"And who are you thinking for a band?" Georgina asked.
"Well--I know it's a stretch, but do you think we could get Matchbox Twenty to sing at the party?" Jacqui asked.
"Matchbox Twenty?" Eliza gagged. "They're, like, so 1998!"
Mara giggled. Even though she had nothing against the band, Eliza did have a point. It was almost as bad as inviting Sheryl Crow.
"Precisely. That's when they met," Jacqui said. "Anna would die."
"I don't know if we could get the band; I think they might have broken up," Georgina said. "But we could maybe get Rob Thomas to sing one song. I know his wife."
"Excelente. "Jacqui smiled.
Georgina wrote down notes furiously. Then she pulled out a deposit form. "We'll need fifty percent up front and then the rest the day of the party. Sign here."
262
"We've got it covered." Jacqui said smoothly.
They left the wedding planner's office and walked over to a nearby coffee shop.
"So, who's paying for this party?" Eliza wondered.
Jacqui looked sheepish. "I put it on Anna's account. I figured, if it works, they'll thank me for it later. If not, I'm fired anyway."
"Nice." Eliza nodded, impressed.
There was just one problem--Jacqui and Shannon couldn't figure out a way to get Kevin Perry to the Hamptons on the day of the party. After the confrontation at the restaurant and the bad feeling it had engendered, the last place he wanted to be was anywhere near his wife. Worse, Shannon had checked his e-mail account and found that Kevin was planning a trip to the Caribbean in late August--the same time as the party. They had to think of something fast; otherwise Rob Thomas would be singing a divorce dirge rather than a love song.
Later that evening, Jacqui and Ben shared a banana split at the Snowflake diner so she could take care of other unfinished business.
Ben reached over to hold her hand, and Jacqui gently but firmly pushed it away.
"Listen, I have to tell you something," she said. She sighed; this was going to be hard.
But Ben, who was always sensitive to her moods, saved her
263
from the
difficult part. "I already know," he said quietly. "I wish we didn't have to make you choose. It was fun while it lasted. I think we all kind of knew what was going on, but we tried to pretend it wasn't."
"Ben--you guys were right. There's not three of me, and it's not fair to you." She scooped up some fudge-covered ice cream, thought better of it, and put her spoon down again. It seemed rude to eat at a time like this. "I'm sorry," Jacqui said.
"Don't be. I had a great time." Ben smiled. He caressed her cheek softly. "It was worth it."
Jacqui leaned over to kiss him sweetly on the cheek. "Every minute."
264
nicky hilton can do it-why not eliza?
IT WAS THE THIRD WEEK OF AUGUST-SUMMER HAD FLOWN by so quickly. Mara sat at her cubicle at work, marveling at how much she'd learned that year. She was going over the proposed outline for her final column with Sam, who was on the other line yelling at her husband for having bought them tickets to the Caribbean without securing a free first-class upgrade. "Did you tell them who I am? You did? And--they didn't?"
"So, I was thinking, for my final piece--there's this really great new designer who's showing on the beach next week," Mara said when Sam had slammed down the phone. By now, Mara was used to her boss verbally abusing everyone, including her spouse. It was a common occurrence.
"Who is it? Can they send samples?" Sam asked, perking up and sounding completely normal, as if she hadn't been screaming her lungs out just a second ago.