The New York Project

6. Summertime

It could have lasted forever.

Yet the honeymoon eventually had to end.

They had promised Brooke, Henry, and, mostly, Charlotte, that they would join them for a couple of days in Montauk.

"So, I was thinking, on the train, maybe we ought to keep a low profile, there might be some of our parents' friends going to the beach as well," Victoria suggested when they arrived at Penn Station around noon, on this last Friday of July.

"Oh come on, neither our parents' friends nor their children would go to their summer houses by train."

"Fair enough."

She chuckled, put her weekend bag back on her shoulder, and turned to look at the departures board for checking their train information.

"We shall do as you wish, Vee, of course," continued the young man, "although it'll be hard enough up there, not touching each other for two days and two nights."

"I know, but think of it as an exciting challenge. Besides, it should be even better once we're back in the city."

He only shrugged his shoulders, yet the sparks in his eyes were impossible to miss. She smiled and placed a tiny kiss on one of his cheeks.

She had tried to hide it the day before, and she kept on trying during the train ride, yet facing her father and Brooke for the first time after having yielded to this unspeakable temptation was making her nervous. She was pretty sure they would notice right away that something was going on between them.

Deep down, she was almost willing for their parents to uncover them, so that they could stop this bloody nonsense – for she had no strength at all to stop it on her own, as she should.

They both spent the journey reading – well, she tried to focus enough to read, and she failed. They only allowed their fingers to touch each other on the seat.

Her father was waiting for them at the train station, tanned and looking good. Victoria repressed a grin at the sight of his odd outfit – beige shorts and leather sandals – compared to his Wall Street suits.

"Hello, you two! How are you? Did you have a nice time all alone in the townhouse and in the big city?" he greeted them with a large smile.

A nice time? It was the best week of my life.

"A lovely time, yes, thanks, Papa. How are you?"

Henry began to prattle on the shallowness of the Hamptons, on the incessant battle between Brooke and their neighbours for showing off, for throwing the most spectacular parties. He nonetheless admitted that it was pleasant, despite all that, to be away from the city for a while.

They quickly reached the recently renovated shingle-style house, with a screened-in porch, a white wood balustrade and a flight of stairs directly leading to the beach.

While Brooke was nowhere to see, Charlotte was thrilled.

"Vee, can we go to the beach please? Mom never wants to go and Dad was on the phone or with his computer all week long."

"Of course, lassie, let's go."

She felt bad, once again, for the little girl because of her absent parents. She also felt bad because she was sleeping with her big brother in secret.

Charlotte intended to bravely fight the coldness of the water, so Victoria tried to push those useless thoughts far away and to seize the day.

"Rob, come with us!" she called while entering the sea.