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"Oh, I used to work for Ryan!"
"How do you mean?"
"She was, uh, one of ... before you guys came," Ryan explained, a little apologetically.
"Yeah, getting fired was, like, the best thing that happened to me! I got a job at Bamboo and I'm staying at my friend's place in North Haven. And now I don't have to feel guilty about dating the boss's son!"
Ryan laughed nervously.
"So! Mara, you replaced me!" Camille joked. "How are the kids doing?"
"They're fine. We take them to Georgica every day," Mara said.
"GEORGE-i-cuh," Camille said, batting her eyelashes.
"What did I say?" Mara asked.
"George-EEE-cah."
"Oh." Mara couldn't tell the difference.
"Accent's on the first syllable, not the second," Camille explained.
"Lots of newcomers do it. Where are you from? New Jersey?"
Mara had been in the Hamptons long enough to know when she was being insulted. She didn't reply.
192
"Ryan, let's go dance! Can we dance? Please ... " she whined, pulling Ryan up to the dance floor, leaving Mara at the table alone.
Mara ordered another drink, determined not to feel abandoned. She couldn't tell exactly why she was so irritated. A breathless Eliza rushed in and took the empty seat.
"I'm so sorry I'm late! Jeremy and I went to Lunch for dinner and we got lobsters and corn bread. I'm SO fat from the carb bloat!" Eliza giggled as she kissed Mara hello.
"Jeremy with the clippers? You went out with Jeremy?" Mara asked. She'd met him the first week. He'd been really nice about helping her navigate the estate. Mara looked at Eliza with a new perspective. Jeremy was a real good guy--a solid guy--she didn't think someone like Eliza would ever be interested in someone like him.
"Yeah, we spent the whole day together. It was awesome. Oh, look, there's Lindsay. Hum!" Eliza said, waving.
"So why didn't you bring him? Didn't you have a plus one?" Mara had learned that anyone who was anyone had their name "plus one" on the guest list.
"Oh, he would never fit in here," Eliza said between getting up and saying hello to her friends.
"What do you mean by that?" Mara asked.
"You can't just bring someone like Jeremy into this world," Eliza explained. "Oops! Watch it!" she snapped as an overeager birthday well-wisher spilled his whiskey on the rocks onto her dress.
Eliza wiped off the stain, a little annoyed. "People can be so rude," she griped.
193
"What world?" Mara asked stubbornly. Her good feeling toward Eliza had vanished. Jeremy was from the same background as Mara--his dad was a carpenter, her dad was in construction. His mother was a teacher, Mara's mom was a social worker. In fact, back home she was a lot more like Jeremy than Eliza.
"You know, all this," Eliza said airily. "Oh, there's Charlie. Hey!" She got up and ran after him. She wanted to make it up to him for missing him at the polo match.
What the hell did Eliza think she was doing, chasing after Charlie when she just had dinner with Jeremy? Mara frowned. She was already in a bad mood from meeting Camille, and now she was totally offended by Eliza's breezy generalizations and insouciant snobbishness.
Mara had started to really like Eliza, too, even if she was kind of princessy and prone to flake. Eliza had a natural charm about her that Mara had gravitated toward, and she was still grateful for the makeover. Her hair had never looked this good. But now this ...
