Olivia gave her the penetrating look that made her such a fearsome litigator, but Natalie didn’t balk. Then she sighed and said, “I guess I’m not surprised she called you instead of me. I probably would’ve said something that sounded ‘judgy.’?”
“You? Judgy?Never,” Natalie said.
“Okay, I deserved that. And I’m sorry for giving you such a hard time the other day.”
“Thanks,” Natalie said. “I appreciate that.”
“I know I can be a bit of a control freak. But I’m working on it.” Natalie raised her eyebrows, and Olivia laughed. “Fine, I could try harder. But trust me, this weekend has only served as a reminder that the more I try to control things, the worse they become.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Natalie said. “I think I do the same thing. But you’re just a lot better at it.”
“Trust me, I’m not.” She paused. “I suppose I need to accept that you can’t make people do things. Ornotdo things. You can only manage your own reactions.”
“If that’s the best insight you’re getting from your four-hundred-dollar-an-hour therapist, you’re getting ripped off,” Natalie said with a smile.
“Who said my therapist was four hundred dollars an hour?”
“Most people would’ve responded to that with ‘who says I have a therapist?’?”
“Not in New York.” Olivia smiled back. “We should head back to your antique-filled prison. The inmates are getting restless. We need to distract them from the fact that Marigold’s MIA.”
“I’ll be there in a sec. There’s something I need to do first.”
Natalie found Susan Denver on the patio, surrounded by a stack of manuscripts. “Oh, hello there,” she said as Natalie approached. “You probably think I’m nuts, schlepping up here with all this paper. But I can’t edit on a computer. I’ve accepted that about myself.”
“No judgments here. I have six books in my suitcase. And a Kindle.”
Susan smiled. “I told my husband the story about you flying down to Florida with the horse, and we both cracked up. It’s such a great visual.”
Do it, Natalie told herself.Tell her about your book!She imagined Marigold giving her a big thumbs-up and mouthing,You’ve got this!
So what if she came across as pushy? She’d spent far too much of her life worrying about what other people might think about her. It’d already cost her Jonathan, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to let it cost her a potential book deal. “You know, I should’ve mentioned this the other day, but I’m actually querying a novel about an Upper East Side tutor. I’ve been pitching it asThe Nanny Diariesfor tutoring.”
“Really?” Susan’s eyes lit up. She opened her purse and rummaged for a bit before producing a business card. “Will you send it to me? I’d love to read it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXOlivia
Olivia couldn’t believe it was only one p.m.—there were still three hours until the wedding party was supposed to gather at the yacht club. Four hours until the actual ceremony. But it felt like she’d lived multiple lifetimes since waking up in Zack’s room that morning.
Lulu had driven over to the inn to meet her friends for lunch and had asked Olivia if she wanted to join. Although Olivia felt like she’d been eating and drinking nonstop since dawn (she didn’t even want to imagine what the room service bill for the bridal suite would look like), she refused to turn down any chance to hang out with Lulu. She already regretted all the opportunities she’d squandered—family dinners she’d skipped for work, vacations she’d bailed on to travel with friends instead. She wasn’t going to miss out on whatever time they had left…
The lobby was even more packed than it’d been earlier in the day, and Olivia felt a bit self-conscious walking around in full makeup,hair-sprayed updo, and a floor-length bridesmaid’s dress. No one seemed to take much notice of her, however. There was a strange, slightly manic energy in the inn: a long line stretched out from the check-in desk, bellmen rushed around with piles of luggage, and guests exchanged loud, jubilant greetings. She avoided eye contact with Mrs. Varick, who stood in front of the concierge desk, speaking animatedly to a young man with a tight smile. Olivia caught the words “sloppy presentation” and “if you’re going to work in this country, you need to speak English” before hurrying on.
A man with a laptop sat in one of the leather armchairs, shouting to be heard in what appeared to be a Zoom meeting. “You gotta trust me, Craig. I know this market, and there’s huge upside here for anyone with the balls to withstand a little turbulence… It’s up to you. But you have to move fast or else—” He cut himself off to glare at an older woman struggling to answer her loudly ringing phone. “Seriously?” he muttered.
“You could always go up to your room,” Olivia said sweetly. “You know, the one with the walls and the doors? It could be helpful.” She sauntered off, recalling Zack’s words from the day before.Not all of us have been tricked into believing moving money from one corporation’s account to another is a matter of life and death.God, he’d really gotten into her head. It was for the best that he hadn’t wanted anything more than a one-night stand—if they’d actually started dating, Olivia probably would’ve ended up moving to Brooklyn and getting into heated arguments about the Park Slope Food Co-op newsletter.
“Hey,” Andrew said, emerging from the inn’s small library. “Have you seen the honor bar ledger? Look what these doofuses did.” Then he did a double take and whistled. “Wow… you look amazing.”
Olivia brought her hand up to her elaborate updo and posed. “What? This? I just threw it up so it’d be out of my face when I went for my run.” She extended a foot to show off her strappy sandals. “I can probably do four or five miles in these.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Andrew said with a grin. “So your foot’s okay?”
“Miraculously healed. So what did you want to show me?”
Olivia followed him inside the library, where he pointed to a bunch of hastily scribbled names from the night before. “Amanda Hugginkiss?” she read. “I thought she’d RSVP’d no.”
“It’s a joke fromThe Simpsons. You know, like, a man to hug and kiss?”
