Chapter 10
Prudence and Henry Crawford, Lord and Lady Crawford, the Earl and Countess of
Westingham, Geoffrey’s parents, arrived in New York after a two-week quarantine
in Mexico. They were initially appalled at the idea, but decided that a week in Cancún
and a week in Mexico City would be pleasant, and they had friends who had retired in
Cancún because of the low cost of living. In the end, they had a pleasant time, enjoyed
the margaritas, the tequila, the weather, and the low prices, and arrived less than a week
before Gloria and Geoff’s wedding, two days before the bride and groom arrived
themselves. They were holding the wedding at the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in
Southampton. Daphne had arranged it, since she and Phillip were members. It was the
most exclusive hotel in the Hamptons. Eugenia rented the same compound that they’d
had earlier in the month, since it had worked so well and housed all of them. As a
courtesy, she had booked the Crawfords into the Maidstone Inn in East Hampton, which
they found so shockingly expensive they switched to an Airbnb in Bridgehampton and
said they would take Ubers to the various wedding events. Eugenia didn’t offer to have
them stay with her, since she figured she and they would need a breather from one
another. Weddings were stressful, and Eugenia had found the Crawfords overbearing
when she met them. Henry drank a lot and talked incessantly about every relative in his
family tree and how closely they were related to the king or queen, and Prudence was
strident and giddy and asked incessant questions about Gloria’s bloodline. After a
painful dinner two years before, Eugenia had been sorely tempted to invent axe
murderers and criminals in her ancestry. The Crawfords were outspokenly dubious
about the origins of Italian princes, and Henry said that most of them were illegitimate,
which would be good dinner conversation with Umberto at the wedding or rehearsal
dinner. Eugenia still had to get the details of that event from Prudence. She had asked
her repeatedly in emails, which Prudence did not answer. Gloria said that her future
mother-in-law did not use a computer, but Prudence didn’t respond to Eugenia’s
handwritten letters either, on impeccable Cartier stationery with Umberto’s crest on it.
And Eugenia’s family had their own crest, having descended from minor British
aristocrats who had left England centuries before. Eugenia had resisted the temptation at
their first meeting to say that they were probably horse thieves.
The Crawfords had admitted to her that they weren’t fond of Americans, but had
even less regard for Australians, who were originally all convicts. They hated
Catholics, which all of Eugenia’s children were, because of Umberto. Eugenia had
grown up Episcopalian herself, which was very close to the Roman church, but the
Crawfords considered it closer to the Church of England, which worked for them.
During the dinner, they said they took a dim view of the Irish, although Prudence’s
greatgreat-grandmother was an Irish baroness. They declared their total contempt for the
French, and hatred for Germans since Henry’s grandfather had been shot down over
Germany during the war in a bombing raid, but fortunately had already sired Henry’s
father. Spaniards were just as worthless as Italians, only maybe just slightly worse.
They talked about how large their manor house was, how many indentured servants they
had once had, and mentioned a distant relative of Pru’s grandmother who had fought
with Wellington at Waterloo. They dismissed the novel Gloria was writing and were
sure that Geoff’s would be a bestseller, and they never mentioned the fact that Gloria
was supporting him on her meager salary at a London publishing house. Eugenia had a
migraine after the evening. She described it to Daphne and Phillip afterward. He
laughed and said they couldn’t wait to meet them.
Eugenia called the Crawfords at the British club in downtown Manhattan where they
were staying before leaving for the Hamptons. She had never heard of it, and it was a
correspondent of Henry’s London club. She felt she had to call them to be polite, so she
did, and invited them for a drink at her apartment that night. She asked Eloise to join
her, but she was having dinner with friends, and had no desire to meet the parents of a
man she couldn’t stand, whether they were about to be related or not. So Eugenia was
left to face the music alone. She put little French cheese biscuits, pretzels, nuts, and
some other snacks in silver bowls, and quickly changed into a pale blue Chanel linen
suit to greet them. They were half an hour late, and explained that they had gotten off at
the wrong subway stop and wound up in Spanish Harlem.
