Page 81 of The Housekeeper

“You two seem to have gotten pretty tight,” I remarked.

Tracy shrugged. “Jealous?”

I laughed. Then I realized she was serious. “No. Of course not.”

“You’re sure?”

“Why on earth would I be jealous?”

“I don’t know.” Another shrug. “Elyse said you might be.”

I felt my jaw clench. “Elyse says I’m jealous? Of what?”

Tracy glanced at the tree she’d helped decorate, then down at the floor. “Of me.”

“Why would I be jealous of you?”

“I don’t know. I guess in general. You know.”

“Idon’tknow. You’ll have to be more specific.”

“I guess because I’m thinner and have more style and everything,” Tracy said. At least she had the good grace to look embarrassed.

“Are you kidding me? That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it?”

“What else did Elyse say?”

“She said I should think about becoming an actress, maybe moving to L.A. She thinks I’d get lots of work.”

“Please tell me you’re not seriously considering this.”

“Maybe I am. Why shouldn’t I?”

Out went my newfound resolve to think before speaking. And the truth is that I was too damn pissed to bother tempering my response. This wasn’t the first time I’d been falsely accused of being jealous, and it rankled. “Isn’t it a little late in the game to be thinking of taking on Hollywood?” I asked, the question an answer in itself.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that you’re over forty, and Hollywood is notoriously unkind to women as they age…”

“That’s changing,” Tracy insisted, her face flushing pink with anger. “And besides, I look way younger. Elyse says I could easily pass for late twenties. Why do you always put me down?”

“I don’t put you down.”

“Yes, you do. You do it all the time. People have noticed.”

“By ‘people,’ I take it you mean Elyse? She says I put you down?” I realized I was clutching my wineglass so tightly, I was in danger of snapping off its stem. I quickly deposited it on the floor by my feet.

“Not in so many words,” Tracy said.

“What words exactly?”

“I don’t know,exactly.”

“Approximately, then.”

“She just said that she’s noticed that you talk down to me a lot, that you don’t take me seriously.”