minutes to the touristy side of town near the Biltmore, just so my parents can dine in style.
Everyone orders wine but me because I won’t even be twenty until January. When Zander offers me a sip from his glass, Mom says, “Oh, isn’t that sweet.” She’d probably think my personal cooler and Cole’s concoctions are “sweet” too.
Dad grills Zander about his plans for after graduation and probes for details about The O’Leary Group. I’m surprised he doesn’t ask to see Alexander O’Leary Sr.’s investment portfolio. To his credit, Zander handles Dad’s intrusiveness with grace. He has the charm and confidence of a businessman twice his age. He’s Billionaire Boy’s Club by day, drunk beach bum by night. I hide a smile as I picture him ducking into a phone booth to rip off his Armani suit and stepping out in nothing but low-slung shorts and a hemp necklace.
Quietly, I pick around the frisée in my salad, content to be left out of the conversation. But unfortunately, Mom brings up Rush.
I tell her how well the GKA open house went, but her response is lukewarm.
“Oh?” She smiles indifferently. “I didn’t know GKA was on your list.” Which is her way of saying that if she had known, she’d have crossed it off. “Any other open houses?”
I’m debating whether to lie when Zander pipes up, “Didn’t you go to KPT a couple weeks ago?”
I hold back from kicking him under the table.
Mom’s blue eyes shine. “KPT? Really? Do they want you?”
“Of course they do,” Zander says proudly, throwing in an affectionate rub of my back.
Did he forget about the whole Peyton-Livfiasco?
“Well then, what are you waiting for?” Mom urges. “They do continuous recruitment, don’t they?”
“Yeah, but I’m not ready to pick yet. I want to do formal Rush in January.”
“Betts. Sweetheart. You can’t do better than KPT.”
Wanna bet?
“If they want me now, they’ll still want me then,” I say, trying to close out the subject. But Mom’s nowhere near done. She launches into a veritable paean on all KPT’s merits. The server takes our salad plates, refills our drinks, and brings out our entrees, and she’s still going on, only now she’s lapsed into lecturing me on “missed opportunities.”
When she appeals to Zander for help in persuading me, he matter-of-factly states, “Betts would make a great KPT.”
I pinch him, right above the knee, making sure my nails dig deep into his flesh.
“Ow! What the fu—uuzz.”
“Betts!” Mom hisses. “Did you just kick him?”
“It’s okay,” Zander says, shooting me a sheepish look. “It’s my fault, I forgot about…something.”
Mom is frowning at me. “You’re lying to me, aren’t you? You blew it at KPT.”
“No.”
Dad finally intervenes. “Of course she didn’t blow it. Right, sweetheart?”
I sigh. “It’s not me, it’s Liv.”
“Liv?” Mom looks relieved.
“They’re not going to let her in.”
“So? You and Olivia don’t have to be in the same sorority.”
