by Jenny Lee
“There are no takesie-backsies in life, babe. You’ve got kitten claws anyway. Trust me, that wasn’t mean. Allow me to demonstrate mean: Eleanor is a blandiose slunt whose skanctimonious drama-dialing must be a real thorn in your pretty French-manicured paw.”
“Bea, stop!” Anna stifled a laugh. “She’s Alexander’s little sister.”
“Half-sister,” Beatrice corrected. “Look, I’m a stepsister, which is even lower than a half-sibling, but if my older stepbrother Royce’s girlfriend didn’t come to my birthday party, I’d get over it and we’re supes tight. Eleabore is your bf’s problem, not yours. And remember, everything can be solved if you throw enough money at it. Get her a PEGG.” Anna looked at her, confused. “A preemptive guilt gift … My dad’s the king of such things. I knew exactly when he was gonna miss one of my birthdays because I’d get some super-mongo gift ahead of time. He bought me an alpaca when he was gonna miss my tenth birthday. Hell, I was hoping he’d have to go to London for my sweet sixteen so he’d buy me a Bentley.”
Anna’s father didn’t do the pre-emptive strike thing but would instead show up with a GGAF, guilt gift after the fact. When he came home from Singapore two days ago, he brought her a new orange ostrich Birkin bag because he felt bad for missing Westminster.
“I’m not taking no for an answer. You deserve to have your own life, too. I know there’s way more to Anna K. than being Alexander W.’s perfect girlfriend, hell I danced with her just the other night. Dig deep and rescue your inner party-girl, ’cause my bash is gonna be fun as fuck. I’d tell you what Vronsky’s planning to wear, but he’d Marie Antoinette me in a flash.” Beatrice dropped an imaginary guillotine over her neck and made a cartoonish dead-queen-walking face.
At the mention of Vronsky’s name, Anna’s suspicions were confirmed. When she first opened Bea’s Evite, the first thing she thought was that the timing seemed odd. Beatrice was known for her parties, but they were usually planned far more in advance than this one. Alexia asked his cousin to throw a party so he could see me! She couldn’t be certain, but she knew it was true.
“Okay, okay. I’ll be there. I just have to figure out how to deal with Eleanor,” Anna said. Bea was right, it’s not like she was married to Alexander. She was only seventeen!
“God help me for saying this, but you can bring the hand-washing Jesus freak if you must.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Anna said, holding up a stop-palm. “She’s the worst at parties. My brother calls her a fun-Roomba. Speaking of, did you…”
“Invite your brother? Of course I did,” Bea purred, happy that everything was going exactly as she knew it would. “You know … if you and my cousin end up together, I’d be thrilled to have you and your hunky soupdumpling big brother in the fam.”
Anna blanched at Beatrice’s directness, but she didn’t let on as she found her place in the book she was reading.
“Okay, gorgeous, get back to geeking out, I’m going to lunch,” Beatrice said, and strutted off quite pleased with herself. Though she was still uncertain whether Anna was ready to quit the zero and get with the hero.
“Hey, Bea, wait up!” Anna called out. “Can I joinsie? I’m ravenous, too.”
Oh me, oh my, Bea thought to herself as she waved Anna to come with. Vronsky may have caught a pretty little fly in his web after all.
XX
On the day of Bea’s party, there was a 70 percent chance of snow. Anna’s father insisted she and Steven take the Cadillac Escalade, which was the safest of all his cars (since Anna refused to drive the Hummer). Anna, Steven, and Lolly planned to leave Greenwich in the afternoon and would arrive at Bea’s family estate well before sundown. Bea was hosting a pre-party catered dinner for her A-list friends, the three of them plus twelve others who were all invited to spend the night.
“Kimmie isn’t coming?” Anna asked when she saw Lolly and Steven arrive from the city by themselves. “I had Bea send her an invitation.”
Lolly shook her head. “Kimmie’s been a little under the weather lately.”
Anna frowned. She had been hoping Kimmie would come so Anna could clear the air between them. Anna hated the idea of girls letting boys come between them. But after Kimmie had confessed her feelings for Vronsky and then seen Anna dance all night with him, Kimmie probably thought the worst of her. And Anna didn’t blame her. “Is it because she hates me?”
