“Oh, sweetie,” Margaret says. She’s a woman with a comprehensive vocabulary, but that is all she can come up with to say. She is thinking of herself and Kelley at a certain bar in the Village, drinking beer and doing shots, smoking cigarettes, Margaret in jeans and a black turtleneck, Kelley in a fisherman’s sweater; after they played Traffic on the jukebox and paid the bill, they had enough money to split a grilled cheese sandwich at the Greek diner. More tears: what is wrong with her? She remembers that Margaret and that Kelley, that couple, so fondly, like they are dear friends she hasn’t seen in a long time. They were the happiest people she knew. They didn’t need big careers or their own brownstone or piles of money.

“Poor Daddy,” Margaret says. Mitzi has gone and broken Kelley’s heart—although Margaret knows that she broke it first and she broke it best.

“And that’s not even my real problem,” Ava says.

“What is your real problem?” Margaret asks. “Tell me.”

“It’s a long story,” Ava says. “And you must have to go soon?”

It’s five minutes to five. Darcy has suddenly reappeared, indicating that it’s nearly time for Wardrobe and Makeup.

“Please tell me, darling,” Margaret says.

“Nathaniel is in Greenwich, Connecticut, with his family,” Ava says. “His beautiful ex-girlfriend who just got divorced is also there. I’m scared and I’m jealous and I’m lonely. I got on the phone with him and told him I was going to Hawaii with you. I want him to think I’m fabulous, I want to be elusive, I want him to propose, but I’m a straight fail across the board.”

“Ava,” Margaret says, in her serious Mom voice, “you are not a fail.”

“Yes,” Ava says, “I am.”

“I love you, Ava.”

“I love you, too, Mommy. Have fun in Hawaii.” With that, Ava hangs up. Margaret holds the phone for a second. Then, not knowing what else to do, she heads down the hall—toward Wardrobe and the red dress.

AVA

Scott Skyler arrives at six o’clock, and Ava hands him the Santa suit.

“You’re about half the size of George,” Ava says. “I really don’t think this is going to fit you.”

“I’ll make it work,” Scott says. “Don’t worry.”

“You’re a lifesaver and a saint,” Ava says. “I don’t know why you always come to the rescue.”

“Don’t you?” Scott says, and he gives Ava a searing I want you look. He has given Ava this look three or four times before, the first time several years earlier, while sitting at the bar at Lola 41. Ava had been out with her girlfriend Shelby, the school librarian, but Shelby left to pick up her teenage sons, and so Ava was sitting alone when Scott wandered in. He told her he had just been promoted from fifth-grade teacher to assistant principal. This came as such surprising news (elementary schools are petri dishes of gossip; Ava couldn’t believe she hadn’t heard any rumor of the promotion) that Ava threw her arms around Scott’s neck and kissed his cheek.

“I’m so proud of you!” she said. She was three drinks into the night and as such was overly animated. She was also struck by the novelty of seeing Scott Skyler at Lola. Lola was a dark, sexy place that served sushi and ruby red grapefruit martinis; it was a place where Ava normally ran into the divorced parents of her students, not Scott Skyler.

“Thanks,” Scott said. He was a tall guy with superhero shoulders, and that night he’d seemed even taller. He eschewed his usual Budweiser and ordered something called a Poison Dragonfly—and by the time he was at the end of his drink, he was narrowing his eyes in desire at Ava, telling her he was in love with her. He’d been in love with her since the first time he saw her play the piano at school assembly. And even before that! he said. Because he’d attended the Christmas Eve party at the Winter Street Inn with his older sister years earlier, and he’d seen Ava ladling out the Cider of a Thousand Cloves and thought she was the most beautiful creature alive.

Ava scoffed. She thought, The Poison Dragonfly has created a master of hyperbole! She was not the most beautiful creature alive, not by a long shot. She was, like her mother, handsome—or she would be handsome, she supposed, when she got older.

Now Scott is giving her the fired-up look again, and Ava thinks he might try to kiss her. She surreptitiously looks up to make sure she isn’t standing under any mistletoe.

She says to him, “You’re a good egg for coming, Scottie.” She pats him on the shoulder.

He gets it. His face settles into resignation; it’s territory they have covered before. Ava doesn’t reciprocate his feelings. It’s not that she doesn’t want to—she does! She likes him and loves him, she admires him, she thinks he is the owner of a golden heart and an incorruptible character and a solid intellect. He is tall and strong and handsome; he has nice, thick hair, and he looks good in cable-knit sweaters. When he’s using his Assistant Principal Skyler voice, he can silence an auditorium filled with kids; it’s pretty impressive.

But with Scott there isn’t any spark, any juice; that one salient, mysterious ingredient is missing.

“Have you heard from Nathaniel?” Scott asks.

Ava nods. “I broke down and called him.” She pauses, wondering if she should confess that she lied about going to Hawaii and then tried to make it a not-lie by calling Margaret, only to find out that her mother has a doctor named Drake joining her in Hawaii, and, even if she didn’t, it would be really expensive and impractical to include Ava at the last minute.

Ava decides that Scott doesn’t need to know all this. She doesn’t want him to know that she’s resorted to lying to hold on to Nathaniel. “Nathaniel is going over to what’s-her-name’s house. I guess the parents have this cocktail thingy. He said he’ll call me later. Eight or nine.”

Scott gives her a penetrating look that lasts just long enough to throw Ava into self-doubt.

“I’ll go put on the suit,” he says.

And then, Ava remembers her idea!

She has never set anyone up in her life; she knows nothing about it. There used to be a matchmaker on Nantucket named Dabney Kimball Beech. Dabney had been the closest thing Nantucket had to a local celebrity, but she succumbed to cancer in the fall. Dabney set up Ava’s friend Shelby with her husband, Zack, which practically makes Shelby famous—not to mention lucky. Dabney’s matches always stay happily married.