Lily had always been a big drinker, but it wasn’t weird, because Lily was a big
everything. She was the first one to smoke pot in junior high and the first one to lose her
virginity in high school and the first to go skydiving in college. She loved anyone and
anything that didn’t love her back, so long as it made herfeel alive.
“I just don’t understand how you can sleep with him when you know he’s never going to
break up with his girlfriend,” I’d said about a guy she’d been secretly seeing our junior
year.
“I just don’t understand how you can play by so many rules,” she’d shot back instantly.
“Where’s the fun in all your perfectly planned, mapped-out, rule-filled life? Live a little,
Andy! Feel something! It’s good to be alive!”
Maybe she had been drinking a little more lately, but I knew that her first-year studies
were incredibly stressful, even for her, and that her professors at Columbia were more
demanding and less understanding than the ones she’d had wrapped around her finger at
Brown.It might not be a bad idea, I thought, signaling to the waitress. Maybe drinking
was the way to handle it. I ordered an Absolut and grapefruit juice and took a long, deep
swig. It made me feel more sick than anything, because I still hadn’t had time to eat
anything except the raisins and the Diet Coke Emily had scraped together for me earlier
that day.
“I’m sure she’s just had a rough couple of weeks in school,” I said to Alex as though
Lily weren’t sitting with us. She didn’t notice we were talking about her because she was
preoccupied giving some yuppie guy at the bar heavy-lidded, come-hither looks. Alex put
his arm around me and I snuggled closer on the couch. It felt so good to be near him
again—it seemed like it had been weeks.
“I hate to be a buzz-kill, but I really have to get home,” Alex said, pushing my hair back
behind my ear. “Will you be OK with her?”
“You have to leave? Already?”
“Already? Andy, I’ve been here watching your best friend drink for the past two hours. I
came to see you, but you weren’t here. And now it’s almost midnight, and I still have
essays to correct.” He said it calmly, but I could see that he was upset.
“I know, I’m sorry about that, I really am. You know that I would’ve been there if I
could’ve helped it at all. You know that—”
“I do know all that. I’m not saying you did anything wrong or that you could’ve done
anything differently. I understand. But try to understand where I’m coming from, too,
OK?”
I nodded and kissed him, but I felt awful. I pledged to make it up to him, to pick a night
and plan something really special for just the two of us. He did, after all, put up with a lot
PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com
from me.
“So, you won’t even stay over tonight?” I asked hopefully.
“Not unless you need help with Lily. I really need to get home and work on those
papers.” He hugged me good-bye, kissed Lily on the cheek, and headed toward the door.
“Call me if you need me,” he said as he walked out.
“Hey, why’d Alex leave?” Lily asked, even though she’d been sitting there through the
entire conversation. “Is he mad at you?”
“Probably,” I sighed, hugging my canvas messenger bag to my chest. “I’ve been a shit to
him lately.” I went to the bar to ask for an appetizer menu and by the time I came back,
the Wall Street guy had curled up on the couch next to Lily. He looked to be in his late
twenties, but his receding hairline made it impossible to know for sure.
I grabbed her coat and tossed it at her. “Lily, put that on. We’re leaving,” I said while
looking at him. He was on the shorter side, and his pleated khakis didn’t help his pudgy
figure. And the fact that his tongue was now two inches from my best friend’s ear didn’t
make me like him any more.
“Hey, what’s the rush?” he asked in a whiny, nasal voice. “Your friend and I are just
getting to know each other.” Lily grinned and nodded, trying to take a gulp from her
drink but not realizing her glass was empty.
“Well, that’s very sweet, but it’s time for us to go. What’s your name?”
“Stuart.”
“Nice to meet you, Stuart. Why don’t you give Lily here your number and she can give
you a call when she’s feeling a little better—or not. How does that sound?” I flashed him
a smile.
“Uh, whatever. No worries. I’ll catch you guys later.” He was on his feet and headed to
the bar so fast that Lily hadn’t yet noticed he’d left.
“Stuart and I are getting to know each other, aren’t we, Stu?” She turned to the place
where he had sat and looked confused.
“Stuart had to run, Lil. Come on, let’s get out of here.”
