The Au Pairs (The Au Pairs 1)

Eliza pretended to be extremely fascinated by the contents of her cocktail glass as she purposefully ignored them.

The two girls stood there as Ryan, Mara, and Jacqui smirked without saying anything.

And with that, they flipped their perfectly Sahag-layered hair and walked away in their four-hundred-dollar shoes, and for the first time Eliza was really, truly happy to see them go. She went back to staring at the bubbles in her glass, thinking about how none of this really mattered to her anymore. How much money she could have saved on bags alone if she'd realized that a few years ago. How she'd give up her Marc Jacobs Stella bag, her orange Tod's purse, her black Prada bag that was the same as Gwyneth's just to have another shot with Jeremy.

And then, as if she'd finally thought the magic words, Jeremy appeared.

"Hey, Eliza," Jeremy said. He was wearing a white valet uniform. He had his hands in his pockets and he looked utterly miserable.

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"Jeremy! What are you doing here?"

"I got a job parking cars," he said.

"Why?"

"I knew you would be here. I wanted to see you," he told her. "You did?" She seemed so small and vulnerable just then, and for once she wasn't trying to be like anything but who she was.

The rest of the table took that as their cue to make a graceful exit. Eliza stood up. She looked into his eyes and saw how much

she'd hurt him.

"I didn't want you to leave thinking that I didn't care," he said.

Her eyes misted with tears. Real tears this time. She wanted to jump into his arms, wipe that awful, wretched look off his face, and tell him that nothing mattered--it didn't matter that they had been apart for so long--what was important was that he was here now.

So that's exactly what she did.

Eliza leapt from her seat and threw herself in his arms, in front of Puffy, Demi, Leo, and her two ex-friends.

Caught off guard, Jeremy fell backward, and the two of them tumbled on the grass, hugging and kissing and smiling at each other. Screw the Versace dress--she was with Jeremy.

"Oh my God ... what the hell! Is that Eliza kissing the valet?" Lindsay asked, an eyebrow raised.

"You know what, he is kind of cute," Taylor allowed.

And finally they started to see: Eliza knew something they didn't.

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it's called Karma

Jacqui smiled at Eliza and Jeremy. Mara and Ryan were cuddling by the pool, and Jacqui thought she would just slip away. All her friends looked pretty busy. She was thrilled for them but a little sad for herself, too. She certainly hadn't bargained for the kind of summer she had ended up having.

She shook her head at the passing tray of canapes.

But she did help herself to a goody bag at the exit. A crisp white shopping bag emblazoned with the ubiquitous logo contained a white terry cloth robe, terry cloth slippers, and a bottle of Absolut (the party's corporate sponsor that year).

"Leaving so soon?" A very handsome and very familiar-looking guy stopped her on the way to the gates.

"You look even more beautiful when you aren't crying." He smiled. "So I guess your summer ended up getting a lot better?"

It was Nacho Figueroa--the hot Argentinean polo player from the big match!

"Hey! Jacqui, right?" She turned, and standing by the Mister

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