Chapter 6 - The Coats By the Hallway
I carried Lily back into the living room on my hip and felt Vanessa's eyes track us the whole way. She hadn't moved from her spot by the couch, but her hand had dropped from her belly to her side, and she was holding her wine glass too tight.
The candles had burned lower. Someone had turned a lamp on in the corner, and the warm light made everything look normal again, except it wasn't. Mark was still by the fireplace with his hands in his pockets. A couple of our friends had drifted toward the kitchen with their plates like they wanted an excuse not to stand in the middle of it.
I set Lily down by the coffee table where her coloring book was still open. "You stay here, okay? Mommy's just gonna pick up coats."
It was the easiest host thing I could think of. People always left their jackets piled on the bench by the entry hallway, and it gave me a reason to stand there and look without looking.
I walked to the entry and started folding a denim jacket. "Did everyone get here around seven? I lost track with the oven."
Jen, from down the street, laughed from the kitchen doorway. "We were late. Like seven-twenty. Vanessa was already here, though. I remember because she was coming out of the hallway when we came in."
My hands kept moving. "Oh yeah?"
"Yeah," Jen said. "She had that big tote bag. The canvas one with the handles? She said she was fixing her shoe or something. I just tossed our coats on the bench."
I glanced down the hallway. From where I stood I could see the white paneled door at the end, closed, the black lever handle catching the light. Our front closet. We kept extra blankets in there, Lily's old Halloween costume, the vacuum we never put away right.
Vanessa's voice came from behind me, too quick. "I changed my shoes. Those heels were killing me."
I turned. She was watching me from the living room archway. She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes.
"I hate those strappy ones," I said. "Bathroom's got better light anyway."
She didn't answer that. She just took a sip of wine.
Mark came over then, maybe because he felt the tension from across the room. He picked up a gray coat off the bench and held it like he didn't know what to do with it.
"Did you guys beat traffic?" I asked him, keeping it light. "Vanessa said you changed?"
He looked at me, then at Vanessa. "We got here early. Like six-thirty. Vanessa wanted to change before everyone showed up. She used your guest room."
That fit. I'd told them to make themselves at home when they arrived. I'd been in the kitchen with the lasagna and hadn't thought twice about it.
"My dress was wrinkled from the car," Vanessa cut in. "I told Mark not to follow me. I needed five minutes alone. That's not a crime."
"No," I said. "Of course not."
But Mark rubbed the back of his neck and wouldn't look at her. "You were in there a while. I waited in the kitchen. Then you came out and went down the hall with your bag."
Vanessa stared at him. "Are you keeping track of me now?"
"I'm just saying what happened," he said quietly.
I hung the denim jacket on a hook to give my hands something to do. The hallway felt narrower than usual. I could hear Lily's crayon scratching on paper in the other room, and the low murmur of everyone trying to pretend they weren't listening.
So that was it. Six-thirty to seven. The house half-empty. Me in the kitchen. Mark in the kitchen waiting. Vanessa alone first in the guest room, then alone in the hallway with her tote bag. And sometime in there, Lily wandering with her juice box while I finished dinner.
Jen shifted in the doorway. "Do you want me to move our stuff? We're probably in the way."
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"No, you're fine," I said. "Leave it. I'll get it later."
I didn't step closer to the white door. I didn't ask what was in the tote. I just stood there with a pile of other people's coats in my arms and understood that Vanessa had time no one else had, and Mark knew it too.
