Katie went out for a while too. She wanted to check out the sales at her favorite stores, and she came back to the apartment shortly before five. Annie was still working at her desk and had been there all afternoon. The doorbell rang a few minutes after Katie got home, and she went to let him in. Annie could hear them talking and laughing in the living room, and Katie had put some music on. It was the Clash, which Annie actually liked.

They had been there for an hour when Annie walked through the room. She was on her way to make a cup of tea and intended to casually say hello, and she smiled at the handsome young man who stood up and held out his hand to shake hers. He was much more polite and poised than Katie’s usual friends. He introduced himself with impeccable manners, and he was wearing a blazer and a tie, which was unheard of among Katie’s cohorts. He was a beautiful young man with jet-black hair and deep honey-colored skin and eyes the color of onyx. Annie realized that he was probably from the Middle East, or maybe Indian, and suddenly she remembered the book about Muslim culture that she had seen in Katie’s room. She had obviously borrowed it from him. And she hadn’t said a word to Annie about him before he came. He was extremely polite as he shook hands with Annie. He seemed very mature for his age, and he was a far cry from Kate’s tattooed and pierced friends from art school who wore drooping jeans and torn T-shirts with uncombed hair.

In an effort to make him feel welcome, Annie offered him a glass of wine, and he smiled and said he would prefer a cup of tea. It was a welcome change from the vast quantities of beer Katie’s friends always consumed when they came to visit.

The two young people followed Annie into the kitchen while she made the tea. Katie helped herself to a Coke, and Paul chatted easily with Annie. As she served him tea, Paul explained that his parents were Iranian, from Tehran, but they had all been in the States since he was fourteen. He said he still had family there but hadn’t been back to his native country for a visit in nine years, since they left, and added that he was an American citizen, as were his parents. He spoke without any trace of an accent and seemed very polished and adult and also very respectful in the way he spoke to Annie. Katie’s eyes shone brightly every time she looked at him, and Annie’s heart fluttered a little as she watched them.

They were young and very sweet, and Paul was clearly a wonderful young man, but Annie was concerned that their cultures were very different. Katie looked like she was in love, and if so, Annie couldn’t help wondering how his parents felt about Katie, with all her pierced earrings and tattoos and her very liberated ways. She was too young to take any romance too seriously, but if in fact she was serious about this, Annie wondered if Paul’s parents were concerned. In terms of their origins, Katie and Paul came from two different worlds. And Katie looked a lot wilder than she was. Annie was used to it and knew what a good kid she was. But for strangers who didn’t know her, Katie’s look could have been quite a shock, particularly for the parents of a boy as polite and conservative-looking as Paul.

All Annie could hope for her was that this was a happy romance but not a lasting relationship that would challenge them too much. But the look in her niece’s eyes said something very different. Annie had never seen her look like this at any boy. And Paul was not a boy, he was a man. Annie could easily see everything that Katie loved about him, but that didn’t mean that a serious relationship between them at their age would be easy. And Annie knew that relationships were challenging enough without adding extreme contrasts to the mix, and backgrounds that were so culturally different in their traditions. It was hard enough to make a relationship work with someone who had grown up in all the same ways.

Annie was still thinking about it when she went back to her room and sat staring at the plans on her desk. She didn’t know what to think-it was the first time she had ever seen her in love, and she was worried for Kate. They were both fine young people, and she didn’t want them to get hurt.

Katie and Paul watched a DVD in the living room and ordered pizza. And Annie didn’t see Paul again before he left. She had quietly closed her door to give them privacy, but she was worried about it all night and had called Whitney to confide in her.

“What are you so freaked out about? She’s not marrying him, for God’s sake,” Whitney scolded her. Talking to her about the kids was always a reality check for Annie. Whitney was always practical and sensible.