I pulled her drab green peacoat on over her sweater and yanked her to her feet, where she
swayed precariously until she regained her balance. The air outside was searing and cold
and I figured it’d help her sober up.
“I don’t feel so good.” She was slurring again.
PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com
“I know, sweetie, I know. Let’s get a cab back to your apartment, OK? Do you think you
can make it?”
She nodded and then leaned over very casually and threw up. All over her brown boots,
with some of it splashing up the sides of her jeans.If only the Runwaygirls could see my
best friend now. I couldn’t help thinking.
I sat her down on a window ledge that looked reasonably like it wouldn’t have an alarm
and ordered her not to move. There was a twenty-four-hour bodega right across the street,
and this girl clearly needed some water. When I got back, she’d thrown up again—this
time all down her front—and her eyes looked droopy. I’d bought two bottles of Poland
Spring, one for her to drink and one for cleaning, but she was too gross now. I dumped
one all over her feet to wash away the sick, and half of the second one over her coat.
Better to be soaking wet than covered in puke. She was so drunk she didn’t even notice.
It took a little persuading to get a cabbie to let us in with Lily looking in such bad shape,
but I promised a really big tip on top of what was sure to be a really big fare. We were
going from the Lower East Side to the far Upper West, and I was already figuring out a
way to expense what was sure to be a twenty-dollar ride. I could probably just write it off
as a trip I had to make in search of something for Miranda. Yes, that would work.
The trip to her fourth-floor walk-up was even less fun than the cab, but she’d become
more cooperative after the twenty-five-minute ride, and she even managed to wash
herself in the shower after I’d undressed her. I pointed her in the direction of her bed and
watched as she collapsed face-down when her knees hit the box spring. I looked down at
her, unconscious, and was momentarily nostalgic for college, for all the things we’d done
together then. It was fun now, no question, but it would never again be as carefree as
then.
I briefly wondered if Lily might be drinking too much these days. After all, she did seem
to be drunk pretty consistently. But when Alex had brought it up the week before, I’d
assured him it was because she was still a student, still not living in the real world with
real, adult responsibilities (like pouring the perfect Pellegrino!). I mean, it’s not like we
hadn’t together done too many shots at Se.or Frog’s on spring break or too ambitiously
worked our way through three bottles of red wine while celebrating the anniversary of the
day we’d first met in eighth grade. Lily had held my hair back as I sat with my face
resting on the toilet seat after a postfinals binge, and pulled over four times once while
driving me back to my dorm after a night that had included eight rum and Cokes and a
particularly horrid karaoke rendition of “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” I’d dragged her back
to my apartment on the night of her twenty-first birthday and tucked her into my bed,
checking her breathing every ten minutes, and finally fell asleep on the floor next to her
after I’d made sure she’d live through the night. She had awakened twice that night. The
first time was to throw up over the side of the bed—making a sincere effort to make it
into the garbage can I’d set up beside it but getting confused and vomiting down the side
of my wall instead—and once more to apologize sincerely and tell me she loved me and I
PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com
was the best friend a girl could have. That’s what friends did: they got drunk together and
did stupid things and looked out for one another, right? Or was that all just college fun,
rites of passage that had a time and a place? Alex had insisted that this was different,
thatshe was different, but I just didn’t see it that way.
I knew I should’ve stayed with her tonight, but it was nearly two and I had to be at work
in five hours. My clothes smelled of vomit and there was no way I could find a single
appropriate piece of clothing in Lily’s closet to wear toRunway —especially with my
new upgraded look. I sighed and pulled a blanket over her and set her alarm for 7:00A
.M. so just in case she wasn’t too hungover, she’d have a shot at making it to class.
“’Bye, Lil. I’m heading out. You OK?” I placed the portable phone on the pillow by her
head.
She opened her eyes, looked directly at me, and smiled. “Thanks,” she muttered, her
eyelids dropping again. She wasn’t fit to run a marathon, or probably even operate a
motorized lawn mower, but she’d be fine to just sleep it off.
