Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

25

description

Julia and Joe Ferraro are living the good life in Manhattan now that Joe’s finally made it; he’s the star of a hit TV show and has just been nominated for a Golden Globe. Even better, Julia and Joe are still madly in love. Or so Julia thinks until the fateful evening when she accidentally hears a voice mail on Joe’s phone—a message left by a sultry-sounding woman who clearly isn’t just a friend. Suddenly Julia is in a tailspin, compulsively checking Joe’s messages, stalking him in cyberspace, and showing up unannounced on his sets, wondering all along if she should confront him.

Transcript of Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

Page 1: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt
Page 2: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

p ra i s e f o r

[ Outtakes from a Marriage ]. . .

“Leary, wife of Denis, spins her inside knowledge into a sparkling debutnovel . . . a bittersweet tale about love, marriage, and the perils of fame.”

—People

“Ann Leary’s Outtakes from a Marriage is a sly domestic comedy with a razoredge. The author has a keen eye for the excesses of the rich and famous. . . .Her experience as a bystander at the celebrity circus serves her well in thisengaging variation on the old theme of marital infidelity.”

—Boston Globe

“Leary mines the laughs with her knowing New York-set story.”

—New York Post (Required Reading)

“Leary . . . has an eye for the comedy of manners of the rich and idle.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Fun, yet not too fluffy, debut novel. This glimpse of Hollywood glitz andglamour, coupled with a dose of reality, is an addictive and delightful read.”

—Library Journal

“How does a free spirit–turned-wife and mother cope with her actor hus-band’s infidelity? . . . with tears, irreverent humor, and, ultimately, a reaf-firmed sense of self. . . . [Outtakes from a Marriage] is a witty take on maritalsurvival in Manhattan—with heart.”

—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Outtakes from a Marriage is a ruefully funny novel about adultery, family,and the good memories that get people through hard times. Ann Leary is asharp observer of domestic life and celebrity culture.”

—Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher

Lear_9780307405773_2p_all_r1.pdf1 1/30/09 2:16:11 PM - 1 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_2p_all_r1.pdf1 1/30/09 2:16:11 PM - 1 - ( )

Page 3: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

“Memo to all men: Read this book. You’ll rejoice in its searing honesty andcrackling wit. You’re sure to learn something about marriage, aboutwomen, and, above all, about yourself as women see you. And women?You might see this book as a mirror where you discover yourself. You’llknow (I think: I’m only a man) how Ann Leary so often hits the nail on thehead. I envy all who haven’t read this book. They’re in for a treat.”

—Frank McCourt, author of Angela’s Ashes and Teacher Man

“Outtakes from a Marriage is a hilarious, moving, and addictive novel—onceI started reading I couldn’t stop. This terrific book belongs on the shelf nextto Nora Ephron’s Heartburn for its dead-on accurate and altogether humanportrayal of a very public wife.”

—Dani Shapiro, author of Black and White and Slow Motion

“I loved it. I loved Julia—her strength, her vulnerability, and her realism—and I loved Ann Leary’s stingingly sharp observations of marriage and moth-erhood. I can’t even say it works as a stunning first novel, because it is farbetter than that. Ann is truly a writer with enormous talent and heart.”

—Jane Green, author of Second Chance

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf2 1/20/09 2:21:40 PM - 2 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf2 1/20/09 2:21:40 PM - 2 - ( )

Page 4: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

[ Outtakes from a Marriage ]

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf3 1/20/09 2:21:40 PM - 3 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf3 1/20/09 2:21:40 PM - 3 - ( )

Page 5: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

A l s o b y A n n L e a ry

. . .

An Innocent, a Broad

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf4 1/20/09 2:21:40 PM - 4 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf4 1/20/09 2:21:40 PM - 4 - ( )

Page 6: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

Ou ttakes[ f r o m a ]

Marriage

[ a n o v e l ]

A n n L e a r y

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf5 1/20/09 2:21:41 PM - 5 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf5 1/20/09 2:21:41 PM - 5 - ( )

Page 7: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to

actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2008 by Ann Leary

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of

the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

Three Rivers Press and the Tugboat design are registered trademarks

of Random House, Inc.