“But what if she does marry him? He’s a Muslim. She’s a very rebellious, totally liberated American girl. I’m sure his parents must be concerned about it too, if they’ve met her. Marriage is hard enough without adding cultural and religious differences to it.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, don’t be so old-fashioned. People marry into different cultures all the time. And who says they’re getting married?” Whitney laughed at her and tried to give her some perspective. Annie was already imagining them married. This was Kate’s first serious romance. “First of all, he sounds like he’s totally Americanized. And she’s not marrying him. They’re both kids, and they go to the same school. This is dating, not marriage. She’s twenty-one, and he sounds like he’s intelligent. You said he’s handsome, decently dressed, and has lovely manners. He sounds like a great guy. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. He sounds terrific. And if you want to have a laugh, think of the heart attack they’ll have when his parents see Tweety Bird and Tinkerbell tattooed on her arms, not to mention the ten earrings on her ears. I don’t think they’ll be calling you tomorrow to arrange a marriage. Why don’t you just relax for a while?”

“I’m worried about that too, about his parents, I mean. What if they don’t appreciate what a sweet kid she is and judge her by her looks, which I’ll admit, even scare me at times? I hate her tattoos. And she is serious about this. I can feel it. I know her. I can tell. She’s reading books about his culture,” Annie said in a subdued voice. “That’s fine with me, but not if she’s doing it so she can get married.” Annie was getting way ahead of herself. All she could think of now was the future and the potential difficulty of integrating their two worlds.

“Okay,” Whitney said calmly, “when I was fourteen I wanted to be a nun, and my brother wanted to convert to Judaism so he could have a bar mitzvah, and have a big party to celebrate. None of those things happened, and I don’t think Katie is going to move to Iran. Besides, he’s an American. He probably doesn’t want to live in Iran either, for whatever reason. This is his home now.”

“He says he still has relatives there. An uncle and aunt, and a lot of cousins. What if he moves back and she goes with him?” Annie didn’t want to lose her to anyone, in any country. Katie was still her baby.

“I have a cousin in Iceland,” Whitney added. “I’m not moving there. Annie, you have to let go. You did a fantastic job with them, they’re wonderful and your sister would be proud of you, but they’re grown up. They have to live their own lives and make their own mistakes. Maybe one of them will marry someone you hate one day, but I don’t think any of them are ready to get married yet, not even Lizzie, and she’s old enough. And if they really fuck it up and do make a horrible mistake, which can happen to anyone, from any culture, you still have to sit back and watch from the sidelines. It’s their life. What you need is a life of your own. You can’t hang on to them forever and live theirs or stop them from making mistakes. That’s the deal. Once they grow up, they belong to themselves, not to us. It’s horrible, and I’m going to hate it with my boys when one of them comes home with some raving bitch, but it’s going to be their life, and their turn, not mine. Annie, you’ve got to get a life. You put in sixteen years for them, you fulfilled your vow to Jane and then some. Now get off the bench and get back in the game yourself. I want you to find a guy.”

“I don’t want a guy. I’m happy the way I am. I want them to be happy, and I’m not just going to sit here with my mouth shut if they screw up their lives or make some dumb mistake.”

“You can’t stop them,” Whitney said firmly, and Annie hated hearing it and even more knowing she was right.

“Why not?”

“Because we don’t have that right. It’s not healthy for you, or for them. They’re grown up, whether you like it or not. You made your mistakes, let them make theirs.”

“What mistakes did I make?” Annie asked, sounding surprised.

“You gave up your life for them,” Whitney said gently, and Annie didn’t answer. She had, but it had been the right thing to do at the time, and she had no regrets about it. The last sixteen years had been the best years of her life. And the hardest thing for her to adjust to was that it was over now. She had done her job. It was time to open the cage and let them fly, even if Katie wound up living far away or in a different culture. If that was the choice she made, no one could stop her, nor had the right to. Not even Annie.

“I don’t know if I can just sit back and watch,” Annie said honestly.

“You have no other choice,” Whitney said simply. “Your job is over. They’re going to lead their own lives no matter what.” It was a bitter pill to swallow. It was hard enough living with the empty nest. Watching them make decisions that might cause them unhappiness later was even harder. “You’ve been lucky so far, and you’ve done a good job. I don’t think they’re going to screw it up now. And if they do, you can’t stop them. All you can do is help them pick up the pieces later, if they let you. And Katie could be just as unhappy marrying a guy from Paris or London or New Jersey.”