The High Season(83)
Turns out she has a plane, Ol. Like, when she goes to California or something? She goes in her own plane.
Maybe you’d hate that. Maybe you’d say, she should be arrested for that Spinosaurus-sized carbon footprint.
I just can’t stop myself. I check my phone like fifty times a minute. He hasn’t texted me in three days. And it’s Labor Day weekend and it feels like my very last chance. He might stand me up, he did it once before, when we were supposed to go to Roberta’s in Sagaponack and he said he was going to a party instead because she was boring. Turned out he was right because the dinner party got canceled because of this big storm and because Roberta wasn’t feeling well, so all I did was sit in another rich person’s guesthouse and watch TV on my phone.
Is he ghosting me?
Should I text him?
What if he doesn’t answer?
It’s like stepping off the edge of the world and never landing.
From: Jemma Dutton
To: Lucas Clay
I’m off work at 1 we could maybe get ice cream or something LOL
Ignore that LOL so lame
…
you didn’t tell me what time Saturday
50
DOE FROWNED AT her phone.
Door you’re not answering
…
Sorry this phone keeps calling you Door
…
maybe if I came to the party it would be a good chance to meet her You said there could be something in send a product
…
Said a panic
…
autocorrect is killing me softly
You know, the town
“Sagaponack,” Doe said to the phone. And texted not now see u at home.
She heard the shower turn off. Lark was up early. It would be a busy day. Lark would be at the museum installing Dodge’s inflatables, but Doe really had no reason to go and would be in the way. She didn’t want to go home and bump into Shari, and she didn’t like staying here without Lark.
Lark emerged from the shower in a towel. “Hey, sleepyhead.” She bent over and kissed her, lingering so that Doe slipped her arms around her neck. Lark pulled away.
“Don’t you dare distract me, I am a professional person today. Meeting Dodge and the crew at the Belfry.” She stopped to look at her face in the mirror and ran her fingers along her cheekbones. “I need my game face. Do I look as scared as I feel?”
“I didn’t think you were scared of anything.”
Lark turned. “Hey, I do have a sense of my limitations. Rare, but it happens.”
“High five on your voyage of self-discovery,” Doe said with a straight face.
“Brat.” Lark grinned. “But, really? Sure, I’m stressed, but I’m pumped. It’s my first real curatorial gig. I get to run a crew!”
“Is Tobie helping you?”
“No, I want to do it myself. Prove I have the chops. Besides, it doesn’t seem fair if I’m laying her off. I’ve got a whole list of curators to interview in New York.”
“Wait a second.” Doe struggled to sit up. “Are you firing the whole staff?”
“I don’t know what I’m doing yet,” Lark said. “I mean, maybe people will just want to leave if they aren’t comfortable with the new direction.”
“But…they do good work.”
“I know.” Lark sighed. “I feel bad about it. But really, what’s more important is the new direction, so. And you’re the one who told me I’d just have to hire the right people.”
“What about Catha?”
“Daddy thinks she’s useless. If I hire the right curator and a development person, he doesn’t think we need her. Plus he’s lining up this really amazing consultant.” Lark adjusted the towel. “Okay, right now I feel like you’re thinking I’ll fail.”
“Of course not. I think you can do anything.”
“Because I really think I can do this.” Lark hugged herself for a moment, and the bright hope in her face made Doe wish she really believed in her the way she wanted to. It didn’t matter, though. She was here to protect Lark. Lark would have the title, and Doe would make it look authentic to the world.
Lark disappeared into the dressing room. “I’ve been checking the weather incessantly. Chance of t-storms after midnight, so we’ll be fine.” She stuck her head out of the door. “Guess who I forgot to invite to the party? Lucas!”
“Accidentally on purpose?”
“Maybe.” She ducked back inside. “Anyway it’s weird because of course he knows about it, he lives in Orient, plus Daddy invited Adeline.” Lark came out in a pair of shorts and a lemon-colored lace bra. “I just remembered last night because Daddy told me Lucas was coming over this morning for a breakfast meeting. So I quick sent him a text saying, Hey, you didn’t RSVP. You know, pretending it got lost. And so he texts back, I’ll be there, pretending that I didn’t forget. Modern manners, right?”
“A breakfast meeting?”
“Can you imagine, he hates going anywhere before noon.” Lark pulled a tissue-thin T-shirt over her head. “He brought over a painting. Apparently he made this amazing discovery. A lost painting by his father. From, like, the nineties, his best period.”