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Mara's waist. Aside from a few snide mentions about the hundred-thousand-square-foot "Frankenstein Castle" the Reynoldses were building in East Hampton, the accompanying article was nearly identical to one about her and Ryan from the summer before, detailing how the sexy young couple had been caught canoodling at the hottest club of the season. Canoodling? She'd only been sitting on his lap! Okay, so maybe he'd nuzzled her neck a little. . . .
A pit formed in her stomach. She wondered if Ryan had been the one to leave the paper on the table. She picked up and sniffed a half-empty cup sitting next to the paper. Green tea. Ryan was only one in the Perry household who drank green tea.
Just then, Sugar walked in, panther-skinny and sweaty from a morning yoga session. The same two-man camera crew from last night followed her.
"Oh, hi," Sugar said. "Is that Page Six?" She walked over to read over Mara's shoulder. Sugar looked up from the picture and regarded Mara thoughtfully. "You guys should hang out with me and Charlie some time."
One of the Perry twins being nice to her? Mara couldn't believe it. Last summer Sugar hadn't even been able to remember her name. She'd called her Marta or Maria or Mary.
"We're having a party on his yacht next weekend. Close friends only. Bring Gar. It'll rock."
"Yeah, maybe," Mara mumbled as Sugar shrugged and smiled into the cameras, tossing her hair back and puffing out her chest.
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"C'mon, guys," Sugar told the crew. "Meet me in the outdoor shower."
Mara stared at Page Six, wondering if there was any way Ryan would want to talk to her after seeing that picture. That was the thing about pictures--they were worth a thousand words, but sometimes they weren't the right ones.
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nothing spells love like a car full of goody bags
AT END OF THE FOLLOWING WEEK, MARA MADE HER
way to the screening room for the first weekly progress meeting. Jacqui and Philippe were supposed to join her as soon as they returned from taking the boys to some kind of boot camp for the day. The two of them were obviously getting friendly and liked to do chores together if they could.
Mara planned to complain about Dr. Abraham at the meeting. He'd lectured her when she'd given Cody a hug after he'd stubbed his toe, telling her direly, "Positive reinforcement after a painful experience is unlikely to build character," and then asked her if she knew how he could get a VIP table at Seventh Circle a few minutes later. There was something off about the guy.
After sitting in the dark for fifteen minutes, it became clear to Mara that neither Anna nor Kevin would materialize. No surprise there. The meetings were something Anna had insisted upon last summer as well, even though neither she nor Kevin ever attended. Mara shrugged and walked out of the room.
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Madison and Zoe were waiting for her to take them to yoga.
They walked out the front door to see a large delivery truck parked in the Perrys' driveway. Several uniformed workers were unloading racks of clothing as well as dozens of black shopping bags with pink tissue paper sticking out of the top. An overly tanned, clothes-hanger-skinny woman in a white tank top that read YOUR BOYFRIEND WANTS ME and low-riding blue jeans was directing the action.
"What's going on?" Mara asked Laurie, who was surveying the spectacle with a caustic eye.
"I'm not sure, but I think it's for you," Laurie said.
"Hi! Mara Waters? Mitzi Goober!" the woman in the white tank top said, saying her last name with a Frenchified lilt, so it sounded like "Giubaire" rather than the name of a popular candy. She thrust a muscular and bony arm in Mara's direction. "Wow! I would never have recognized you. You are so much prettier than your pictures!"
"Thanks, I think ..." Mara said, her forehead descending.
She'd thought things would die down after the photo of her and Garrett was published in the Post, but the following week it had popped up in Hamptons, Hamptons Life, Hamptons Living, Hamptons Country, and Hamptons Luxury magazines. She never had a chance to explain the photo to Ryan, since whenever they ran into each other--just that morning they'd bumped into each other in the pool--he basically ignored her. It was heartbreaking how aloof he was, but it did help that Garrett was being so persistent
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about a second date. He'd already sent her so many flowers, the au pairs' room looked like a funeral parlor.
A shot of Mara alone, in the lavender Zac Posen dress, had ultimately ended up on the party page of Vogue, under the heading Lilac Ladies, between a photo of Jennifer Connelly in a bow-tied lavender Chloe dress and one of Aerin Lauder in a purple Valentino shift. Mara ha
d been back in the Hamptons for two weeks, but already she was eliciting stares of barely concealed jealousy, or just plain curiosity, everywhere she went. She felt like a freak and a fraud: There she was, in the pages of a glossy magazine posing in Jacqui's designer dress, while in reality, she was schlepping the kids to the dentist, wiping Cody's bottom, and trying to coerce Madison into eating something more than clear chicken broth and nonfat string cheese.
"Anyway, dollink, as I was just explaining to your assistant here . . ." Mitzi was saying.