Prudence was wearing three rows of large fake pearls and a polka-dotted red dress
two sizes too tight that made her look like Minnie Mouse, and Henry was perspiring
profusely in a gray wool suit in hundred-degree weather. Eugenia was amazed they
hadn’t been mugged on the subway. Everything about them screamed “foreign tourists.”
They were looking around the apartment with interest as Prudence handed Eugenia a
tiny brown box with a pink ribbon on it, which she saw rapidly was a box with four
chocolates in it, the kind hotel chambermaids left on your pillow at night when they
turned down the beds, and must have been on their bed at the club when they checked in.
“Sweets for the sweet, my dear,” she said grandly. Her hair was blond mixed with
white, and hung limply around her face after their subway adventure in the crushing
heat. They walked into the living room as Prudence looked around, taking everything in.
“My, isn’t everything so white and modern. How American,” she said, glancing at her
husband, “isn’t it, Henry?” He was admiring the view of Central Park and turned to
smile at Eugenia. “Our park at the manor was about that size originally, of course it’s a
bit smaller now.” His grandparents had sold off everything they could after the war, as
many people had to. Eugenia didn’t mind poverty, but she hated pretentiousness,
especially with nothing to back it up. She knew that Henry had worked at a bank in the
city, and Prudence had been a secretary before they married. Geoff had said it in
passing one night when he was drunk.
They struggled through an hour of inane conversation about the club where they were
staying, which was related to a minor yacht club in London, and then Eugenia finally
brought up the rehearsal dinner.
“I still don’t know where you’re holding it,” Eugenia said politely. “Is everything all
set?”
Prudence looked uncomfortable for a minute and then recovered. “You know, it’s so
beastly complicated to do anything online these days. The club recommended a few
places which were insanely expensive, and I don’t do well on a computer, and Henry
doesn’t either. I thought I’d let you organize something. You know all the local places,
and I didn’t know if you’d prefer to do it in the Hamptons or in the city, so I thought it
best to let you decide and organize it this week,” and she’d never asked. Eugenia stared
at her in disbelief. She and Pam had been going crazy, with the help of her florist and a
wedding planner that had cost her a fortune, to go over every detail of the wedding for a
hundred and eighty-two guests, with everything from welcome bags to hotel
arrangements, two bands, and flowers flown in from all over the world, not to mention
Gloria’s dress, suitable for royalty, and Prudence Crawford had done nothing about the
rehearsal dinner. Eugenia wanted to throw the pretzels at her, as Henry blithely sipped
his gin on the rocks and Prudence looked her in the eye and didn’t show a drop of
remorse. Eugenia could also guess that they didn’t want to pay for a dinner for a
hundred and eighty guests when they heard the prices.
“I wish you had told me earlier,” Eugenia said politely. “So what’s your plan? No
rehearsal dinner?”
“We don’t know anyone here, so it really doesn’t make sense for us to give it. You’re
welcome to organize something if you’d like, as they’re all your family and friends.
There are only three of us,” Prudence said, “so it’s only fair that you manage it.”
Eugenia fully understood that “manage” it meant pay for it. Geoff had bragged
repeatedly about all the people his parents would invite, and they had vanished into thin
air. The wedding was five days away and Eugenia had her hands full with hiring models
and fitting the runway pieces of her new collection, and there would be no time for that
after the wedding, or not enough. Fashion Week was starting a week after the wedding.
She needed this week to take care of that too. And she doubted that even her wedding
planner could find a venue and organize dinner for nearly two hundred people in four
days, not to mention the fact that she was already spending double the original budget,
and they were breaking the sound barrier on that, at a time when she needed every penny
for her business and family to survive. She had gotten relief from disaster with Austin
Wylie’s investment, but she had to be careful with it, for the business, and not spend it
on her daughter’s wedding. She had no idea what to do, and Prudence and Henry
effectively dodged the issue until they left her apartment, after a brief and very tense
visit with that piece of news.
