Jamie shared Christmas with his mother, twin sisters, and his younger brother. Their father was staying at the Racquet Club, and Ellen had to tell them that Jamie might be going away too.
Chase was in L.A. with his parents. Matthew was staying at a friend’s, whom Chase assumed was Kristin Harte. Chase was staying at their house with his mother. His father came to dinner with them on Christmas Eve. They all exchanged gifts and had a nice time as though nothing was wrong, but the divorce was still happening, no matter how civil they were to each other. And he was being sentenced in three weeks, and likely to go to prison. It was hard to forget any of it. And thoughts of Vivienne still haunted him. His mother was making him see a shrink. Jamie’s was too.
Vivienne had received Chase’s letter, and answered him, and told him how much it meant to her, and how sorry she was that everything had gone so wrong for all of them. She said she hoped that things turned out for the best for him. He felt relieved when he heard from her. Jamie had written to her too, and got an equally nice response, nicer than he felt he deserved. It made him even sadder that he had blown it with her. He would never know now what could have happened between them. He was going to prison instead. And he would remain a bad memory for her now, they all would.
They were all worried about the sentencing. The boys and their parents were feeling all the effects of the stress they were under, and trying to deal with it as best they could. But the days were ticking by and going too quickly. January 15 was only three weeks away.
Vivienne had Christmas Eve dinner with her father, sent over by a restaurant. Kimberly “dropped by” afterward. She was always lurking nearby, and Chris included her in their plans whenever he could. It was obvious that he wanted to be with her, but he wanted to spend time with his daughter too, and he tried to combine them whenever possible. Kimberly kept asking her “casually” when she was going back to New York, and clearly couldn’t wait, so she could move back in. Vivienne still hadn’t decided what to do about school in January. She was doing the assignments Saint Ambrose sent her, turning them in on time and getting good grades, so she could get her diploma in June.
Vivienne called her mother in Vermont on Christmas Day. Nancy sounded like she was having a good time at the house she had rented with friends. Viv closed her bedroom door so she could talk to her and didn’t upset anyone.
“Mom, when can I come home?”
“Are you kidding? Whenever you want. I’m going back to New York the morning of New Year’s Eve, and I don’t have any plans. Do you want to spend New Year’s Eve with me? You can be my date.”
“I’d love it. Can I stay? I know I said I wanted to live with Dad this year. But Kimberly gets on my nerves, and he wants to be with her. I love Dad, but I really want to be home with you. And, Mom, I’ve been thinking about school. Would you let me go to a day school in New York? Do you think any of them would take me mid-year? I want to stay home with you till I leave for college. I could stay with Dad next summer in L.A. I’ve finished all my applications, and added a few more. I’m applying to Columbia and NYU and BU,” which was Boston University.
“Wow, that is news.” She sounded thrilled. “I’ll call some schools after Christmas vacation and see what they say. We can visit them together.” Nancy thought they should tell them about what had happened at Saint Ambrose, and they might take her mid-year, on special circumstances. Vivienne said she wanted a fresh start at a new school, which sounded sensible to Nancy too. She promised she’d book her a ticket to New York on the thirty-first. They could both hardly wait.
“I’ll tell Dad,” Vivienne volunteered. “He’ll want to be with Kimberly anyway. She wants me out of here so badly, she’ll help me pack.” Vivienne sounded sad when she said it, but matter-of-fact.
Nancy was beaming when they hung up. Her daughter was coming home. It was the best Christmas gift she could have. And Vivienne sounded better than she had in two months, and wanted to go back to school, which was a good sign. The nightmares had almost stopped. She just had them from time to time now, not every night.
They had talked about her father and Kimberly before they hung up. “I don’t want to hurt his feelings. He really tried hard to make me feel at home and spend time with me. He just has a different life now, and Kimberly is a big part of it,” she told her mother. It wasn’t news to her. She had been for a long time, but Nancy didn’t remind her daughter of that. “Do you think he’ll marry her?”
“He might.”
“That’s ridiculous. He’s old enough to be her father.”
“Men are ridiculous sometimes,” she said, but wasn’t as upset about it as she had been. She had just met a nice man on the slopes in Vermont. A doctor from New York, divorced, with three daughters. She had skied with them a few times. The girls were a little older than Vivienne, and he was forty-nine. She was having dinner with them that night, and they were planning to get together again in New York. Two of his daughters were in college, and one had just graduated in June and was moving to the West Coast to attend graduate school at USC.
At dinner that night, Vivienne told her father that she was going to New York to stay with her mother, and leaving on the morning of New Year’s Eve, and she thought she’d spend the rest of the school year there. She said she wanted to go to school in the city and her mother was going to start working on it. He looked a little disappointed that she wanted to go back to New York, but he didn’t object. And he thought a new school was a good plan. It would have felt weird to her in L.A., and New York was a clean slate. She needed that now. Kimberly was having dinner with them that night, as she did most of the time, and she was so excited to hear it, she nearly jumped up and down in her seat, and looked at him adoringly.
“You mean you’ll be gone on New Year’s Eve?” Kimberly said excitedly to Vivienne, and even Chris had to laugh. “Let’s go to Las Vegas and stay at the Wynn,” she said looking thrilled, and he agreed. Las Vegas for New Year’s sounded corny to Vivienne, but it was the height of glamour to Kimberly and she said she loved playing blackjack and the slot machines, and going shopping there. Vivienne didn’t care as long as they didn’t top it off with getting married at the Elvis Chapel on New Year’s Day. Her parents weren’t divorced yet anyway, so he was safe for a while, although Vivienne could see it happening one day and dreaded it, if it did.
They spent the rest of the evening talking about Las Vegas and all the things Kimberly loved to do there, like the magic shows, and Cirque du Soleil. Vivienne was thinking about going back to New York, while she listened, and going back to school. They all had their lives to pursue, and she had figured out that hers was in the East with her mother, for now anyway. And this time she was going because she wanted to, not because she’d been forced.
“I can come back for spring vacation, Dad, if you want me to, and next summer before I start college.”