The Goy Next Door (Girl Meets Goy #2)

Chapter 15 Passover predicaments

“Our schedule starts at 4:00 am,” Savannah, Leah’s mother, said on the phone to her. “That’s when I need to get the turkey in the oven and the sweet potatoes roasting if we’re going to have everything ready on time for the seder. I’ll understand if you don’t start helping until 7:00 am. Shira probably will only get home around then! I hope we’ll have everything ready by the time Asher and his family come over! I’ll start reheating everything once we get the seder started.”

“Don’t worry, Mom,” Leah assured her. “I’m sure it will be fine.” Leah never understood her mother’s strict planning and early mornings spent on preparing food for holidays. Was it really impossible to cook an entire Passover seder if you started after 8:00 am? Would the turkey be under-done? Or would there not be enough potato kugel to go around the table? Leah would never know because her mom would never test that out. Every holiday she hosted—which was every holiday—started at 4:00 am on the dot for oven pre-heating which led to the day’s oven schedule that Savannah had designed to ensure that every entre, side dish, and dessert had its fair share of time in the heat.

But that’s why her mom was the head of their temple’s sisterhood. That’s why she could be counted on to organize volunteers, food, and food trains for all the temple’s events and congregants.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, I’ve invited Cindy May to the seder,” Savannah said.

“What? Who is that? Mom! I thought we had agreed on no more random invites!” Leah whined into the phone. Her mom was notorious for her open-door policy when it came to the holidays. Anyone from the synagogue who didn’t have a family to spend a holiday with was welcome, which often meant their house was full of a ragtag of different guests. There was a newly divorced obese man who had just moved to the area at one Passover. A single mom whose 18-year-old daughter refused to come home for Rosh Hashana. An elderly woman who had just lost her husband and didn’t live close enough to her child to get an invite for Hanukkah.

“I know, but Cindy would have been all alone!” Savannah explained. “Cindy just joined the temple. She grew up going to synagogue, but then she got married and they didn’t go and when she got divorced, she decided she wanted to get back into her Judaism. So she joined our temple. She said she wasn’t really in contact with her family and she didn’t have anywhere to go! I had to invite her! She’s really very sweet you won’t even notice her, I’m sure! Anyway, the rumor is that her ex-husband wasn’t Jewish. Maybe she could give you some insights about that. You know, because of…” Her voice trailed off.

“Mom! Stop! I’m sure her ex’s religion wasn’t the only reason they got divorced.” Leah didn’t know why she felt obligated to defend a relationship between a Jew and a non-Jew. After all, her relationship with the non-Jew had ended and there she was, dating the perfect nice Jewish boy that made her mother very happy.

“Sure, not the only reason, but you know, non-Jews have very different values and philosophies about life, so maybe the Jewish thing wasn’t the breaking point, but I’d guess it was at the core of the problem.”

Leah rolled her eyes. “Anyway, Mom, I’ll be on the train after work tomorrow. I’ll get in late, but then I can be up early to help you cook.”

Leah said goodbye and hung up the phone. She liked Passover, she liked all the holidays generally, and enjoyed cooking for them with her mom. But she was feeling slightly hesitant about this one and it wasn’t because of Cindy Man or Mor or whoever it was that her mom had felt the need to include in their holiday.

Leah thought back to the Passover seder that her mother had invited Asher’s family to two years ago. Leah had been a junior in college and Asher a senior. They had been long distance while he studied at USC in Los Angeles and she at Brandeis in Boston. Long-distance had been difficult no matter how many phone calls or texts flew between them. Back then, things always seemed to be better when they had something to look forward to, like winter break, spring break, or summer vacation. It was easier when they could count the days until they’d be reunited. That year Passover fell during their spring break and Savannah thought it a perfect opportunity to reunite their families.

“One day we may spend all the holidays together!” Savannah had said. “We might as well get to know each other now!”

Along with Asher’s family, she’d invited a couple of misfits from the temple including a young woman in the process of converting and an elderly woman whose family had decided to fly to Florida for the holiday. Leah had barely noticed the misfits; she had been so happy to see Asher. And everything felt so perfect, the way their families meshed. Conversation flowed, their moms laughed, and the dads egged each other on for a fifth and sixth glass of wine.

Leah wondered if all holidays from then on could be so perfect. But somehow, she didn’t think this year would be like that. She didn’t feel the same enthusiasm about watching her mom and Asher’s mom giggle and their dads drink.

She packed a small bag with clothes for the holiday and went to sleep that night. She brought the bag with her to work the next morning and stuffed it under her desk. There she researched bikini types for every body and summer reading lists to get through while working on your tan.

When the day ended she grabbed her bag and met Asher at Penn Station where they would take the train upstate to their hometown.

During the train ride, Asher told Leah about his day, but Leah wasn’t really listening. Barely realizing he was still talking, she pulled out the book she was reading from her bag. It was due back at the library in a few days and because there were other holds on it, she couldn’t renew it. She opened it to her bookmark and started reading.

“Earth to Leah!” Asher pinched her shoulder. “Were you even listening to me?”

She looked up at him and was reminded of the first time she and Gabe had taken the subway together and he had read his book instead of talking to her. She hadn’t known then whether or not to be offended. In her enamor of him, she had decided to find it endearing. Asher did not seem to find this at all endearing.

“Geeze, Leah, you could just say you don’t care instead of being rude,” he said and then looked out the window.

She decided not to respond. Better spend this time in the book than in a fight. When the train arrived, they hugged and each went to meet their moms, both of whom were waiting separately in the station parking lot to welcome their children home for Passover.