Eugenia sat down in a chair in the living room after they left, wondering what the
hell to do. She called Pam at home, who was arguing with Izzie about what she was
wearing to go to a movie with friends, and there were boys involved. Eugenia didn’t
envy her that. She had been there five times and would have cut her liver out with an ice
pick rather than do it again. Fourteen-year-old girls, and even boys, were not her
favorite. Even the nice ones lied like dogs, and managed to get drunk to the point of
alcohol poisoning at least once in their lives, even with her watching like a hawk in
their youth. Hers did it too. They all did.
“I’m up shit creek,” she said, sounding desperate as soon as Pam picked up the
phone.
“What happened?” She knew that Eugenia was entertaining the Crawfords, and
anything could have gone wrong. She could tell that something had, and she told Izzie to
cool it for a minute, she was talking to her boss.
“The rehearsal dinner,” Eugenia said cryptically.
“What about it? Where are they doing it?” Pam asked her.
“They’re not. They just dropped it like a hot rock back in my lap, saying it’s all my
family and friends, so it’s really up to me. There’s no way I can do a dinner that size or
find a venue four days out. What the hell am I going to do?”
“Is killing them an option?”
“I wish. Shit. I’m screwed. I’m sure they didn’t want to pay for it, or can’t. They
should have said so. At least no invitations have gone out, so people must think there is
none by now. I thought she was taking care of it and just hadn’t bothered to clue me in.”
“What about family only, and maybe the people who’ve come from far away?” That
had been the original tradition, but nowadays anyone who could afford it invited all the
guests to the rehearsal dinner. And in typical style, Gloria had invited all her old school
friends to the wedding, everyone she knew in college, anyone Geoff knew in New York,
and all their acquaintances. Gloria wanted as big a guest list as she could muster, at
both events. “You don’t need invitations,” Pam said. “I can call them, or invite them by
email. And I can call around and see who has a room that size that’s open in spite of
Covid. Things are opening up again,” Pam offered, shocked at the news.
“I don’t really want to do something indoors with all that going on.” The whole
wedding was being held outdoors at the club for that reason. It had been carefully
planned with the Covid sanitary measures scrupulously taken into account.
“Maybe one of the restaurants has a big enough terrace space for thirty or forty
people and would rent it out. I’ll find something,” Pam said confidently, and hoped she
could.
“I can’t believe they did this to me, and she wasn’t even embarrassed. She gave me
one of those mini boxes of chocolates hotels leave on your pillow, there are four
chocolates in it and she acted like she was handing me the Hope Diamond.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Pam reassured her.
“Thank you, Pam,” Eugenia said earnestly, still flummoxed by the way the
Crawfords had sidestepped the whole event and never told her. She had assumed it was
all in order, and they were holding up their end of the deal on the only part of the
wedding they were responsible for. She was fuming, and would have called Gloria in
London to complain, but it was one in the morning for her, and probably smarter not to
call when Eugenia was as angry as she was. Why was everything her responsibility, and
she was the fount of all bounty at any price? She wanted to tell Gloria that her
new inlaws were shits, but recognized it was better she didn’t. If they couldn’t afford it why
didn’t they just say so? She couldn’t afford the wedding either, but wanted to keep her
promise to her daughter.
Eugenia was still angry about it when she met Patrick for dinner at Fleming’s, which
had a lovely outdoor space and delicious food, and was in walking distance from both
their homes.
He had seen as soon as he picked her up to walk to dinner that she was annoyed. He
kissed her, and she seemed stiff.
“Did something happen?” he asked her, hoping it was nothing he had done. He had
never seen her angry before. She was polite but she looked upset.