“Don’t be silly. Kimmie could never hate you. That whole Vronsky thing was just a dumb crush. I never wanted or expected it to amount to anything. They had only gone out a few times before Jaylen’s party, so she had no right to get that upset.”
Anna wasn’t aware that Kimmie and Vronsky had spent any real time together, but she didn’t let on that the news bothered her. “Would it help if I called her? She still has time to make it. We don’t have to go up early for the dinner.”
“Oh no, Anna, you’re too sweet,” Lolly responded. “Kimmie’s actually been sick for a few weeks now. In fact, my mom is taking her out West to see a specialist and spend a weekend at a spa. They’re leaving tomorrow morning, so even if she wanted to come, she couldn’t.”
Satisfied by the excuse, Anna dropped the subject.
Lolly was of course concerned about Kimmie, but she truly believed her younger sister would be fine, and she was super excited to be included in Beatrice’s A-list inner circle, which she knew was only because of Anna. She had seen pictures of Beatrice’s country house in one of her mom’s back issues of Architectural Digest, and the property was incredible. Each of the eight bedrooms were decorated in the style of various historical decades, starting with the roaring twenties and including all the fun decades—the Stepford Wife fifties, the groovy sixties, the disco seventies, the feather-haired eighties—but skipping the depressing ones that involved the Great Depression and those world wars. Every room contained a custom jukebox that supplied a soundtrack of music from that decade in time.
Normally, Beatrice assigned everyone a number, and that was the order in which the guest got to pick their bedroom. Lolly had her heart set on getting the sixties “make love, not war” bedroom, which would be the best fit for the costume she had chosen for herself, but she didn’t know what number they would get. She was going as young Cher, and she had found a Bob Mackie–inspired jumpsuit with a zipper that went all the way down to her crotch. She had wanted Steven to go as Sonny, of course, but he thought the big pornstache made him look ridiculous. He was going as John Wick, in a Luca Mosca skinny black suit (the same one that Keanu wore in the movie), complete with bullet holes, blood splatter, and a stuffed beagle puppy.
During the car ride, Lolly finally summoned the nerve to ask Anna what she was wearing to the party. She didn’t know why she felt weird about asking, but she did. Perhaps it was because Anna was effortlessly chic and didn’t have to try hard to look beautiful and cool. Anna confessed she still hadn’t decided, but she had a few different options and would decide when they got there. It was exactly this casual confidence that blew Lolly away. Lolly hoped that Anna might volunteer the options she was mulling over, but she didn’t. Anna seemed unusually quiet, but then, Lolly hadn’t ever been on a car trip with her longer than a taxi ride, so perhaps this was what she was always like.
Lolly’s mind now drifted to Steven, who was also unusually reserved, but he had been acting weird ever since Valentine’s Day and Lolly was growing used to it. At first, she pestered him to talk to her and tell her what was wrong. He kept insisting that nothing was wrong, he was just distracted by his heavy course load and his dad was cracking the whip about getting serious about his P.G. applications. (It had been decided by his father that Steven needed one more year to shore up his transcript to get into an Ivy, especially with the blowback from the Varsity Blues scandal.) Lolly wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not, but he told her he was going to increase his tutoring sessions with Dustin from three times a week to five, which seemed to back up his story. This bummed Lolly out because the other two afternoon
s of the week they usually spent together going to SoulCycle or catching a movie.
She worried that perhaps “Brad” was back in the picture, but when she asked Steven point-blank about it, he swore up and down that he had never texted or seen her again. He even offered up his phone so that Lolly could see for herself, and though she knew she should refuse and tell him that she trusted him, she didn’t. She took his phone and read all through his texts and emails, discovering only that boys were super-boring texters. She had noticed that his text strand with Dustin was only a day or two long, but when she asked Steven about it, he said he had accidentally deleted it. This sounded plausible to Lolly, knowing that out of all of Steven’s friends, Dustin was the least likely to be a troublemaker. Lolly was happy that Steven and Dustin were becoming closer of late. Dustin was a good influence on him, and she knew that Dustin was fond of her, which made her feel good.