Originally published in slightly different form in hardcover

in the United States by Shaye Areheart Books,

an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,

a division of Random House, Inc., in 2008.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Leary, Ann.

Outtakes from a marriage: a novel / Ann Leary.

1. Actors’ spouses—Fiction. 2. Adultery—Fiction. 3. Upper East Side

(New York, N.Y.)—Fiction. 4. Domestic fiction. I. Title.

PS3612.E238O98 2008

813’.6—dc22 2007046004

ISBN 978-0-307-40588-3

Printed in the United States of America

Design by Lynne Amft

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First Paperback Edition

Lear_9780307405773_3p_all_r1.pdf6 2/11/09 12:09:35 PM - 6 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_3p_all_r1.pdf6 2/11/09 12:09:35 PM - 6 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 9: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

First of all, he’s a Joe.Dad warned me about this. A different kind of dad might have

said, upon first meeting his daughter’s fiancé, something along thelines of, “Seems like a nice enough fellow.” Or, “What does he dofor work?” My dad chatted with us for a few moments that Aprilmorning in 1987 when we drove all the way up to the Cape to givehim the happy news, then he pulled me aside to offer an urgent, intervention-minded critique. “He’s a Joe if I ever saw one,” hegrumbled, squinting off at some indiscernible point down his dead-end, crushed-shell road. You could tell it pained him to have to sayit. He stroked his thick nose with the crook of his finger in an effortto conceal his words.

“He’s a real Joe,” he emphasized again, wincing slightly, andjust like most Neds are thoughtful and Jakes tend to be sly, Davidssmart and Jacks funny, Joes, according to Dad, are a handful.

He’s a Joe and he’s a Leo, he’s part Italian and, if that weren’tenough, he’s starring in a television show. A Joe with his own show

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf9 1/20/09 2:21:42 PM - 9 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf9 1/20/09 2:21:42 PM - 9 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 10: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

is a lethal combination. I see that now, of course, but back then,when I was still in the blinking, gushing, smitten stage of our rela-tionship, I wasn’t alarmed or annoyed by Dad’s dire admonition, hissuperstitious “nameology,” as my brother Neil used to call it. I wasthrilled. He’s a Joe! I told myself. I’ve got myself a real Joe! And hedidn’t have a show then, and nobody but Dad gave a shit what hisname was, and truth be told, I didn’t find him much of a handful atall until many years later, when he was almost out of my grasp.

Now Dad has more or less lost touch with reality. He lives at theVA hospital in Bedford, Mass. He’s got Alzheimer’s with a little wetbrain thrown in. But even though he usually forgets who the kidsand I are, he always remembers Joe.

“Joe Ferraro,” he says when he catches a glimpse of him on theTV at the VA home, where he’s known to his nurses not as RalphManning, but as Joseph Ferraro’s father-in-law.

“A real Joe, the son of a bitch,” my father says. And he knowsone when he sees one.

2 a n n l e a r y

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf10 1/20/09 2:21:42 PM - 10 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf10 1/20/09 2:21:42 PM - 10 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 11: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

[o n e ]

Joseph Ferraro.”The two words rose above the restaurant din from one of the ta-

bles behind me, rose up and out of the dull white drone of late-night chatter and the chink of fork upon china and the distanthalf-drowned tracks of a forgotten Hindi-jazz CD. Had they beenany other two words, they might have become part of the ambientclamor that surrounds each table at Pastis like a protective garment,allowing its occupants to speak of love or desire or deals or just toleisurely gossip, as Karen Metzger and I had been doing for the pastfive minutes. It was Wednesday night at Pastis, we were celebratingJoe’s Golden Globe nomination with the Metzgers, and the guyshad gone outside for a smoke.

“This is amazing, Julia, you have to try it,” Karen said. She washacking away at a mound of hard hazelnut ice cream. “Here. Tryit,” she said, tapping the plate with the tip of her spoon. Then shecarved out one more little bite for herself.

“I just saw him, he’s standing outside smoking. Right outside

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf11 1/20/09 2:21:42 PM - 11 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf11 1/20/09 2:21:42 PM - 11 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 12: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

the door.” It was the same man’s voice behind me, eager and disbe-lieving.