“It was my pleasure,” I managed, even though this was the first time in twenty-one hours
I had stopped physically running, fetching, rearranging, moving, cleaning, or otherwise
assisting. “I’ll call you tomorrow,” I said as I willed my legs not to give out. “If either of
us is still alive.” And I finally,finally, went home.
10
“Hey, I’m glad I caught you,” I heard Cara say on the other end of the line. Why was she
out of breath at quarter of eight in the morning?
“Uh-oh. You never call this early. What’s wrong?” In the split second it took me to say
those words, a half-dozen scenarios of what Miranda could need raced through my mind.
“No, no, it’s nothing like that. I just wanted to warn you that B-DAD is on his way in to
see you, and he’s particularly chatty this morning.”
“Oh, well, that’s sure great news. It’s been, what, nearly a week since he’s interrogated
me about every aspect of my life? I was wondering where my biggest fan had gone.” I
finished typing my memo and hit “print.”
“You’re a lucky girl, I have to say. He’s lost interest in me entirely,” she pined
dramatically. “He only has eyes for you. I heard him say that he was coming over to
PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com
discuss details of the Met party with you.”
“Great, that’s just great. I can’t wait to meet this brother of his. So far I’ve just spoken to
him on the phone, but he sounds like a total schmuck. So, you’re sure he’s on his way, or
is it possible there’s a kind spirit up above who just may spare me that particular misery
today?”
“Nope, not today. He’s definitely on his way. Miranda has a podiatrist appointment at
eight-thirtyA .M., so I don’t think she’ll be coming with him.”
I checked the appointment book on Emily’s desk quickly and confirmed her
appointments. A Miranda-free morning was indeed on the schedule. “Fantastic. I couldn’t
think of anyone dreamier to do a little early-morning bonding with than B-DAD himself.
Why does he talk so much?”
“Can’t answer that other than to point out the obvious: he married her, so he’s clearly not
all there. Call if he says anything particularly ridiculous. I have to run. Caroline just
smashed one of Miranda’s Stila lipsticks into the bathroom mirror for no apparent
reason.”
“Our lives rock, don’t they? We’re the coolest girls. Anyway, thanks for the heads up.
Talk to you later.”
“OK, ’bye.”
I glanced over the memo while I waited for B-DAD’s arrival. It was a request to the
board of trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from Miranda. She was asking
permission to throw a dinner party in one of the galleries in March for her brother-in-law,
a man I could tell she absolutely despised but who was, unfortunately, family. Jack
Tomlinson was B-DAD’s younger and wilder brother, and he’d just announced he was
leaving his wife and three children and marrying his masseuse. Although he and B-DAD
were both quintessential East Coast prep school aristocracy, Jack had shed his Harvard
persona in his late twenties and moved to South Carolina, where he’d immediately made
a fortune in real estate. Judging from everything Emily had told me, he’d morphed into a
first-class Southern boy, a real straw-chewin’, tobacco-spittin’ hick, which of course
appalled Miranda, the epitome of class and sophistication. B-DAD had asked Miranda to
organize an engagement party for his baby brother, and Miranda, blinded by love, had no
choice but to oblige. And if she had to do something, then she sure as hell was going to
do it right. And right was at the Met.
Dear Honored Members, blah, blah, blah, would like to request permission to host a
fabulous little soiree, blah, blah, blah, will be hiring only the finest caterers, florists, and
band, of course, blah, blah, blah, would welcome your input, blah, blah. Making sure one
last time that there were no glaring errors, I quickly forged her name and called for a
messenger to come pick it up.
PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com
The knock on the office suite door—which I kept closed this early in the morning since
no one was in yet anyway—came almost immediately, and I was impressed with their
turnaround time, but the door swung open to reveal B-DAD, who was sporting a grin
much too enthusiastic for pre-eightA.M .
“Andrea,” he sang, immediately walking over to my desk and smiling so genuinely it
made me feel guilty for not liking him.
“Good morning, Mr. Tomlinson. What brings you here so early?” I asked. “I’m sorry to
tell you that Miranda’s not in yet.”
He chuckled, his nose twitching like a rodent’s. “Yes, yes, she won’t be in until after
lunch, or so I believe. Andy, it really has been too long since you and I caught up. Tell