“I’m sorry, Patrick. I just found out that the groom’s parents bagged on doing the
rehearsal dinner but kept it a secret. In the save-the-date, we said that there was one,
location to be confirmed. They never planned it, no invitations went out, and I stupidly
stopped asking and just assumed they had it under control since I never heard from them
about it, and thought they had forgotten to send me the invitation.”
“They don’t sound like nice people,” Patrick said sympathetically. He could see that
she was genuinely troubled about it. Even though she didn’t like Geoff, she wanted
everything to be perfect for Gloria. She was her hardest child to please, nothing was
ever enough, and she expected everyone to prove their love by how much they did for
her, and in her mother’s case, how much she paid for.
“Their son isn’t nice either,” Eugenia said, still annoyed, and sorry to burden Patrick
with her displeasure. They sat down at the restaurant and ordered wine, and she started
to relax in his company.
“What are you going to do?” he asked her.
“I don’t know. My assistant is scrambling to find a venue, preferably outdoors
because of Covid, and I’ll do it for family and out-of-towners who have come a long
way. If we can find a place. Otherwise, no rehearsal dinner. I don’t care, but Gloria
will. I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“It wasn’t your responsibility, it was theirs. They let her down, you didn’t.”
“She won’t see it that way. I’m the magician who always has to pull the rabbit out of
the hat to prove how much I love her. The others are all much more reasonable, but she
isn’t. She has used this whole wedding as a proving ground and a weapon.”
“That doesn’t sound like fun,” he said gently, and she smiled.
“It isn’t,” she said, taking a sip of the excellent white wine he had ordered,
Chassagne-Montrachet.
“I have an idea,” he said, thinking of how he could help her and take some of the
burden off her shoulders, with everything she had to do alone, which didn’t seem fair to
him.
“I don’t think we could pull off dinner for two hundred people on short notice,” he
said.
“Of course not. I didn’t expect you to. I just needed to vent.” Men always thought
they had to do something when you complained, when sometimes all women wanted
was for someone to listen. Eugenia was used to solving her own problems, although
Patrick had been very helpful so far, with his suggestions about the deal with Austin
Wylie.
“But if you’re only going to do a dinner for family and a few friends, we could
easily handle a buffet for forty people, even fifty or sixty, on the boat, outdoors. That’s
no problem. My chef loves to show off, I have the staff and the location sitting right in
the Hudson River. People like events on boats, it feels special. And I do meetings for
that many people on the boat sometimes. What do you think?” She stared at him as he
said it, and tears filled her eyes, she was so touched. “In fact, we can move the boat to
the Hamptons and do it there, since most people will spend the whole weekend there.”
“Are you serious?”
He nodded and patted her hand on the table. “It’s not complicated. We’re all set up
for that, and your guests might love it.”
“Are you kidding? They’d like it better than the wedding, and so would I. Oh my
God, I hate to take advantage of you, Patrick. But that would be so perfect.”
“Then that’s it. You can talk to Jonathan, my chef, tomorrow, tell him what you want,
and have your secretary email your guest list tomorrow.” He was one man who
suggested an action plan that really did solve her most pressing problems when she told
him about them. Her daughter was the luckiest person in the world, and so was she. His
plan was a thousand times better than some dusty old club, indoors on top of it.
“You are utterly amazing,” she said, and leaned over and kissed him. “You don’t
even know these people, and you barely know my daughter.” Patrick had only seen
Gloria once, since she had already left in a huff when he met the others for a second
time. “I don’t know how to thank you. You are saving my life, and adding something
wonderful to her wedding. And I want to pay for all the expenses, food, alcohol,
whatever you spend on it.”
“I’ll take it out in other ways,” he teased her. “Listen, we’re both in a tough spot at
the moment, or at least we have been. It’s nice to be able to help each other, and
blessings are meant to be shared,” he said sincerely.
“From what I can see, you’re the one helping me, I haven’t done a damn thing for
you, and now I’m bringing thirty or forty people to your boat for dinner. I don’t want this
to be a one-way street. That’s abusive.”
