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“What kind of ideas?”
“She wants to have the bachelorette party at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston with a spa day and then dinner at Sorellina—”
Tatum can’t afford the Ritz-Carlton and she doesn’t know what Sorellina is. “So what you’re saying is that she has more money and fancier taste.”
“No!” Hollis says so emphatically that it can only mean yes. She sighs. “Please don’t be like this, Tay.”
Tatum’s tears have dried; now she’s just angry. No, not just angry—furious. “Likewhat?” she says, though she knows: She’s being possessive and small-minded and jealous when apparently what she should say isGreat, Dru-Ann and I will divvy up the responsibilities and shoot rock-paper-scissors to see who walks in last.
Instead, Tatum says, “I don’t want to do it at all. Have fun getting married without me.” And she hangs up.
Hollis calls right back. Tatum lets the answering machine pick up. Hollis leaves a message; nowshe’scrying, which Tatum childishly finds satisfying. Hollis says she can’t get married without Tatum, she’d rather elope, but please can’t Tatum understand that she’s working on a compromise here, she’s trying to make everyone happy but she feels like King Solomon’s baby (whatever that means).
The next day, Tatum decides to be the bigger person and she calls back and says fine, she’ll be the co–maid/matron of honor as long as she can be the one to walk in last.
“But it was a crushing disappointment,” Tatum says now to the camera. “I was hurt. Your mother went away and met another person who became her best friend and I stayed on Nantucket and didn’t. Hollis has always been my only best friend. Even all the years we weren’t really talking, I thought of her as my best friend.”
This story is so much…morethan Caroline anticipated. She thought it would be a stroll down memory lane with sound bites she could share on the website. But Tatum has given her real stuff, heartbreaking stuff. “But it all worked out in the end, right?” Caroline asks. “Because you’re here?”
Not really,Tatum thinks. This is backstory, but it’s also front story: Things have never been the same between Tatum and Hollis. Tatum hides from Hollis every summer, runs away when she bumps into her at the grocery store, turns down every invitation to come to the house for dinner. Tatum is still angry at Dru-Ann because of the things that happened over the bachelorette weekend in Boston and also because of what Dru-Ann said to Tatum in the bathroom at the Wellesley Country Club during the wedding reception.
Tatum won’t get into it. She’s emotionally exhausted from the demands of this weekend, from hearing about Kyle and Jack’s night out, and from trying to keep the biopsy results out of her mind, which is like holding back a wall of water. Tatum wants to go outside and have a cigarette, then go to her room, call Kyle, and take a nap.
She stands up. Chat over.
31. Heart-to-Heart
Brooke is so happy, she has to make sure her feet are touching the ground. Yes, yes, they are; her feet are in the wet sand at the water’s edge. Dru-Ann has asked Brooke to go for a walk, just the two of them. Brooke wishes Caroline were filming them right now; she feels like a character in a movie. The afternoon sun has mellowed and the breeze off the water has picked up; the waves froth at their ankles, and the bottom of Dru-Ann’s ivory caftan is getting damp but she doesn’t seem to care, just like Brooke doesn’t care that her stomach is pooching out because she showed so little restraint at lunch. Brooke and Dru-Ann are both facing forward, which somehow makes it easier to talk. Watching Dru-Ann dress down Charlie was beautiful, nearly arousing.
Now Dru-Ann is saying things likeYou don’t need to put up with a guy like that, someone who doesn’t respect women, who has an inflated sense of entitlement just because he has a penis, he doesn’t deserve you, Brooke, you are sweet and kind and pretty, there are lots of men out there who would treat you better.
Brooke has doubts about this. She’s fifty years old with no career and a poor self-image. If she leaves Charlie, he’ll find someone else within minutes—men always do—but Brooke will be left to create a profile on a dating app where she’ll meet men old enough to be her grandfather with plasticky-looking dentures and hair growing out of their ears. She’ll give up quickly and either move down to Boca to live with her mother or stay put in the Poet’s Corner house while Charlie shacks up in the Seaport with his new girlfriend (she’ll be named Callie or Brianna and she’ll be either a newscaster or one of the Patriots cheerleaders), and Brooke will have to find a way not to be a burden to Will and Whitney as they finish college and launch their own fabulous lives. Leaving Charlie has never been a realistic option because life without him has always seemed a touch less appealing than life with him.
Except now, on this walk, having what can only be described as a heart-to-heart with Dru-Ann, Brooke starts to see things differently. She’s sorry when they turn around to go back.
“What about you?” Brooke asks. “Do you have a special someone?”
“Ah,” Dru-Ann says. “That’s complicated.”
Everything is complicated; this Brooke has come to understand. But her emotions at this moment are delightfully simple and straightforward. She’s happy! She’s liberated! She pictures Charlie walking dejectedly down the hydrangea-lined driveway in his stupidFREE BRADYT-shirt and all she thinks isGood riddance, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya, these boots were made for walkingand all the other sassy sentiments expressed by people who have finally had enough.
Brooke’s good mood is dampened only a little when they get back to Hollis’s property and see Caroline waiting for them.
“I’d love to borrow Dru-Ann for a minute,” she says. “If that’s okay?”
“Of course,” Brooke says. Even her voice sounds different. Her tone is cool and casual.
There’s plenty of time to relax before the next item on the itinerary, which is predinner cocktails. Brooke decides to lock herself in the Board Room, stretch out on the bed, and make some magic happen.
32. The Shot
“Did something else happen?” Dru-Ann asks Caroline as they walk toward the house. “Am I being called to testify before Congress?”
“No, no,” Caroline says. “I just want to talk to you about your friendship with my mom and film it, if that’s okay?” She leads Dru-Ann inside and down to a home theater in the basement.
“Nobody’s going to see this but us, right?” Dru-Ann says. After watching the video of herself at Gypsy, the last thing she wants to do is sit in front of a camera.Thanks a lot, SexyBexxx.The video probably has a million views by now.
“In theory, this is for my mom’s website,” Caroline says. “But I’m starting to think it might turn into something else? I’m doing an internship with Isaac Opoku—”
