“Well, not knowing about a tradition doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
“I truly can’t afford a dinner like this,” my mother explained. “I came expecting to pay for my own meal, not three lobster dinners, steaks, and cocktails.”
Clarissa’s expression hardened.
“Perhaps you should have considered that before allowing your daughter to marry into a family with certain standards.”
Those words struck my mother more painfully than the bill itself.
Clarissa was not merely asking her to pay.
She was trying to remind Helen that she considered herself richer, more sophisticated, and more important.
Then the check arrived.
My mother unfolded it with trembling fingers.
The total was more than $1,700.
“I don’t have this kind of money,” she whispered.
Clarissa stood and lifted her purse.
“That isn’t my responsibility.”
Her sisters rose beside her.
Evelyn smiled as she put on her coat.
“It was lovely meeting you.”
The three women walked out together, leaving my mother alone at a table covered with signs of their excess.
Empty glasses.
Crushed napkins.
Lobster shells.
Half-finished side dishes.
And a bill larger than my mother’s monthly mortgage payment.