“I know. We saw that guy, but we don’t think it’s him. Helooks too small.” This was a girl. A tipsy girl. And young, that wasclear. She divided the word small into two syllables and thendropped the second syllable an octave, just the way my daughter,Ruby, and her friends did when they spoke to one another.

“Everybody looks smaller in real life,” said the guy. “Ever seenTom Cruise? Guy’s a dwarf. Ever seen Al Pacino, Sean Penn? Pyg-mies!”

I shot Karen a look of startled amusement but she hadn’t heardhim. She was shaving tawny ice-cream crescents onto her spoon andreexamining, in a tone that was rising with shrill indignation, the“perfect storm” that had swept her husband Brian’s just-releasedfilm to the bottom of the box-office charts, where it clung, batteredby reviewers, looking for a dignified and timely route to next sea-son’s DVD releases.

“The studio was out to lunch on this one,” Karen said. “AndSophie Wilkes just can’t act. A director can only do so much.”

“I don’t know, I think she’s all right,” I said. “Everybody likedher in that movie about the teacher. Didn’t she win the Oscar?”

“That was a fluke. She’s awful. Why aren’t you eating this?”Karen pushed the ice-cream plate to my side of the table and thenshe stared at it, wistfully.

“Go ahead,” I said. “I like it when it’s a little melted.” I slid theplate back to her. “Can I use your phone?” My phone was in mypurse, dead.

Karen took one last swipe at the ice cream and then she plungedher arm up to her elbow into the oversized Balenciaga tote thathung from the back of her chair. She probed the depths of that two-thousand-dollar handbag, biting her lip and staring straight

4 a n n l e a r y

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf12 1/20/09 2:21:42 PM - 12 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf12 1/20/09 2:21:42 PM - 12 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 13: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

ahead, and I was reminded of a young English veterinarian I had re-cently seen on a television show, struggling to extract an unborn calffrom the womb of its desperate mother.

“I can use Joe’s phone when he comes back,” I offered.Karen frowned for a moment, thrusting her arm slightly deeper,

and I could see the bulge of her knuckles as they rolled along thesupple leather walls of the bag. There was the muffled tumbling ofkeys and coins and then she extracted the phone triumphantly.

“And I told Brian not to cast Gregory Mason. He’s just too gay.Nobody believes him when he plays a romantic lead.” Karen heldthe phone at arm’s length and squinted at the screen. Then shehanded it to me.

“Greg Mason’s gay?”“Julia . . . yes. Everybody knows this.”“Wait. I know somebody who dated him. A girl.”“Nonetheless. Giant fag.”“No . . .” I said, laughing helplessly, but Karen interrupted

me. “When they were shooting the scenes in Thailand, Greg hada parade of local working boys wandering in and out of his trailerevery day. Ask Brian!” she said when I gave her a look. “And lis-ten to this. We invited him out to Southampton one weekend andhe brought tasteful gifts for me, the kids . . . even the dog.” Karenwas whispering now because Joe and Brian were heading back tothe table.

“What straight man is that thoughtful?” she murmured as Ibegan to punch out my phone number.

“Well, I hear Tim Robbins is thoughtful. . . .”“Julia . . . Gregory Mason brought an Hermès collar for

Waffles.”My thumb gleefully hit the last four numbers. An Hermès collar

for poor old Waffles!

o u t t a k e s f r o m a m a r r i a g e 5

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf13 1/20/09 2:21:43 PM - 13 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf13 1/20/09 2:21:43 PM - 13 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 14: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

The Nextel recording prompted me to enter my security code,and as I tapped it in, I watched Brian and Joe make their waythrough the crowded room. I recall, now, that Joe wore his “Yes,it’s me” expression—a shy half-smile, his gaze fixed just above thenudges and hungry glances that carried him along like a gentlewave. From behind me the man said, “I toldja! Joe Ferraro,” andthen Joe Ferraro himself, grinning broadly now, slid into the chairbeside me.

“Jesus Christ, we could hear you girls cackling all the way out-side.”

“I love it,” said Karen. “We were cackling, Julia, like a pair ofwitches.”

