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"Jace works too," she said.
"I make a Manhattan with Maker's Mark," I told her, gesturing at the low square bottle.
Gran turned to me with a raised eyebrow. "That sounds good," she said. "You make it, then. I'm old. I'll sit and watch. But narrate while you do it. I’ll pretend you’re a cabana boy, waiting on me in my private Caribbean cottage.” She raised an eyebrow and gave me a lecherous smile before the expression fell from her face and she let out a sigh. “Never mind, pretending to flirt is exhausting. Just make the drinks, KoKo.”
I laughed, relaxing a little for the first time all night. "Okay," I said, moving to the counter as Gran took a seat at the table.
"Make two," she said. "When you're done we're having a chat."
"Two parts Makers," I said, narrating what I was doing as I poured and mixed. "One part sweet vermouth, and I'm going to use these spiced orange bitters. A couple drops of cherry juice and two Luxardos per glass. Sound good?" I glanced over my shoulder and Gran gave me a huge toothy grin.
Once I'd shaken the drinks and poured them out, I served her one and joined her at the table.
"Cheers," I said, raising my glass.
"Chin chin," she said.
We both sipped and Gran closed her eyes for a long second after taking a drink. Then she bobbed her head once and regarded me through narrowed eyes. "Yes. I like it," she said. "You're all right, Kong."
Pleased to know I'd passed some kind of test, I leaned back a bit, enjoying the sweet burn of the drink as I waited for Gran to tell me what we were going to talk about. I already knew it was going to involve Juliet, I just wasn't sure what she knew or what she might think about it all.
"So," she said. "You don't seem like a complete moron."
A chuckle escaped my lips at what I perceived to be a compliment. "Thanks?"
"But you're sitting in the kitchen, drinking with an old lady, while Juliet is upstairs, upset."
There was no use pretending Juliet was with Ryan, I guessed. "It's complicated," I told her.
"Oh for fuck's sake, you people and your complications." She took another sip, put her glass down, and leaned forward, fixing clear blue eyes on me. "Life is short, Kong. I know I make old look good, but not everyone is so lucky. And if there's one thing I know about Juliet, it's that she won't be alone for long. She hates being alone. That's why she chooses idiots to keep her company. She figures anyone is better than the silence of her own mind.” Gran leaned back again, crossed her arms. "She still have that ridiculous narcoleptic dog?"
I smiled, thinking of Elvis. "She does."
"Surprised she didn't insist on bringing the mutt along."
"He's with my mother, actually."
That stopped Gran cold. Her mouth dropped open. "So. This is serious then." Gran watched me carefully, then took another long sip from her glass. "Tell me."
It wasn't in my nature to talk intimately with people I barely knew, but Gran's invitation—and the Manhattan, and maybe the moonshine—came at the right time. I needed to talk. So I did. I told her I loved her granddaughter. I told her it had been me in her room. When I'd finished, wrapping things up with my confusion over my own feelings, the way Juliet's generosity made me feel small, Gran just nodded.
As she drank the rest of her cocktail and picked up the toothpick holding the cherries, she seemed to be thinking. "Gender roles," she finally said. "When will we ever really be able to let them go?"
I didn’t have an answer, so I sighed, finished my own drink, and waited for her to go on.
"If it had been you saving her family," she said, "we'd have no issues here. If the man is the one with the money, the one who rides in and saves the damsel, everyone's just fucking peachy."
She had a point.
"But you, Grape Ape ... you and every other hulking mountain of man in this country and most of the world ..." she shook her head and looked down at the table, as if disappointed in my reaction before she'd even finished talking. "You can't accept that a woman might be capable of giving you something you couldn't get yourself. And your ego won't let you just say thank you."
"I want to. I know I should ..."
"Look," she said. "This is not complicated. Juliet has a generous and lonely heart. When she sees someone she can help, she helps. She spends half her time and money trying to save the battered women of the world. If you’ve spent any time with her you know that.”
I did know that. I’d gone with her a few times over the last year to the shelter she supported in Hollywood, and I’d heard a few of the conversations she’d had with her accountant as she’d walked through the house. She gave generously.
“And if you leave her,” Gran went on, “because she helped, you'll just be proving what she already believes. That she is destined to be alone no matter what she does. Let me ask you this. If she hadn't helped, could you be together then?"
