Lauren Weisberger 3-Book Collection: Everyone Worth Knowing, Chasing Harry Winston, Last Night at Chateau Marmont. Lauren Weisberger

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СКАЧАТЬ helplessly watched them leave Sanctuary, knowing how upset she was but feeling powerless to do anything but watch. When she’d called early this morning, I immediately ducked out of my standing Sunday brunch plans with Will and Simon and jumped in a cab downtown.

      She avoided my eyes and instead concentrated on slicing her pancakes into small, even pieces. Slice, spear, mouth, repeat. I watched this cycle three times before she spoke. ‘Everything’s just fine,’ she said tonelessly. ‘Once he explained everything to me, I could see that last night was just a big misunderstanding.’

      ‘I’m sure. It must have been surprising to see him there when you weren’t expecting it,’ I prompted, hoping to elicit some sort of acknowledgment from her.

      She laughed without pleasure. ‘Well, you know Avery. Likely to crop up just about anywhere, any time of the night. It’s good one of us is social, I suppose, or else we’d drive each other crazy sitting in the apartment all the time.’

      I didn’t know where to go with that, so I just nodded.

      ‘What about you? Looked like you were having fun when I left, talking to Elisa and Philip. Was it a good night?’

      I stared at her, thinking about how awkward I’d felt with Elisa and Philip, as if I were a trespasser in a members-only world – a feeling that had become pretty familiar to me since I’d joined Kelly & Company. I thought about how I’d gotten in the cab and argued to be dropped off alone and how – much to my surprise – Philip hadn’t argued back, not one bit. I thought about how empty my apartment had seemed when I got home, and how even Millington curled up beside me in bed didn’t make me feel much better. And I looked at Penelope and wondered just when, exactly, we had grown so far apart.

      ‘It was all right, I guess. I was hoping to hang out with you more …’ I stopped short when I realized it sounded accusatory.

      She lifted her gaze and looked at me sharply. ‘I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting the situation with Avery. Also, I would have loved for it to be us, going out, like we used to, but you were the one who had us meet up with all your work friends to scout the location. It seems like they’re omnipresent these days.’

      ‘Pen, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. I was just saying that I’d rather hang out with you any day. After you left, it just got worse. Philip was babysitting some girl from home and I shared a cab home with them because I didn’t want to start a big scene at the club, but then people saw me getting in the backseat, and I felt like shit. Oh, and Abby, too. It was just a giant mess and I wish I’d left when you did.’

      ‘So did you go home with him? Where did the girl sleep?’

      ‘No, I just got in the cab because it seemed easier than listening to him throw a fit. I made them drop me off first, but people watching would never know that.’

      ‘Why didn’t you go home with him? And who’s “people”?’ I could tell she was trying to keep everyone straight, but she hadn’t even met all the players.

      ‘Well,’ I lied, ‘I’m not sure I’m ready to get involved in Philip’s world. He’s tied in to just about everyone and everything at work, which makes it all even weirder.’

      ‘I wouldn’t know. You didn’t introduce me,’ she said lightly.

      I felt the reprimand and knew she was right, but I didn’t want to turn it into a big discussion. ‘No? Last night was a little hectic. Trust me, you’re not missing much. He’s gorgeous, that much you saw, but otherwise he’s your basic spoiled party kid, just with a fantastic accent. Damn shame he’s so cute, though.’ I sighed audibly.

      ‘Well, that little speech sounds all well and good, my dear, but you should’ve seen your face when he walked in with that model. I thought you’d die. You like him, don’t you? Admit it.’

      I didn’t know how to say that of course something attracted me to him, but something simultaneously repelled me. I didn’t want to say aloud how flattered I was that someone like Philip could want someone like me, even if he didn’t seem to be all that great of a guy. I didn’t want to explain the entire situation at work, how I suspected Elisa might be jealous that Philip was interested in me, or how Kelly had seemed ready and willing to whore me out to Philip because it meant good things for the business. I just shrugged and salted my omelet, making sure to fix my coffee cup to my lips so I wouldn’t have to say anything just yet.

      Penelope understood that I wasn’t going to get into it then. It was the first and only time in the nearly nine years we’d been friends that I could remember both of us sitting at a table and willingly withholding information from each other. She’d refused to tell me her real feelings about her relationship with Avery; I’d taken a pass on commenting on Philip. We sat in a comfortable enough but foreign-feeling silence until she said, ‘I know I don’t know the entire situation, and of course I know you’re more than capable of handling everything yourself, but please, for me, just be careful? I’m sure Philip is a perfectly nice guy, but I’ve seen enough with Avery’s friends and now your work friends to know that the whole scene just freaks me out. Nothing concrete, but I worry about you, you know?’

      She placed her hand over mine and I knew we’d get back to our old selves at some point. In the meantime, we’d have to settle for thinking about each other from afar.

       11

      ‘Okay, kids, quiet down,’ Kelly announced as she tottered into the conference room in the high heels she wore every single day. ‘Did everyone have a chance to read their Dirt Alerts already?’

      ‘Sure did,’ piped up Leo from the other end of the glass table that looked like it belonged more in a W hotel than in an office. ‘Seems like our favorite new staffer got herself another mention.’

      I felt the familiar loopiness in my stomach begin its rounds. I’d been ten minutes late this morning and hadn’t yet read the Dirt Alert, obviously a major misstep on my part. One of the assistants specifically got in every morning by six A.M. to create the day’s Dirt Alert for all of us – a sort of survey of all the columns, papers, and stories that might, in some way, be related to our clients or industry – and place them on our desks by nine A.M., but everyone generally scanned all the websites when they first got up in the morning, skimming quickly between Drudge, Page Six, Liz Smith, Rush & Molloy, USA Today, Variety, New York Scoop, an assortment of blogs and columns, and a few of the bigger trade headlines. It’s best to know early if something bad happened and your phone was going to ring off the hook, so the Dirt Alert was more of a formality than any sort of breaking news. The only really relevant information we got each morning was the Celeb Alert, which included information on who’s in town, why they’re here, where they’re staying (and under what name), and how to best contact them to bribe or beg them to attend an event. Four straight weeks of logging on to analyze every imaginable website within five seconds of waking up – supplemented by a professional report a few hours later – and the one day I wasn’t fully informed of all the late-breaking gossip, of course, was the only one that mattered.

      ‘Um, I haven’t had a chance to see it yet this morning. And besides, I can’t imagine what could be in there, considering I was checking out Sanctuary this weekend – with all of you – right up until I went home. Alone,’ I added quickly, as though I owed my coworkers this explanation.

      ‘Well, let’s see here,’ Kelly said, picking up a printout of the online column. СКАЧАТЬ