“He doesn’t deserve a sister like you,” he said, and it wasn’t the first time he had spoken out against her brother. Alexander was not a fan of Steven’s, but he knew better than to bash him too harshly, as Anna was quick to defend her brother despite his many shortcomings.
“You’re missing the point entirely, Alexander. It’s not me Steven doesn’t deserve. It’s Lolly. Can you believe they haven’t even had sex yet? I thought for sure they had, but now that I know they haven’t I feel that Steven’s actions were not excusable exactly, but a little more understandable? God, I hate myself for saying that out loud, but maybe it’s true? Didn’t you once tell me that if men don’t, you know … on a regular basis then…”
“Yes, but it doesn’t give them permission to cheat. They made a commitment to each other and part of that agreement is to be only with each other. Steven could have jacked off in the shower like every other guy I know.”
It was rare that Alexander ever talked about sex with her so candidly, and Anna couldn’t help but be a little intrigued. “Is that what you do? You know, when I’m not around?”
“Anna, stop. I’m not discussing that with you. That girl would be an idiot not to dump him. How can she ever trust him again?”
“I don’t think she will, dump him, I mean,” Anna responded. “Lolly loves him. Like, not just in the regular way, but she like loves him–loves him. If she didn’t there’s no way she’d be this upset. She was an absolute wreck. I’m almost positive she’s going to forgive him in the morning.”
Alexander, now bored of this subject, asked Anna if she knew that her school was canceled for the next day. She had known, but for some reason pretended she didn’t. “Really? Oh good, because I’ve been dreading taking the 7:02 A.M. back to Greenwich to make it to Latin by nine. Do you have a snow day, too?”
Alexander chuckled at this. “No, my sweet, college doesn’t get snow days.” Anna felt foolish for a moment, but this passed because how should she know how college operated in a snowstorm? Without pausing for her response, Alexander launched into a very boring story about his Globalization and Private Governance class, so she let her mind wander back to earlier in the evening when she first met Count Vronsky.
She had heard of him before but was positive they had never met until today. She knew plenty about his mother, though, a famous socialite known for her beauty, impeccable style, and many marriages. Mrs. Geneviève R. was her married name now because she had recently wedded her fourth husband, the CEO of the third largest pharmaceutical company in the world. Normally when a woman had multiple divorces she was looked down on by society, but Geneviève was in the rare position of still being held in high regard. (This was most likely due to the fact that each time she married, it was to someone richer and more powerful than her previous husband.) Her picture frequently appeared in Vogue or in the Style section of The New York Times, and Anna had recognized her immediately when she boarded the train.
As far as Anna knew, Mrs. R. had only two sons, both from her first marriage to Mr. Vronsky. Like Anna, Mrs. R. also had show dogs, but hers were Russian wolfhounds. She fell in love with the breed after meeting Vronsky’s Russian father. The two women bonded on the train over their love of giant-breed dogs with tragically short life spans. Anna’s first Newfoundland only lived to the age of nine.
She put Alexander on speaker while he droned on about losing his morning tennis match due to his elbow, and she told him he needed to see an orthopedist to get it checked out, all the while texting Magda, the Greenwich housekeeper, of her plans to stay in the city and asking to have her dogs driven down sometime tomorrow. Anna treated her two giant beasts like they were lapdogs and rarely traveled anywhere without them. This luxury was only available to her because her family had drivers and a private plane. And because her father doted on his only daughter. Anna’s love of all animals was something they had always shared.
It was her father who had given her her first Newfoundland puppy when she was only five years old. She had seen one in a painting at a museum in London and couldn’t believe it when her father said the giant creature she was pointing to was a dog. “He looks like the biggest stuffed animal in the store!” she cried with glee, which was a private joke between her and her father. He had told her whenever they went into a toy store she always managed to pick out the biggest and most expensive stuffed animal she could find saying, “I want that one.” And because her father indulged her every want, her bedroom in Greenwich now contained a dozen or more massive stuffed animals lined up along a side wall to guard her when she slept.
The Newfie pup was a very special belated birthday present that was given to her when her father missed her fifth birthday party because he was traveling in Asia on business. On his way back home, he had pit-stopped in Vermont at a Newfoundland breeder and picked out a ten-week-old puppy with a champion bloodline named Doozy. The giant black dog became her constant companion, even accompanying her to the stables, content to sleep in the hay during Anna’s daily riding lessons after school.
Doozy died two years ago, which was Anna’s first experience with heartbreak. And even though she now had two other Newfies, she still wasn’t over the pain of losing her first dog, which was probably why she had such a strong reaction to the dog’s death earlier this evening.
“Anna? Anna, are you still there?” Her boyfriend’s impatient voice snapped her back to reality.
“Yes, I’m here,” she dutifully replied. “Are you on Adderall? You know it makes you cranky when you take too much.”
Alexander ignored her question, which meant that it was true. But she was too tired to get into a discussion about whether he over-relied on it for his studies. His defense was always that he had a prescription for it and never bought it illegally like every other college student. “It’s late, and you must be exhausted. You should get some sleep.” He then asked, “Do you plan on staying in the city because of the snow?”
“Well, since there’s no school tomorrow, I may just stay in the city for the long weekend,” she answered, ready to get off the phone. The couple said their perfunctory I-love-yous and good-nights, and soon Anna was all alone in the quiet of her room. The room that was hers and yet didn’t feel like it, since she was there so infrequently. Her parents were surprised when she told them at age fourteen that she had come to the decision that she wanted to go to high school in Greenwich instead of attending her choice of private schools in Manhattan. Her mother refused, mostly because it seemed like a monumental headache when it came to scheduling. But Anna’s father heard his daughter out and was touched by her emotional plea to be closer to her horses and dogs and in the end said they’d find a way to work it out. When Anna had left the room, she stood and listened by the door for a bit, but her mother’s first words were, “You know this is your fault, Edward. If you didn’t acquiesce to her every wish, she’d understand that she’s the child and we’re the parents who decide what’s best for her.” But her father told her mother their daughter was capable of making her own choices and they had to respect that about her. They didn’t want to raise a daughter who couldn’t think for herself, did they?