Suzette looks amused by our cluelessness. “Your real estate agent didn’t remind you to buy blinds?”
“Guess not,” I mumble.
I suppose the implication is that Suzette would have reminded us if she had been our real estate agent. But it’s a bit late for that. For now, we are blind-less.
“I can recommend an excellent company that will install blinds for you,” she says. “They did our house last year. They put in these beautiful honeycomb blinds on the first and second floor and then these adorable shutters in the attic.”
I can’t even imagine what such a thing would cost. Far more than we have to spend, that’s for sure.
“No, thank you,” Enzo says. “I can do.”
She winks at him. “Yes, I’ll bet you can.”
Seriously? I am getting a little sick of this woman hitting on my husband right in front of me. It’s not like other women don’t do the same, but for God’s sake, we’re neighbors. Can’t she be a little more subtle? Part of me is tempted to say something, but I’d rather not make an enemy five minutes after moving here.
“Also,” she says, “I wanted to invite your family over for dinner. The two of you, of course, and… the children can come too.” She doesn’t look excited about the idea of our kids entering her home. And she doesn’t even know about Nico’s propensity to break something expensive within five minutes of entering any room.
“Sure, that will be wonderful,” Enzo says.
“Fabulous!” She beams up at him. “How about tomorrow night? I’m sure your kitchen won’t be up and running by then, so this will take the stress off.”
Enzo looks at me with raised eyebrows. He has boundless energy for social events, but I’m the introverted one, so I appreciate that he defers to me before accepting. Truthfully, I loathe the idea of spending an evening with this woman. She seems a bitextra. But if we’re going to be living here, aren’t we obligated to be friends with the neighbors? Isn’t that what normal suburban familiesdo? And maybe she won’t be so bad once I get to know her.
“Sure,” I say. “That will be really nice. We hardly know anyone in Long Island.”
Suzette throws her head back and laughs, revealing a row of pearly white teeth. “Oh, Millie…”
I glance over at Enzo, who shrugs. Neither of us seem to know what’s so funny. “What?”
“You don’t know how you sound,” she giggles. “Nobody says ‘inLong Island.’”
“They… they don’t?”
“No!” She shakes her head like I’m just too much. “It’s ‘onLong Island.’ You’re notinan island—that sounds so ignorant. You’reonan island.”
Enzo is scratching at his dark hair. He has zero gray hair on his head, by the way. If not for my bottles of Clairol, I would be pretty much gray and have been ever since Nico was born. All Enzo’s got is a few gray strands in his beard when he grows it out. But when I pointed that out to him, he dug around on his scalp until he found a single gray hair to show off to me, as if that made it any better.
“So I don’t understand,” I say. “Does that mean people should say they liveonHawaii? OronStaten Island?”
The smile drops off her face. “Well, Staten Island is an entirely different case.”
I try to catch Enzo’s eye, but he just seems amused by the whole thing. “Well, we are happy to be hereonLongIsland, Suzette. And we look forward to having dinner with you tomorrow night.”
“I can’t wait,” she says.
I have to force my own smile. “Should I bring anything?”
“Oh.” She taps her index finger against her chin. “Why don’t you bring dessert?”
Great. Now I have to figure out what on earth I’m going to bring for dessert that will live up to Suzette’s standards. I’m thinking a box of Oreos won’t cut it. “Sounds good!”
As Suzette walks down the path back to her own much larger house, her heels clicking on the pavement with each step, I feel a twinge of something in the pit of my stomach. I was so excited when we bought this house. We’ve been crammed into tiny apartments for so long, and I finally have my dream house.
But now, for the first time, I wonder if I have made a terrible mistake moving here.
THREE
Tonight, the four of us are having dinner at our kitchen table. Do you know what a kitchen table is? That’s a table thatfits inside our kitchen. Yes, our kitchen now has room in it for a whole table. Our last kitchen barely had room in it for a person.
