Miranda leaned over to Carrie: “Is she talking to her dog or her kid?”
“MARRIED SEX”
Miranda turned to Brigid. “So tell me, Brigid,” she said. “What exactly is it that you do?”
Brigid opened her mouth and neatly inserted a quesadilla triangle. “I work at home. I’ve got my own consulting firm.”
“I see,” Miranda said, nodding. “And what do you consult on?”
“Computers.”
“She’s our sort of neighborhood Bill Gates,” said another woman, named Marguerite, drinking Evian from a wine goblet. “Whenever we have a computer problem, we call Brigid, and she can fix it.”
“That’s so important when you have a computer,” Belle said. “Computers can be so tricky. Especially if you don’t use one every day.” She smiled. “And what about you, Marguerite? Do you have children?”
Marguerite blushed slightly and looked away. “One,” she said a little wistfully. “One beautiful little angel. Of course, he’s not so little anymore. He’s eight, he’s in that real-boy stage. But we’re trying for another.”
“Margie’s on that in-vitro trail,” Jolie said, and then, addressing the room, added, “I’m so glad I got my two over with early.”
Unfortunately, Carrie chose that moment to emerge from the kitchen sipping on a large glass of vodka with two ice cubes floating on the top. “Speaking of rug rats,” she said, “Belle’s husband wants her to get preggers, but she doesn’t want to. So she went to a drug store, bought one of those test kits that tell you when you’re ovulating, and the woman behind the counter was like, ‘Good luck!’ And Belle was like, ‘No, no, you don’t understand. I’m going to use this so I know when not to have sex.’ Isn’t that hysterical?
”
“I can’t possibly be pregnant during the summer,” Belle said. “I wouldn’t want to be seen in a bathing suit.”
Brigid yanked the conversation back. “And what do you do, Miranda?” she asked. “You live in the city, don’t you?”
“Well, actually, I’m the executive director at a cable company.”
“Oh, I love cable,” said a woman named Rita, who was wearing three heavy gold necklaces and sporting a twelve-carat sapphire engagement ring next to a sapphire-encrusted wedding band.
“Yes,” Belle said, smiling sweetly. “We think of Miranda as our own little Bob Pittman. He started MTV, you know.”
“Oh, I know,” said Rita. “My husband is at CBS. I should tell him I met you, Miranda. I’m sure he’d—in fact, I was his assistant! Until everyone found out we were seeing each other. Especially since he was married at the time.” She and the other Connecticut women exchanged glances.
Carrie plunked down next to Rita, accidentally sloshing her with some vodka.
“So sorry,” she said. “I’m so damn clumsy today. Napkin?”
“That’s okay,” Rita said.
“It’s just so fascinating,” Carrie said. “Getting a married man. I would never be able to pull it off. I’d probably end up becoming best friends with his wife.”
“That’s why there are courses at the Learning Annex,” Sarah said dryly.
“Yeah, but I don’t want to take courses with a bunch of losers,” Carrie said.
“I know a lot of people who have taken courses at the Learning Annex. And they’re pretty good,” Brigid said.
“What was our favorite?” Rita asked. “The S&M course. How to be a dominatrix.”
“Well, whipping is just about the only way I can keep my husband awake,” Brigid said. “Married sex.”
Lucy laughed gamely.
SUBURBAN SURPRISE: BIDET
Carrie stood up and yawned. “Does anyone know where the bathroom is?”