“A pair of well-toned witches,” said Brian.“I prefer sorceress,” I said, kissing Joe on the lips. “Somehow it

sounds so much more attractive than witch.”“They both sound evil. And sexy,” said Joe. “Who are you

calling?”“My voice mail. I just want to see if Ruby or Catalina called. . . .”

I stopped talking then because the first message was playing.“Hi, babe,” said a woman’s voice.Who? The voice was Southern, I knew that at once. Just from

those two words I knew.“Thanks for the message. I can’t believe you had to ask if I’m happy,

baby, you know I am.Where are you, Joey?”Who?I leaned away from Joe and he raised an eyebrow. “Everything

all right?”I nodded slowly, listening.“I want to see you, babe.”“Is it Catalina?” Joe asked, and I nodded again, still listening.

6 a n n l e a r y

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf14 1/20/09 2:21:43 PM - 14 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf14 1/20/09 2:21:43 PM - 14 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 15: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

Joe turned to Karen and Brian. “You know, the first nightCatalina babysat for us we thought she stole Ruby?”

“I’m horny as a motherfucker,” said my mysterious confessor.My face burned. I felt waves of what must have been blood and

adrenaline surging across my chest, shooting upward and thenpounding against the top of my head. I was vaguely aware that Joehad launched into his “how we thought Catalina stole Ruby” anec-dote. It’s one of his favorites.

“We never left Ruby with a sitter before that night because wewere completely broke,” Joe began, and he shot me a little smile ashe always did when recalling something from the days when wecouldn’t eat at places like this, couldn’t afford cell phones or babysit-ters, couldn’t really even afford a baby—though we had gone aheadand had one, anyway.

“. . . and Julia was out of her mind with anxiety about leavingher.”

It’s true. In those days, we either stayed home or took Ruby out with us. But when she was almost a year old, Joe got his firststarring role in an off-Broadway show and I wanted to go to openingnight. So I asked Carlos, our super, if he knew any experiencedbabysitters.

“Somebody honest and reliable and caring” is what I told Carlos,but what I was thinking was, Somebody who won’t smack the baby, orsteal the baby, or hurl the baby against the wall in a crack-induced frenzy.Carlos recommended his sister Catalina, who looked nice enoughwhen she arrived. She was a short, middle-aged woman with anenormous bosom and a warm, shy smile. Her English wasn’t greatthen, and this is the part of the story where Joe likes to announcethat although I had boasted for years about speaking conversationalSpanish, it turned out only to be true if the conversation is limited

o u t t a k e s f r o m a m a r r i a g e 7

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf15 1/20/09 2:21:43 PM - 15 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf15 1/20/09 2:21:43 PM - 15 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 16: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

to greeting words. After saying hola and cómo estás, Catalina and I juststood there grinning nervously at each other.

“Miss, where is the baby?” Catalina finally asked, and then shelaughed with delight when she saw Ruby smiling up at us from herhigh chair behind me. For some reason I had been blocking herfrom Catalina’s view with my body.

“¡Que linda!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands and winking atRuby, and Ruby laughed and clapped her hands along withCatalina. She is linda, I thought to myself. How can we go out andleave our beautiful, linda daughter here with a complete stranger?But we did leave her there. We left her laughing and clapping withCatalina, and although I tried to get Ruby’s attention as we walkedout the door, she didn’t seem to notice we were leaving.

“I like that the babysitter is older,” I said to Joe in what I hopedwas a breezy, casual tone on the way down in the elevator. I wasclutching the handrail and forcing myself to breathe. She’s not astranger. She’s Carlos’s sister.

“She seems nice,” said Joe. And then he stepped right up behindme and pulled me close, his arms traversing my chest and his faceburied deep in the curve of my neck. “I’m really, really fuckin’nervous,” he whispered into my hair, and I said, shakily, “I know.Me too.”

Joe stiffened then and said, “I mean I’m nervous about theshow.”