“Not if I volunteer it. And I just did. Now I want you to relax and have a lovely
evening.” He kissed her and she texted Pam and told her the plan. “We’re saved.
Rehearsal dinner on Patrick Hughes’s boat, for family and inner circle. Details
tomorrow. Love, E.”
They had a leisurely dinner and walked slowly back on Madison Avenue. Several
stores that hadn’t survived the pandemic were still vacant, but most stores were open
again, some newcomers had appeared, and the city was alive again. Patrick stayed at
Eugenia’s apartment that night, and felt at home there. They were both surprised at how
comfortable they felt so quickly with each other. They took a bath in her bathtub that
night after they made love, and then made love again. She made him breakfast in the
morning, and he left for his office from her home. She was going to speak to his chef that
morning, about the menu for the rehearsal dinner.
She worked out all the details with Pam when she got to her own office, the guest
list of twelve family members, including the Crawfords, plus eleven couples who were
coming from the West Coast and the Midwest. None of their friends from London could
come except via quarantine in Mexico, and none of them had the time to do that except
Geoff’s parents. That made a guest list of thirty-four people maximum, which Patrick
had said was a piece of cake. She spoke to the chef, and they chose a varied menu for a
buffet, and by noon Pam emailed the invitations. Three couples declined immediately,
having made other plans for the night before the wedding, leaving twenty-eight guests as
a possible maximum, which sounded intimate and perfect to Eugenia, and would to
Gloria as well. Patrick had saved the day with his fabulous yacht. And the menu
sounded delicious.
“And we can put up see-through plastic curtains if the weather turns bad. There are
some storm warnings for this weekend. They’ll probably change direction by then, but if
not, we’ll be prepared.” Patrick had suggested that they move the boat to the Hamptons,
since people would be staying there for the weekend with the wedding there on
Saturday. The club had told her they could install a tent for the wedding, in case of bad
weather, for a large additional amount. So they had a Plan B for all eventualities, and a
rehearsal dinner in place in less than twenty-four hours after learning that the Crawfords
hadn’t held up their end and never bothered to tell her. Eugenia didn’t call Prudence.
She would find out from their son or the official email Pam was sending to the wedding
party, the family, and long-distance out-of-towners. Gloria’s sisters were her
bridesmaids and Daphne her matron of honor, if she hadn’t given birth by then.
With everything in order, Eugenia called Gloria in London. It was six .. there and
she was still in the office. She had gotten the email too, and Eugenia was taken aback by
her first comment.
“Why did you interfere and do it on a yacht so you could show off, when you know
Geoff gets seasick?” Gloria accused her.
“Are you serious? You’re complaining about having it on a fabulous yacht when his
parents completely dropped the ball on the rehearsal dinner and never told me? I found
out at seven o’clock last night. What did you expect me to do? Rent Madison Square
Garden? He saved my ass and Geoff’s parents, and your rehearsal dinner. And he’s
renting a berth at the dock at a different yacht club that has a port big enough for his boat
to come closer, so guests don’t have as far to go in the tender if the sea is choppy. His
boat has stabilizers so Geoff will be fine. The boat will never leave the dock, and no
one will get sick.”
“He says he gets sick even when a boat is tied up at the dock, he just called me when
we got the email.”
“Then tell him to take medicine, for God’s sake,” Eugenia said, exasperated.
“I thought that we agreed that the rehearsal dinner was for all the guests,” Gloria
continued to complain.
“Not with four days’ notice when nothing has been done about it. It’s a miracle we
can have a rehearsal dinner at all, and that’s the Crawfords’ fault, not mine. Patrick just
saved the day, and I can’t believe you’re complaining about it.” Eugenia was furious at
Gloria’s reaction and lack of gratitude.
“It’s such a small skimpy group, that isn’t what I wanted and what we agreed on,”
Gloria persisted.
