Anna K Read online

  Normally she gamely went along with whatever Steven wanted, but this time she refused. She told him it was important to her to celebrate, and he should do it to make her happy. But Steven kept saying no and eventually after going around and around and not getting anywhere, she wondered if there was something else that was going on. Maybe he was upset over something completely unrelated but it was getting all mixed up in his head.

  Anna, impressed by Lolly’s astute thinking on the matter, gestured for her to continue.

  “Well, turns out I was right. There was something else going on, which was that Steven finally admitted he was fine with me wanting to wait to have sex until I was ready, but he was embarrassed to let his friends find out we hadn’t done it yet.”

  “Why would his friends find out?” Anna asked.

  “That’s what I said!” Lolly exclaimed. “So then he said if his friends found out he bought me jewelry for our anniversary when he wasn’t even getting laid he’d get tons of shit for it.”

  “That’s the stupidest thing I have ever heard,” Anna said, and she meant it.

  “That’s what I said! But then he said, ‘Now if we were celebrating our six-month screw-a-versary, that’s something I could get behind.’ He was joking, of course, you know in that way your brother jokes about everything. So without thinking, I asked him if I agreed to let him tell his friends we had sex on the night he asked me to be his girlfriend then could we celebrate it? And he said yes, and the rest is history.”

  Anna was a little shocked over how utterly ridiculous the whole story was. “And it worked? I mean, was everything fine after that?”

  “Yep. Steven had his friends thinking he was a stud. And I got taken to Per Se for our six-month screw-a-versary and the diamond studs from Tiffany’s that you picked out.”

  Anna smiled at this because she had forgotten about going with Steven to pick out the earrings Lolly was pointing to in her ears. “Wow, and you really don’t care that people don’t think you’re a virgin?”

  “Please, these days I’d be made fun of for wanting to wait. I mean, I know the truth, and who am I keeping my virginity for but me? I consider it one of the most mature relationship moments of my life. I found a compromise that Steven and I are happy with.” Lolly told Anna her mother always said the number-one reason she divorced Lolly’s father was because he wouldn’t compromise. So Lolly had it ingrained in her that she should steer clear of any man who couldn’t, because if that was the case, then the expectation would be that the woman always had to make all the sacrifices.

  “What really makes me insane about finding out about his cheating ass today, of all days, was that my present to him, besides the stupid watch band, was I was going to give it up. For real.”

  This time when Lolly started crying again, Anna totally understood.

  “Oh god, Anna, I’m such a disaster.”

  Anna shook her head and put her arm around Lolly’s shoulders. “You’re not a disaster. You just fell in love with one.”

  Lolly nodded sadly. “It’s true. I love him. I love him so much.”

  Anna nodded and told Lolly that was why she was in so much pain. So now the only question to answer was: did Lolly love Steven enough to forgive him? Because if she did love him enough, then it was time to talk to him to see if they could work past this.

  “Was it my fault? For withholding sex? Is this why he cheated on me?”

  “No!” Anna spoke sharply this time. It was the only time she’d raised her voice the whole evening. “Never put the blame on yourself, Lolls. You loved him and wanted to wait and that’s your choice. In fact, I admire you for it. Sometimes I think I should have waited longer myself. Alexander didn’t pressure me, but when I knew he was going away to college I felt like I needed to do it. Before he left, you know?”

  “I get that. I probably would have done the same thing. But it’s all good, right? You’ve been together for so long and you love each other, so after a while it makes sense to just go for it, right? Is it as awesome as they say? My friend Miley says it’s better than a shoe sale at Bergdorf’s.”

  Anna gave a short laugh and started turning off all the lamps in the bedroom. She wouldn’t have minded confiding in Lolly, but Anna never really talked to her friends about her sex life. Alexander thought that sex was something to be kept private, and she tried to respect that, even if she didn’t totally agree with him.

  “Right now the only thing you need to think about is whether or not you can forgive him. Because if you can, then you two can work it out, and who knows, maybe your relationship will be better for it. Sleep on it. Right here and now. I just got the alert that we have a snow day tomorrow, so you and Steven have all day to talk … if you decide that’s what you want.”

  Lolly nodded and admitted she was sleepy; she was exhausted from all the drama and could no longer think clearly.

  “Plus, Steven deserves to twist in the wind for a little while longer,” Anna said with a smile.

  “Hells yeah he does,” Lolly said, already slipping into the high thread count Frette Lux sheets on Anna’s parents’ California king.

  Anna stayed with Lolly until she fell asleep. She didn’t have to wait long.

