Page 21 of The Show

“Mom, you’re going to ruin your makeup…” I chastised gently, then kissed her cheek. “You look gorgeous, Mom.”

If anyone asked me what I would look like in thirty years’ time, I’d just need to point them in the direction of my mom. Not that she looked sixty-one; she could easily pass for mid-fifties and tonight, dressed in a classic, black strapless ballgown which cut behind her with a bell hem, she looked younger than that.

“I’m just so happy to see you! I missed you this summer; you should have come with us.” She said it like it wasn’t the same thing she said every day I spoke to her. Sometimes I wondered if she even realized the words had lost the meaning, like she said it so much that it was almost part of her subconscious.

“Come on, Abby, you know she’s been busy.” Dad winked and put his arm around me and kissed my head. “Hi, sweetheart, you look beautiful.”

“Thanks, Daddy.”

My mom took a deep breath and pulled herself together.

“You do. You look stunning LoLo. It was definitely the right decision to wear that dress, and that lip color looks good on you. I must speak to Mario about it; I’m always saying you should wear color more often,” she declared like it had been her idea all along and employed Mario – which she didn’t. I made a mental note to remind Mario not to take her call. She then turned to Lauren like it was the first time she’d noticed she was standing next to me. “And you too, Laurie. Both of you girls, so beautiful.”

“Thank you, Abby.” Lauren kissed her cheek. “How was Europe?”

“Wonderful, as always. Honestly girls, you need to get yourself there more often, the men are so handsome.”

“Sure, Mom,” I laughed, “because that’s all we’d go to Europe for. Nothing to do with the history or museums or culture... isn’t that what you go for?”

“Oh, LoLo,” she sighed dejectedly, but didn’t push the point. Yet I knew that wasn’t going to be the last I’d heard of it.

When she wasn’t trying to marry me off, Abigail Slater, to everyone else in her life, was an incredibly well put together lady; a pillar of New York society. When I was a kid, she was always involved in one board or another, though they usually revolved around our schools, but once my brothers and I had left for college, she really stepped up. She was currently on the board of eleven New York arts and charity programs, and she threw a party like no one else. It was one of the reasons my parents spent the summer in Europe; the pull of the summer season over there was too great for my mom to resist.

She put her arm through Lauren’s. “Come on, tell me everything you girls have been up to this summer. I want all the details Lowe’s skipped out on.”

I rolled my eyes, taking comfort from my dad’s arm squeezing around my shoulder as the four of us walked further into the party, out onto the vast lawns beside the lake where fire dancers, stilt walkers and acrobats were wandering among all the guests. We stopped next to a waiter, all of us reaching for a glass before he walked off.

“Where are Ry and Trey?”

“They should be here soon; they left the city about an hour ago.” My mom reached over and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

I immediately replaced it to its previous position, not that she noticed because her hawk-like eyes were already on the guests... and not because each guest was interesting in their own right, she had the look that meant she was scanning around for single men.

“Lauren, sweetie, did you get a look at the guest list? Who’s here tonight?”

Lauren’s eye caught mine before she answered. “No, that was Nancy’s job. It’s probably been under lock and key knowing her. Usual crowd, I guess.”

“Shame,” she muttered under her breath, but her eyes kept wandering the growing crowd, then lifted her arm up in a wave. “Johnny, there are the McKenzies; let’s go and say hello. Girls, we’ll see you later. LoLo…” She reached over and tucked my hair back again.

“I love my mom, I love my mom, I love my mom,” I repeated as they walked off.

“I think your mom’s going to be looking for a while. I’m not sure I’d date anyone who came to one of these parties.”

“I dunno,” I nudged her. “I swear I saw Brad Pitt earlier.”

“Ohmygod…” she laughed. “Come on, let’s go and find the girls. Then the party will really get started.”

An hour later - by my assessment based on the sea of guests, the volume of theooohsandahhhswhen the stilt walkers passed, and the real hugging versus air kisses taking place - the party had passed the starting line. Then, a gong went off and everyone was requested to slowly make their way into dinner.

“Oh, we’re not on the same table,” pouted Kit, as we stood in front of the elaborately illustrated seating plan. “We’re with the boys.”

“What!?” Lauren nudged her out the way with a little too much force, seeing as how Kit almost fell into Beulah. Her eyes moved quicker than her finger as she searched for her name, “What the hell is this shit?! A family table? I wasn’t consulted. Penn separated from the boys? This has Nancy written all over it. Fuck, my table is boring. I’m going to change the placement before anyone else gets there.”

She ran off as quickly as her heels would carry her, and the rest of us moved out of the way so other guests could check where they were seated.

Kit waved us forward. “Come on then, let’s go and find the fun times table.”

“Where are the boys?” I looked around but couldn’t see them anywhere. I hadn’t seen them since Penn had taken them away after he’d returned from his walk with Lucian.

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