The High Season(35)

To: Mom

Lucas said he could take me sometimes

From: Mom

To: Jem

We hardly know him. So no.

From: Jem

To: Mom

This is unbelievable

From: Mom

To: Jem

Maybe you could do it sometimes on your day off. Most important you made a commitment to the farm stand and to Penny who got you the job.

From: Jem

To: Mom

Dad said yes

From: Mom

To: Jem

I say no.

From: Jem

To: Mom

I AM NEVER SPEAKING TO YOU AGAIN





* * *



—

FOR A MONTH she’d used product in her hair, worn new shoes, borrowed linen and crisp cottons from Carole’s closet, taken notes in meetings, gently prevented Catha from utilizing her usual habit of taking credit for things she had little to do with. Carole had sent her messages of encouragement: Heard you did a fabulous job at the board meeting! The Garden Club loves you! I really think you’ve got this.

In the afternoons she would look out into the humming hive of the office, Tobie at the computer, Vivian getting a cup of coffee, Mark hurrying by with supplies for the art camp. She looked beyond them out the window to the trees outside, to the road to the village, and her neighborhood, and her friends, and her daughter, and the boards and nails and walls and windows of her house. That’s what kept pounding in her brain, in her heart. I can’t lose this.





18


JEM’S PHONE

    From: Annie Doyle To: Jemma Dutton Mr McManPants looking for you From: Jemma Dutton To: Annie Doyle He’s amazing right From: Annie

To: Jem

Yeah but. Sorta skeeves me the way he keeps buying fruit from us. Actually you. He never gets on my line …

btw sorry about group chat drama going on w Meret just so you know. what is this #mayflower thing From: Jem

To: Annie

Dropped out of group chats canceled my Snapchat so I don’t know and don’t care tra effing la I’ve got bigger things than high school on my mind But she is bitch queen, no lie From: Annie

To: Jem

seriously if this was “The Lottery” she’d be the kid w the rock





19


THE THING ABOUT dating Lucas was, you were never alone. Parties, groups, restaurants, phone. Even during sex Doe felt a crowd. At a certain point he would stop kissing her, considering the job done. His tongue would lie like a slab of Spam in his mouth, and she knew, on top of him, that she’d lost him to the porn in his head.

Despite that, the sex was good. A workout. Didn’t matter anyway, because her head was full of Lark.

There had been long lunches at Sant Ambroeus in Southampton, there had been a beach walk, and there had been a kiss that Doe still thought about while Lucas was thinking about porn. It fizzed inside her. Snap crackle pop. Lucas had spent most of June in the city, except for weekends and Mondays. Daniel Mantis flew out on the weekends, so Lark was always unavailable then, which made Doe suspect that Daniel didn’t know that Lark preferred women.

Doe had rules. After three weeks, she knew if it was going to last six. After six weeks, she knew it would be three-months-worthy. After three months she didn’t know, because past that was an unknown country. She always had a backup, someone in the wings. She never went exclusive until someone asked her if she would. That was fine, but they had to ask. Simple rules. She should write a book. Only problem was, success depended on the possession of instinct and cunning. Most people were like Shari, they went into a relationship with hope and amnesia. Every fucking time.

    “Good philosophy,” Lucas told her when she explained why it didn’t bother her that he was constantly texting other girls. “That’s why you’re my favorite.”

She did not add that she knew he asked her out because of proximity and laziness, because he was stuck at Adeline’s and needed company on the ferry. Not so much for the ride over but the ride home. He was always disappointed on the way home. The party was never what he thought it would be. It always sucked.

Yet he never said no, and he was invited to everything. Doe no longer needed to put a wineglass in her purse, or jam her bike in a hedge. She’d been boosted to the top-tier parties. She herself could be spotted in various Instagram accounts thanks to Lucas, along with comments like “hawt!” and “yesss deedy” and “omggdamn.”

In only a month she’d been able to sell enough of her own pictures to float her through July at the Doyles’, and at summer rates. Seekrit-hamptons was up to 678,000 followers, and there was an online buzz about who could possibly be behind it. It had been mentioned in Hamptons Magazine right next to “Trendy Workouts You Need Right Now,” and a lively speculation about who was running it had taken up a column in Dan’s Papers. Who had that much access and style? Rumor flitted from models to bloggers to famous wives, and Jessica Seinfeld was trending.

Adeline had leased Lucas a white Jeep for the summer. He rarely stayed on the North Fork; all of their dates had been in the Hamptons. They’d just been to a brunch party for two hundred in Montauk to celebrate the opening of a sunglass pop-up shop, and Doe was tired and wanted to go home. For the last hour they’d played “if you were an emoji what would you be” with a table of at least twenty people, all drunk, and when Doe had said “an exploding star of sorry to be here,” Lucas had laughed and jingled his car keys.