“Steven?” Lolly asked. “Did you invite Dustin?”
“I did,” Steven replied, eyes on the road. He was driving up to Bea’s house while Anna was in charge of driving home, the logic being that Steven would be hungover in the morning, as he always was after a big party.
“Well? Is he coming?” Lolly asked, annoyed at the one-sided conversation, though she would never dare to snip at him with his sister in the car.
“He was supposed to be driving up with his brother tonight, but he texted me this morning and said something came up and he couldn’t make it.”
“I wonder if something happened with Nicholas?” Lolly mused. “I hope not, Dustin told me the other day that he’s been clean for almost three months now.”
“You should tell Dustin to take the train,” Anna piped up from the backseat. “I like Dustin; he’s a good egg.”
“That’s what I always say!” Lolly exclaimed, happily.
“That’s because we’re good eggs, too, Lolls. Takes one to know one.” Anna sat up and put her arms around the passenger seat, giving Lolly a friendly hug. “Hey, Steven told me you have your heart set on the sixties room, and since Bea gave me first dibs, I’ll be sure to snag it and then I’ll take whatever number you guys get, okay?”
Lolly was so overcome by Anna’s show of generosity, she teared up. Not only that, she found it so comforting to know Steven had been listening to her when she voiced her desire for that room in particular. His putting in the extra effort to make sure she got what she wanted delighted her. All Lolly’s paranoid thoughts vanished and she let out a deep sigh of relief.
Ava Max’s “Sweet but Psycho” bumped on the satellite radio but before Steven could change the station, Lolly and Anna both squealed, “OMG! I love this song!” right at the very same time. The two of them laughed, and Steven called jinx, then turned up the volume and smiled, happy that his girlfriend and his sister were getting along so famously. Steven was driving away from his troubles, looking forward to one of Bea’s infamous parties, observing the speed limit because of the eight ball he had in his hip pocket.
This night away was going to be what the doctor ordered for all three of them.
XXI
The sixteen teenagers were seated at a long table with three Christofle silver candelabras set in the center. Beatrice sat at the head of the table. On her right were Anna; Vronsky; her best most loyal BFF, Adaka, who happened to be actual Nigerian royalty; Murf; Daler and Rowney, fresh off a flight from Milan; and Addison and her twin brother, Benjamin, the teen stars of the biggest Disney Channel show since Hannah Montana, who were in town from LA. On Beatrice’s left were Steven; Lolly; Rooster, the Wick’s star quarterback; Brayton, a ballerina from Stockholm and the daughter of Beatrice’s mom’s best friend; LiviX2, a pop star duo whose real names were Olivia and Livingston, second cousins who recently inked their first record deal and were playing at Coachella in a few months; and last but not least, Dandy Zander, who went by DandyZ, Beatrice’s gay CrossFit-junkie bestie.
An A-list such as this only worked because no one had to compete with anyone else. Each and every one of them had won the lottery, except for Murf, but that was what Bea liked about having her cousin’s old baseball buddy in the mix. She kept an eye on him to make sure he didn’t appear to be uncomfortable, but he was seemingly at ease in the present company.
When Murf had walked into the dining room and saw that he was sitting between a Nigerian princess and a pair of runway models, he turned to Vronsky and said, “After tonight you should kill me, so I can die a happy man.”
“I’m the one who’s happy,” Vronsky replied. “Really pumped we got back in touch.”
“I wish I could take all the credit, but I have a feeling the real reason you’re so stoked just entered the room.” Murf lowered his voice as Anna K. glided toward them.
Anna’s eyes grew wide at the sight of Murf and she hurried over to hug him. Vronsky couldn’t help but feel a mild twinge of jealousy seeing her in another guy’s arms, even though he knew it was nothing more than a friendly embrace. “You know my boy Vronsky, I assume,” Murf said, detaching from Anna’s hug.
Anna smiled at her blue-eyed suitor. “I believe we’ve met once or twice.”
“How do you do?” Vronsky asked formally and made a show of taking her hand and placing a delicate kiss on it as he bowed.