“I know,” I lied. “Me too.”After the show, there was a cast party at a bar on Bleecker

Street, and I walked over with Joe’s agent, Simon. Joe arrived a lit-tle later with the cast and it was a great party. A grown-up party! Ihadn’t been out at night in ages, and now here I was with peoplewho talked about things like auditioning and making art and finding

8 a n n l e a r y

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf16 1/20/09 2:21:44 PM - 16 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf16 1/20/09 2:21:44 PM - 16 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 17: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

a drummer for their band. Nobody talked about weaning and Fer-berizing babies, everybody raved about Joe’s performance, and I washaving the time of my life. Within minutes I was doing things Ihadn’t done in ages—flirting, smoking, drinking—and it was agood hour before I told Joe that I wanted to call Catalina and checkon the baby.

“I’ll call,” said Joe, and he found a pay phone in the back. Iwatched him dial the number, and then the man next to me startedtalking about Joe. It was somebody from the New York Times. TheTimes! I introduced Joe when he returned, and after he talked to thewriter for a minute, he turned to me and said, “We have to go.”

“Everything all right?” I asked, and Joe said, “Sure,” but whenwe went outside and got into a cab, he told me that nobody had an-swered the phone when he called. He had called twice. No answer.

“Now, don’t freak out,” Joe said. “I’m sure they’re fine.”I was bent over, jackknifed, hugging my knees, breathing in . . .

and out.“Maybe they went out for a walk,” Joe said, and I considered

this. I thought about Catalina putting Ruby in her stroller. I imag-ined Catalina and Ruby riding the elevator down to the lobby andthen casually strolling outside, where Catalina would place babyRuby in a van driven by men wearing masks. I thought about Rubycrying for me as they drove across the Triborough Bridge to . . .who knew where . . . dark, wretched baby-selling lands . . . Rubyand Catalina and the men wearing masks.

Breathing in . . . and . . . out.But Catalina didn’t sell Ruby! When we threw open the door of

our apartment, we found Catalina sitting happily on the couchwatching Spanish television. Ruby was asleep in her crib. I had un-plugged the phone that afternoon while Ruby and I napped and had

o u t t a k e s f r o m a m a r r i a g e 9

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf17 1/20/09 2:21:44 PM - 17 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf17 1/20/09 2:21:44 PM - 17 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 18: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

forgotten to plug it back in. We all laughed with relief over the con-fusion and Catalina told me about a home remedy she thought Ishould try for Ruby’s cough. Something to do with honey and milkand warm, weak tea that she had used for her own children whenthey were babies in Nicaragua. Now I thought about Catalina as wesat there crowded around that cluttered table at Pastis, Karen andBrian and Joe and me. I thought about how I had wanted to climbinto Catalina’s lap that night thirteen years ago, how I had wantedto climb into her lap and be cradled in her plump arms like a baby.In my ear was horny this and motherfucker that.

This girl is young, I thought. Just listen to the mouth on her.

If I had charged my phone the night before that dinner with theMetzgers—if I had made it a habit to just plug it in each night, as Joehad repeatedly advised me, I might never have heard her breathy sextalk, that fresh, foul purr that poured into my ear like contaminatedrunoff. And who knows, I might have gone on forever like that.Unaware. But I hadn’t charged my phone. Instead, I left it in thatold red nylon bag—that ugly old red bag that hung from the back ofSammy’s stroller. Just left it there, turned on, until the wallpaperphotograph of Joe’s smiling face on the screen slowly faded to black.

For the record, I didn’t mean to dial Joe’s number that night. Itwas an accident, I don’t care what Joe says. It was out of habit—Icalled Joe a lot, and I rarely dialed my own number. And our cellphone numbers are almost identical. Mine ends with 8804 and hisends with 8803, but it wasn’t until that night at Pastis that I discov-ered we both had the same code to access our messages. The PINnumber is what it’s called, and 7829 was the number we had usedfor our ATM cards ever since Ruby was born.

10 a n n l e a r y

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf18 1/20/09 2:21:45 PM - 18 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf18 1/20/09 2:21:45 PM - 18 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 19: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

It was RUBY on any keypad.7829.It was our daughter’s first name, but in numerical form it had

become the sentinel for most of the other things we held dear—ourwealth, our safety, our privacy. It was my AOL password and myPayPal code, and as Joe’s success grew, it was how we accessed ouronline mutual funds and individual investment accounts. When webought our beach house, it became the code for the alarm system.Once Sammy was born, I had tried to use his name, 72669, forother codes—it seemed like the fair, impartial thing to do—but Icould never remember when to use each child’s name, so I used7829 for everything. I typed it in as my code when Joe’s assistant,Catherine, gave me my new cell phone, and apparently that’s whatJoe typed into his phone, too.

