Beautiful Day(106)
She drank red wine with dinner. Did she eat? She and Jenna had set up no fewer than six tastings to come up with the menu of field greens with dried cherries, goat cheese, and candied pecans, the choice of seared rib eye or grilled swordfish, the baked potato with choice of decadent toppings, the pan-roasted asparagus with lemon and mint—and yet Margot could only recall eating a single perfectly toasted salty-sweet pecan and one bite of rosy, juicy meat dragged through béarnaise sauce. Ryan was seated next to her on one side, and Jethro on the other. Ryan was a conversational dynamo, he could uphold his own side and Margot’s side with minimum output from Margot, and whereas Margot flogged herself for not doing a better job—Ryan had once confided that he thought Margot had ten times the personality of Jenna—she was determined to constantly monitor the situation between Edge and Rosalie.
They seemed so happy, Margot thought, that they had to be acting. Definitely acting. This was all a game.
And then, just as the dinner plates were cleared and Ryan pulled a sheet of paper from his breast pocket on which he had written his best man’s toast, Rosalie pushed back from the table and stood. Edge stood also, and for a second Margot feared they were leaving. But Edge was only standing to be polite, and the crack in Margot’s heart widened. When Edge had taken Margot to dinner at Picholine, which had been the most sublime and grown-up dinner date of her life, he had stood when Margot excused herself for the ladies’ room, and then stood again upon her return. It was one of the fine, old-fashioned, charming things about him—elegant manners, respect for the gender.
Of course, now Margot realized that the dinner at Picholine and the subsequent night at Edge’s apartment had all been a lubricant to ease the way for him to ask Margot to betray her professional principles.
Rosalie left the tent. Edge sat back down and said something to Doug that made him laugh.
Rosalie going to the bathroom wasn’t the answer, because Edge was still trapped at the table with Doug. Margot couldn’t very well plop down and engage Edge in the conversation she needed to have with him with her father present.
Still, Margot rose and, at what she thought was a discreet distance, followed Rosalie out of the tent.
“Wait, Margot!” Ryan called after her.
Margot whipped around, feeling caught. “What?”
“You’re going to miss my speech!” he said.
“I’ll be right back,” she promised.
She saw Rosalie leaning against Alfie’s tree trunk, smoking a cigarette.
Rosalie smoked. That explained her voice. Edge had once told Margot that everyone smoked in law school as a way of handling the pressure. Edge himself had smoked in law school and had continued until his second wife, Nathalie, demanded that he quit.
Rosalie didn’t yet see Margot, and this bought Margot some time to think. What should she do? She wanted to introduce herself and see if Rosalie had any reaction. Would Rosalie know that Edge and Margot were lovers? Would he have told her? Certainly not—that might cause a security breach with Doug. But maybe Edge had felt the same pressure Margot had felt earlier this weekend to just tell someone, and during one of their late-night prep sessions for court, he had told Rosalie.
If Rosalie didn’t know, should Margot tell her? Or should Margot just engage Rosalie in casual conversation that would allow her to figure out if Edge and Rosalie were really dating or if they were only coworkers?
At that moment, Margot heard the distinct chime of spoon on glass, and the tent grew quiet. Ryan’s speech. Margot didn’t want to miss it. Any conversation with Rosalie was bound to leave her livid or in tears. Margot spun on her dyed-to-match heels and headed back toward the tent. She nearly smacked right into Edge, who was hurrying from the tent himself.
His presence shocked her. Before she could dream up a single appropriate word to say, Edge grabbed her arm.
“Margot,” he said. “What are you doing?”
“Um…” she said. “I went to the bathroom?”
He stared at her.
“I was headed there, I mean. But I wanted to get back to hear the toasts.”
“You followed Rosalie out,” he said. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” Margot said. As much as she craved his touch, she didn’t like the way he was holding her arm, and she didn’t like the way he had used his lawyering skills to make it seem like she was the one who had done something wrong. And as badly as she had wanted to talk to him, she wasn’t sure how to start.
She said, as casually as possible, “So what’s up with Rosalie, anyway?”
Edge lightened his grip on Margot’s arm, and his face changed. It became… well, the word that popped into Margot’s mind was kind. In all the months of their dating, Margot had never known Edge to look kind or nice or tender or gentle. He was an attorney who specialized in land mines, trapdoors, and setting his opponents up to fail. That was why his nickname was “Edge,” or so he claimed. He always conveyed mental toughness; he prized courage over compassion.