Murf chuckled to himself. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go elucidate my tablemates as to the myriad counterintuitive benefits of polyamory. Yeah, Mr. S. got me one of those word-a-day vocab calendars.”
Anna and Vronsky both laughed as Murf strutted off.
“So, how do you know Murf?” she asked.
“He was a power hitter shortstop when I played first base for the Greenwich Blue Jays,” Vronsky told her. “When we were seven years old. We lost touch for a long time, but recently reconnected.”
“Do you know he works at Staugas Farms?”
“Yes, I think I may have heard that…”
Anna subdued her excitement, as now she knew for certain that the boy on the motorcycle had been him, but before she could respond, a bell sounded and Beatrice called out, “Dinner, my darling dearhearts, is served!”
Anna and Vronsky headed to the table, and she was pleased (though not surprised) to find that they were seated next to each other. Anna glanced around the room, wondering if anyone was watching them, but no one seemed to care. The only person Anna had to be a bit cagey around was Lolly, but Lolly was busy fawning over LiviX2, telling Olivia and Livingston how much she loved their newest single, “You Only Liv Twice,” and that she was dying to go to Coachella and hear them perform live, and of course get the chance to see her current fav Ariana Grande who was headlining this year. They offered to hook her up with some VIP artist guest passes (which were one step higher than the regular VIP passes anyone could purchase) if she was willing to trek all the way out West, to which she asked if they were serious, to which they said, “Yeah, no biggie,” to which Steven said he was sure that that could be arranged for Spring Break, to which Lolly threw her arms around her boyfriend’s neck and shouted how much she loved him to the rest of the room.
Anna told herself to relax: No one here cares about your secret crush.
After everyone sat down, Beatrice tapped her glass with a fork. “Before we eat, I’m going to start by introducing everyone, but I’m not going to name the person. It’s your job as guests to guess who I’m talking about.” It was games like this one that gave Beatrice her reputation for being the life of every party. Those who knew Beatrice well might have worried about what she would say, but Beatrice was on her best behavior, for she knew the key to a good party was getting everyone loosened up and feeling good.
“Number one: we met naked in a bubble bath,” she began, waiting for the first guess.
DandyZ sat up in his seat and shouted, “Your delectable cousin, Count Vronsky!” DandyZ made a kitten claw and growled a little rowr Vronsky’s way.
“You are correct, lovey,” Bea said. “Now don’t be jealous, girls, but as babies Vronsky and I were bathed to
gether countless times.” She paused for a moment. “Number two: we met and bonded over our fondness for the Fresh Prince.”
Anna knew this one, but she could tell Lolly knew it as well, so she let her call out the answer. “That would be none other than the Fresh Princess,” Lolly said and bowed toward Adaka, who gave the table the queen’s wave.
“Very good, sweet Lolly, very good,” Beatrice said. “Now, for number three: we met when I ‘accidentally’ wandered into the Wick boys’ locker room by mistake. I didn’t get in trouble because I told him my eyes were dilated from my optometrist appointment.” She covered her mouth for a second like she was telling a secret. “It was a total lie! I just wanted to see how everyone was hanging…”
Murf’s hand shot up.
“We’re not in school, Murf, no need to raise your hand,” Beatrice said.
“Oh word, my bad,” Murf said. “I bet that’s my boy Rooster right there.”
“Correct!” Beatrice said. “And quite the package he is. Upstairs and down.”
Vronsky fired a look at Murf. “How’d you know that?”
Murf shrugged. “Honestly, he’s the only one of y’all who looks like he plays sports.”
“Number four!” Beatrice commanded the attention back to her. “We met in the Valentino showroom in Milan, but we bonded in the bathroom ten minutes later when we … ahem … powdered our noses together.”
Daler’s lanky runway model arms extended over her and Rowney, pointing down at both of them. “That was us! But we weren’t putting on makeup, we were doing blow…”
Rowney jabbed her pointy elbow into Daler’s exposed rib cage. “You’re not supposed to guess if it’s you, and FYI, she wasn’t being literal when she said ‘powdering our noses,’ she was being euphorical.”