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Charlie Borshok was a classic trust fund kid. Rumor had it his family had already spent half a million dollars on restructuring his face. He'd received a nose job, ear tuck, chin lift, cheek implants, forehead lift, and who knows what else to approximate some sort of attractiveness. There had been a documentary made about the lives of super-rich kids that had caused a big mess a little while back. Rumor had it that he was supposed to be one of the stars. "Prenup! Prenup! Prenup! It's been drilled into my head since I was three!" he'd told the cameras. "And if she won't sign, she's a disgusting gold digger anyway." But the Borshok family had filed enough court injunctions that the director finally gave up on Charlie, and the material
was left on the cutting room floor. Of course, everyone heard about it anyway. Eliza knew half a dozen kids who had been interviewed for the film whose parents had tried to do the same thing.
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But none of that mattered to Eliza. Charlie was still the great guy who gave her a pair of two-carat Harry Winston diamond earrings on their six-month anniversary. Now that was love.
"Hey, handsome," she said, still smiling down at him despite the slouching.
"Hi, Eliza," Charlie said, a little coldly. He was still pissed that she had dumped him last semester. What was up with that? Hadn't he given her a pair of two-carat Harry Winston diamond earrings on their six-month anniversary? Wasn't that love?
"Long time no see," Eliza said with as much warmth as she could muster. She and Charlie were good together, she was sure of that.
He shrugged. "Heard you were shipped out to Farmington."
Eliza tried not to look uneasy. She'd been very careful not to mention exactly which boarding school she was supposed to be attending, lest someone in her circle knew someone who prepped at the same school. But somehow word had gone out that she was supposed to be at Miss Porter's, an elite finishing school for girls in Connecticut.
"Tell me about it. Charlie, I want you to meet my friends, Mara and Jacqui. Guys, this is Charlie," Eliza said triumphantly.
"Nice to meet you. How do you know Eliza?" Charlie inquired, to be polite.
"Oh, we wor--" Mara began.
"She's my roommate!" Eliza interjected, thinking quickly.
"How do you like it?" Charlie asked.
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"It's not too bad. The kids can be a pain, and our room is really small, but otherwise it's all right," Mara said. "Our boss is kind of demanding, though."
"That's what we call our house mistress." Eliza laughed shrilly. She gave Mara frantic warning eyes. "Boarding school is tres lame."
Boarding school? "Uh ... right," Mara said hesitantly. "Yeah. Boarding school. The uniforms suck." What was going on here? "But, um. Eliza's the most popular girl there," she was inspired to add.
"Well, that's not a surprise," Charlie said, looking keenly at his ex-girlfriend. Charlie looked at women the way he measured Thoroughbreds--the flanks, the teeth, the shoes--and Eliza passed with flying marks on all counts. He was still smarting from their breakup. The Charlie Borshoks of the world didn't take too kindly to being dumped out of the blue. But Eliza Thompson was easily still the prettiest girl in East Hampton.
"We should get together sometime," he said to Eliza, giving her a kiss on the cheek.
Eliza's eyes misted at his touch. Was she being forgiven? Was Charlie going to let her back into his life? Was everything going to be perfect again? Would he rescue her from that roach-infested attic and book them a suite at the Bentley Hotel?
"Looks like you guys are gonna get back together after all," Mara said after Charlie had left.
"God, I hope so. Charlie's parents have the biggest yacht!" Eliza said, oblivious to how shallow she sounded.
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"But what was THAT all about--us being friends from school?" Mara asked. "And why is Jacqui an exchange student?"
"It's like this ... Eliza said, biting her lip. Should she tell them? Could she trust them? They had covered for her so far. Who knew Mara could lie like that? They had made her look good in front of Charlie. Maybe she owed them the truth, even without an empty vodka bottle pointing in her direction.
Eliza pulled them to the quietest corner she could find-- behind the column, near where several glassy-eyed club kids passed a suspiciously fragrant rolled-up cigarette. She told them the whole story--Buffalo, bankruptcy, and the boarding school fiction.
"I just don't want my friends to know, especially Charlie, that
I'm working here this summer... you know? As an au pair..." Mara and Jacqui looked at each other. What was the big deal? "I know it's stupid, but I just want to have fun this summer. Is
that okay?" she pleaded.