“Fine, tell Geoff’s parents, don’t tell me. I think this is outrageous, you’re not
grateful or even polite, all you do is want something else or something more. How did
you get so entitled?”
“Oh, because I’m not as sweet as Daphne, or crawl up your ass like Eloise?” Gloria
said nastily.
“I am paying a fortune for this wedding, which is costing twice the budget we agreed
on, and you and Geoff keep adding new expensive elements every time I turn around,
without even asking me. I am hosting the wedding, he’s not. And now I’m stuck with the
rehearsal dinner too. He and his family need to grow up and get some manners, with all
that alleged blue blood of theirs. I’ve just about had it.” She had raised her voice and
didn’t like to do that, but Gloria was pushing her too far, particularly with her
complaints and entitled demands.
“And Geoff’s parents will be upset about Brad,” Gloria whined, and Eugenia
clenched her teeth.
“Frankly, Brad is twice the man, or ten times the man, your future husband is, or his
parents, and is much more polite. He won’t cause a scene at the dinner or the wedding,
and if Geoff or his parents do, I will personally escort them to the door.”
“You see, this is why Geoff and I left the Hamptons early, because you don’t respect
us.”
“Gloria, you and Geoff don’t know the meaning of the word ‘respect.’ And his
parents are no better, not giving me any warning that they decided not to give the
rehearsal dinner, which is their responsibility not mine, and dumping it in my lap on
four days’ notice, and I assume they expect me to pay for it, or you do.”
“Obviously, Mom,” Gloria said scathingly. “They can’t afford it, you can.”
“Don’t be so sure. You don’t know what I can afford. I haven’t sold an evening dress
or a wedding gown in eighteen months, and I have not skimped on this royal wedding
you want, and think is your due. I want to give you the wedding of your dreams, but you
need to give some serious thought to how you behave, what you expect, and how you
treat people.”
“You’re the one who treats people badly, Mom. You have no respect for Geoff’s
sensibilities. He’s a very sensitive person. He feels it physically when he thinks people
don’t like him or respect him.”
“I can’t listen to this,” Eugenia said. “I have to hang up now. I’ll see you when you
get to New York,” and she hung up, with all of Gloria’s words ringing in her ears,
words of hate and ingratitude, racism and entitlement. On every level, she was
completely out of control and off base with her ideas. Eugenia was shaking when she
ended the call and for nearly an hour afterward. She couldn’t even talk about it, and
went to the casting meeting she had to attend to pick models for her show. It distracted
her from thinking about her ungrateful daughter. They had all the models picked by the
end of the day, and fittings were scheduled for the week after the wedding, which was
cutting it close. And they had to work with the models’ other bookings, because several
of them were walking for more than one designer. They were young and beautiful, and
had to be babied through all of their shows and bookings, since every season some of
them had never walked the runway before and were fresh off the farm or from other
smaller cities, and had no idea how rigorous and professional it was. Pam was good at
shepherding them through the process. And then she remembered to tell Eugenia that
Natasha had called.
“She said to tell you that your partner called,” Pam said, smiling.
“I’m actually getting to like her. She is rough around all her edges, but she’s honest
and real,” and Natasha had told Pam that before she met Austin in the south of France,
she had been a factory worker in Moscow. And she didn’t pretend to be anything more
than she was. The honesty of it touched her.
“She wants two invitations to the show.”
“Give them to her. She’s right, she’s my partner. She can have four if she wants.”
“And she placed another Cotton Candy order. She wants a fifty percent discount on
it,” Pam said with a disapproving look.
“Give her that too,” Eugenia said fairly.
“We can’t put her and her friends in the front row,” Pam said firmly.
“Really? Why not?” Eugenia was fed up with people’s prejudices and lousy
behavior and treatment of others, although Pam was only trying to protect the look of the
show. “She’s going to look like a girl off the streets of Moscow, while she was working
in a factory. How she accomplished that, in a bed or on her feet, is absolutely none of
our business. She’ll look like she likes my clothes and is a fan, especially if she’s
wearing something of mine. She’s good advertising, and she loves what we do,” she
tried to reassure Pam, but she could see that she hadn’t succeeded.