I borrowed Karen’s phone again before we left the restaurant. Iwent to the ladies’ room and I dialed Joe’s number. I held on to thesink, punched in 7829, and there she was.

“Hi, babe, thanks for the message. I can’t believe you had to ask if I’mhappy, baby, you know I am. . . .”

Half an hour later, I stood in our kitchen, in the dark. Joe wastaking a shower and I tapped out the code one more time.

7829.My thumb knew exactly where the numbers were. I didn’t have

to look.“I’m horny as a motherfucker. . . . I just thought you should know that,

baby.”That lilting, sultry voice. Southern, that’s for sure. And the

mouth on her.Then, the crisp, automated female voice. My familiar Nextel

friend: “To repeat this message, press eleven.”

o u t t a k e s f r o m a m a r r i a g e 11

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf19 1/20/09 2:21:45 PM - 19 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf19 1/20/09 2:21:45 PM - 19 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 20: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

11.“Hi, babe, thanks for the message. I can’t believe you had to ask if I’m

happy, baby, you know I am. . . .”“Julia,” Joe called from the bedroom, “are you coming to bed

or what?”“Shhh! Joe! You’ll wake the kids! I’ll be there in a minute.”“To repeat this message, press eleven.”11.“Hi, babe, thanks for the message. I can’t believe you had to ask if I’m

happy, baby, you know I am. . . .”It was 1:33. The digits on the microwave clock emitted a minia-

ture aura—a pale emerald haze that seemed to hang in the air in thedark. The refrigerator hummed lazily and every few seconds thefreezer tumbled ice. From the street below came the sound of tworaised voices, one singing in a hollow, drunken tone, the other in-explicably yelling, “Hey! . . . Hey!”

“I’m horny as a motherfucker. . . .” said the voice in my ear.“Hey!” cried the voice from the street. “HEY!”

The Golden Globe nominations had been announced live, on na-tional television, two weeks before our dinner with the Metzgers.The announcement was scheduled for eight-thirty, during themorning news shows, which was the same time that our son,Sammy, was supposed to be at preschool. It was the last day ofschool before the holidays, and at first I had considered sendingSammy to school with Catalina. Then I decided to take him myself—I wanted to be distracted from the excruciating suspense ofit all. This wasn’t the first time there was a lot of hype surroundingJoe and his show. The year before, I woke up early and waited threehours for the announcements. All the critics had insisted that Joe

12 a n n l e a r y

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf20 1/20/09 2:21:45 PM - 20 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf20 1/20/09 2:21:45 PM - 20 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 21: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

deserved it, that he was guaranteed a nomination. Although Joewent off to the gym, so as not to “jinx” himself, I had watched themorning news with a sense of impending glory, the phone on mylap, ready to dial Joe the second his name was called out. I watchedthe new 007 guy and America’s Sweetheart read off the list of nomi-nees, and when they skipped Joe altogether, I honestly thought theyhad made a mistake. I sat there and watched for several minutes be-fore the network switched back to the regular broadcast and then Imade the unhappy call to Joe, but he already knew. He had beenrunning in front of the TV. I imagined his shoulders sagging withdisappointment and his feet slowing down on the rushing treadmillwhen they announced the other nominees, and I wondered if hewas carried backward, just for a moment, before he was able to regain his stride. A week later, on Christmas morning, Ruby pre-sented Joe with a Golden Globe award she had made out of papier-mâché, carefully replicating the trophy from a photo she found onWikipedia. She had painted a bronze-colored plaque on the Styro-foam base and etched in the words “Best Performer in the Role ofFather.” Joe had displayed it proudly on a bookshelf, where it re-mained for several months, but at some point it ended up in a toybox (four-year-old Sammy sometimes used it as a sword), and thatwas the last I saw of it.

This year I had opted for a different tack. Joe wanted to watchthe announcements live, and I decided I’d rather be told the news,so we planned to meet for breakfast afterward. I was looking at my menu when he arrived at our favorite neighborhood spot. Iwasn’t really reading it, just using it as a diverting focal point, andwhen I glanced up, there he was, a Yankees cap pulled down lowover his eyes, moving between tables, ducking around waitressesand waiters.