  XIII

  Leaving Lolly asleep in her parents’ bedroom, Anna walked barefoot down the dark hallway to the kitchen where she put the rest of the pie in the fridge. She heard voices coming from the living room, which she assumed was the TV, but then after listening more closely she realized Steven was talking to some guy. Anna rolled her eyes, annoyed that while she had spent the last several hours mopping up her brother’s mess, he had been hanging out and probably having a grand old time as usual.

  Her phone vibrated and she looked down to see yet another text from Alexander, who had been trying to reach her for hours. If it’s not one boy, it’s another. She grimaced to herself. She walked back to her bedroom knowing she needed to call her boyfriend back before she was embroiled in her own boy trouble.

  Alexander answered on the first ring, and it was obvious from his tone he was upset that it had taken so long for her to get back to him. Alexander didn’t get the nickname the Greenwich OG by being the most patient person. But he quickly softened when she recounted her evening to him, murmuring how she was too good to her feckless and reckless older brother.

  “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 preten
ded 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?

  Anna put on her Prada lipstick-print silk pajamas, threw on a pair of pink bunny slippers that Steven had given her for her birthday last year, and decided to go see what company her brother was keeping at this late hour.

  She walked down the dark hallway and found Steven was standing in the foyer with his back to her. Suddenly none other than Vronsky himself strutted out of the kitchen with a bottle of Fiji. She took two steps backward, bumped into a wall, and knocked a painting crooked. Not only that, but she let out an embarrassing little yelp that made both boys turn their heads and stare at her. In her bunny slippers.

  “Oh my god, Anna, are you okay?” Vronsky asked, taking a step toward her.

  “Me? Yes! So great. I mean, I’m fine. Hello.” She whipped around and busied herself by straightening the painting.

  “Steven, thank you for your hospitality but I’ve stayed much longer than I meant to,” Vronsky said, not taking his eyes off of her as Anna turned and stepped toward him. He cleared his throat and continued. “I just stopped by to thank you guys for making sure my mother got home safely tonight.”

  He had such a soft and wonderful voice to complement his beautiful eyes, which was pretty much the exact same thought he was having about her. Anna wanted to respond but found herself struck speechless by the intensity of his gaze. He continued, “I also wanted to let you know I found the man’s other dog.” He held up his hand, which had a large Snoopy Band-Aid on it as proof.

  “Oh no, you’re hurt. Did he bite you?” Anna padded toward him.

  “No, no, I’m fine. It’s just a scratch. My mother’s dog walker insisted on the Band-Aid.” Vronsky ripped it off, balled it up, and stuffed it in his overcoat pocket. “The dog’s with her now. She fosters strays so it’s a much better option than a shelter.”

  Anna was overcome by Vronsky’s thoughtfulness, and it took all her resolve not to throw her arms around him and hug him. “Oh my god, you’re my hero. That’s so nice of you. I know it was silly for me to worry, but—”

  “Not at all,” he cut her off. “It just shows what a sweet girl, I mean, good person you are.” The two of them locked eyes again, and now Anna felt light-headed. She forced herself to look away and put her hand on the wall to steady herself.

  “I’m sorry, I’ve barely eaten today, except for that pie.”

  “Hey, is there any left?” Steven asked, looking up from his iPhone, oblivious to the situation unfolding before him.

  “That’s Lolly’s pie and it’s up to her if you can have a piece,�
�� Anna said, a smidgen more sharply than she should have. This whole unnerving situation was his fault after all.

  The three of them stood in silence for another awkward beat. Anna needed Vronsky to leave immediately, but there was another part of her that desperately wished she could ask him to stay for pie, though she couldn’t very well offer it up when she’d just told her brother he couldn’t have any. Oh, what to do! “Thank you so much for stopping by … Alexia. Or should I call you Vronsky? Or is it the Count?” she asked playfully.

  “You can call me Alexia. I like it when you say it,” he said to her in a much more serious tone than he intended. It was as if he was no longer in control of his faculties when he was around her. And truth be told, he did like hearing his proper name when she said it. “I should really be going…” Vronsky finally made his way toward the front door.

  “Aight, later dude! Maybe we’ll check you at Jaylen’s party on Saturday?” Steven opened the door and Vronsky slowly backed up until he was standing in the hallway waving good-bye. He couldn’t take his eyes off Anna until the door closed in front of him and she was gone.

  XIV

  Vronsky felt restless when he walked out into the snowy night after leaving Steven and Anna’s building. He waved off the doorman’s offer to find him a cab and buttoned up his coat, wound his long scarf around his neck a few times, and started walking. The streets were practically empty because of the storm, but he barely noticed. His mind was singularly focused on one thing, and one thing only.

  Anna K.

  Never in Vronsky’s life had he been so taken with a member of the opposite sex. And though he was only sixteen years old, he already had plenty of experience with girls.