Eugenia had just finished talking to Pam when her cell phone rang, and without
looking to screen it, she picked it up and never bothered to look at the caller ID.
“Hello, darling.” A deep sexy voice with a heavy accent was on the other end of the
line. She knew the voice.
“Hello, Umberto,” she said calmly. “Welcome to New York. How was your trip?”
“Fine. I did what most people from Europe are doing. I came through Mexico, with a
two-week quarantine in Mexico City. I have friends there. I need a favor,” he said,
cutting through his usual charming dialogue when he wanted something. “I have a friend
with me for the wedding. She’s lovely, you’ll adore her.” Umberto always brought a
woman to anything, even events that involved his children. “She’s a French
viscountess,” like every woman he knew. “She’s a lovely girl. We traveled light from
Mexico. She needs a dress for the wedding. I told her she could borrow a gown from
you. Darling, please don’t make a liar of me.” He had been doing that himself for years.
“Umberto, I did that the last time you came to New York, with the German baroness
who looked sixteen years old. The girl never gave the dress back. It was a
fifteenthousand-dollar dress. It looked great on her, but neither she nor you ever paid for it. I
can’t afford to give away dresses. I’m sorry, but the answer is no.”
“You can afford anything you want,” he said, irritated. “And she’s twenty-two, the
same age you were when you married me.” His famous charm hadn’t worked on
Eugenia in years. She had had too much of it for too long and she knew all his tricks.
“I’m sure you can find her a pretty dress at Bergdorf’s, which you can afford,”
Eugenia responded.
“You never change,” he said accusingly.
“Sadly, neither do you.” Once she had opened her eyes to him, she had never been
able to close them again. “Are you ready to walk your daughter down the aisle?”
“Of course. I did for Daphne.” She didn’t remind him that the girl he had brought had
slept with one of the guests at the reception, and a security guard. She had never told
Daphne, but she had discreetly asked Umberto to get her out immediately, which he had
done, and then came back to the reception to dance with his daughter. She didn’t
mention it now. “How are the parents? I gather he’s an earl.”
“Apparently,” Eugenia said, struggling not to lose her temper.
“I got the email about the rehearsal dinner. You’re giving it?”
“They forgot to,” was all she said. “Maybe you should have dinner with them. I
don’t have time.”
“And it’s on a boat?” He sounded skeptical. “Not a small one, I hope. I hate small
boats. They make me seasick, big ones never do.”
“I think you’ll be all right on this one,” she reassured him. “It has stabilizers, and
we’re not leaving the dock, so you’ll be fine.”
“Well, another one of our little chicks, taking flight into married life. I like Geoff. I
had dinner with them a few months ago.” She had no idea how he could say that about
liking Geoff, but she didn’t comment. He viewed all their children as though he were a
benevolent uncle and not their father. He never asked the right questions or wanted to
get too deeply involved. Gloria had never told Eugenia that she had seen him, which
was typical of her. She was always on his side. To Eugenia there were no “sides,” just
what was good for the children, and she didn’t think Geoff was.
—
At the end of the day, she was exhausted, after everything she’d done. Gloria and Geoff
were arriving the next day and after that the pace would be stepped up. Gloria had to try
her dress again to make sure it fit properly, in case she had gained or lost a pound or
two. There were a million details for Eugenia to see to, even with Pam’s help, and
Eloise, who was willing to assist too, with work, the wedding, the rehearsal dinner,
Fashion Week coming up with her new line, and Cotton Candy flying out of her store.
Eugenia had promised to call Patrick when she got home, and she was going to. He
wanted to come over, and she lay down on her bed for just a minute, and fell sound
asleep until morning. Patrick called her to find out where she was, and she didn’t even
hear the phone.
