“I purchased the Angel Ice Cream Parlor on the boardwalk,” Meghan told her. “That’s why we moved here.”
“How lovely. Is that where these are from?” Gloria held up the half-cookie she hadn’t yet eaten.
“Yes. We make ice cream and cookies.”
“Then I’ll definitely be down to try some more.” Gloria winked. “How about your husband? What does he do?”
Meghan swallowed hard, glancing automatically at Isla. “Um, I don’t have a husband.”
“Isla’s dad doesn’t live here?” Gloria asked.
“I don’t have a dad,” Isla said, smooshing the rest of her cookie between her lips. “Just a mom.”
Meghan steeled herself for the judgment that usually came when people asked questions like that.
“So it’s just the two of you?” Gloria beamed. “Like the Gilmore Girls? That’s good, we get to even up the score a bit.”
“The score?” Meghan asked.
“On the tenth floor. I’ve been the only female up here for a while. There are Grant and Kevin in 10D. They got married last year and are finally on their honeymoon.” She shuffled around the letters piled up on her table, pulling out a postcard. “Here they are in Peru, walking the Machu Pichu. They sent me this card, doesn’t it look amazing?” She passed it to Meghan. “They took the picture themselves and then wrote on the back and it printed out in the USA and got sent straight to me. How clever is that? Back when I went on my honeymoon, you had to write them out by hand and get yourself dressed to post the damn things.”
Meghan looked at the card. It was a photograph of ancient ruins, high on a mountain. Two men were grinning at the camera, their eyes covered with mirrored sunglasses, their thumbs held aloft.
“They look like they’re having fun. When are they back?” She’d have to make more cookies for them.
“Not until August. They’re trekking around South America.” Gloria put the card back on her pile of letters. “But if they email, I’ll tell them you’ve moved in.”
“How about 10A?” Meghan asked. “Is that another couple?”
“Oh no. That’s the Hot Doc.” Gloria lowered her voice. “That’s what Grant and Kevin call him, though his real name is Richard Martin. He works at Saint Vincent’s Hospital in the Emergency Room. Comes and goes at all hours of the day.”
Meghan lifted her eyebrows. “I guess it’s useful having a doctor living nearby. In case of accidents.”
“I guess so. He’s a good boy, but he works too hard.” Gloria shrugged. “But you all do nowadays. It’s as though your generation has forgotten how to have fun. My son’s the same. He’s living in London now, working for Citibank, and he never takes time off. When I was a twenty-something, we knew how to have fun.” She grinned. “But that was in the seventies. Everything was fun then.”
“I know how to have fun,” Isla piped up. “I like playing in the pool and at the park.”
“I bet you do. You’ll have to come down to the pool with me sometime,” Gloria said, grinning at Isla. “I do the best cannonballs you’ve ever seen.”
Meghan tried to imagine Gloria cannonballing into the pool, and she couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Finishing up her glass, she put it on the table and glanced at Isla. “Well that sounds like a blast. But first we have to finish unpacking. Thank you so much for the drinks.”
“Thank you for the cookies.” Gloria winked. “And welcome to the madhouse.”
What a sweetie she was. Meghan couldn’t help but feel that she’d lucked out with her neighbors. The fun and unpredictable Gloria, plus the well-travelled Grant and Kevin who she’d hopefully meet next month.
Not to mention the Hot Doc from Saint Vincent’s, whose real name she’d already forgotten. She’d better check the buzzers and remind herself before she called him the wrong thing.
It had been two days since they’d moved in and Meghan still hadn’t met her other new neighbor. Meghan eyed the bag of cookies that she’d brought home from Angel Ices today – the third bag she’d made up this week. She didn’t want to just leave them outside his door with a note, that felt weird. Plus, who would eat cookies somebody left outside their door? She wouldn’t. They could be poisoned, or stale, or covered in dirt from the floor. No, better to take them over and introduce herself.
If he was ever home.
Isla was watching cartoons in her pajamas, her hair wet and braided after her evening bath. She was twiddling the tail of her hair between her thumb and forefinger, her legs crossed in front of her on the sofa as she leaned toward the flickering screen.
There was a beautiful flower arrangement on the coffee table, with pale white roses and tiny ivory spray flowers contrasted against shiny dark palm leaves. Gloria had brought it over when Meghan and Isla had arrived back earlier that evening, telling Meghan that the bouquet was from her, Grant, and Kevin, who’d insisted on welcoming her to the floor even though they were in another country right now.
She smiled at their thoughtfulness. Gloria had given her their email address, and Meghan had sent them a quick thank you email and introduction.
It was weird how excited she was to meet them.