Christmastime . . . is here, chimed the child-chorus from the

o u t t a k e s f r o m a m a r r i a g e 13

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf21 1/20/09 2:21:45 PM - 21 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf21 1/20/09 2:21:45 PM - 21 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 22: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

recording of A Charlie Brown Christmas that the diner had been play-ing every day for the past week.

A man seated at a nearby table called out, “Hey, Joey Ferraro!How’s it goin’?” and Joe nodded at him. “It’s going great, man,thanks.”

Then he sat down beside me and glanced up from under thebrim of his cap, grinning.

“Oh . . . my . . . God,” I said slowly, reacting to his grin withmy own. I bit my lip, searching his eyes cautiously, but I knew.

“I got it.”“I knew you would!” I cried, and Joe grabbed the seat of my

chair and pulled it right up next to his. He kissed me, and when helet me go, I was blinking back tears and laughing.

“I wish I saw them announce it,” I said. “I should have hadCatalina take Sammy to school. Who else was nominated?”

“I need a coffee. Where’s the waitress? I’m starving,” said Joe, asif it were just another day, but then he placed his palms down on thetable and pushed his shoulders back, causing his chair to tilt up ontoits hind legs, and he grinned at the ceiling for a moment. He rockedforward a few seconds later, letting the chair slam back onto allfours, and he beat the table like a bongo drum. “I’m fucking starv-ing.”

We ordered our breakfast from Zara, the waitress who had beenserving us breakfast for years, and Joe told me about turning on theToday show just seconds before his nomination was announced.

“I thought I missed it, but I turned it on and the category theywere announcing was for Best Actor, TV Drama. I was the firstname they read. Joseph Ferraro. The Squad.”

“When do we go to L.A.?” I asked.“I think the show is on January 22. It’s a Sunday. We’ll proba-

bly go out Friday.”

14 a n n l e a r y

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf22 1/20/09 2:21:46 PM - 22 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf22 1/20/09 2:21:46 PM - 22 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 23: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

“The twenty-second is Dad’s birthday,” I said. “You know Ilike to take the kids up to see Dad on his birthday.”

“So go see him the weekend after,” Joe said. “He won’t knowthe difference.”

“Yeah,” I said. And it really wouldn’t make any difference toDad. He thought Gerald Ford was the president and that I was mar-ried to an astronaut. He told me that the last time I visited, told mehow proud he was. I had asked one of the nurses if I should try tocorrect him when he was confused like that, and she just shruggedand said, “Nah, what’s the point? It’s easier on everyone if you justgo along. Act as if.”

By the time Zara brought our eggs, Joe had shut off the ringeron his phone, but it continued to vibrate nonstop, and he wouldlook at the caller ID each time and tell me who was calling withoutanswering. “That’s Scott.” “It’s somebody from the UK.” “It mustbe Frank.” “Mom.” He smiled each time he checked. “By theway,” he said, popping his last crust of toast into his mouth, “BrianMetzger called right after the nominations. He just wrapped that sci-fi movie. They want to have dinner.”

“After Christmas,” I said, and then I said, “I’m really proud ofyou, baby.”

He nodded, grinning broadly, drumming the table with hispalms like a teenager.

o u t t a k e s f r o m a m a r r i a g e 15

Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf23 1/20/09 2:21:46 PM - 23 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_1p_all_r1.pdf23 1/20/09 2:21:46 PM - 23 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com

Page 24: Outtakes from a Marriage, by Ann Leary - Excerpt

A b o u t t h e A u t h o r

Ann Leary is the author of a memoir, An Innocent, a Broad, and isthe host of the NPR radio show In House. She and her husband, theactor-writer Denis Leary, live with their two children in northwesternConnecticut.

Visit her at AnnLeary.com.

Lear_9780307405773_4p_misc_r1.pd1 3/12/09 2:07:00 PM - 1 - ( )Lear_9780307405773_4p_misc_r1.pd1 3/12/09 2:07:00 PM - 1 - ( )

www.ThreeRiversPress.com