no, hundreds – of successful, handsome, single men in their thirties I know and just make him mine. Yes, that’s the plan.’
Adriana smiled and tapped Emmy’s hand patronizingly. ‘Don’t forget rich, querida. Now, I’m not saying that’s what we all should be doing. Clearly, you need to play a bit first, and I think your little upcoming foray into promiscuity is just what the doctor ordered. But being that I’ve, well, forayed there already—’
‘If by forayed you mean “completely conquered,” then I guess I’d agree,’ Leigh added.
‘Laugh if you must,’ Adriana said, feeling slightly irritated that, as usual, she wasn’t being taken seriously. ‘But there’s nothing funny about a five-plus-carat round stone in a micropave setting from Harry Winston. Nothing funny at all.’
‘Yeah, but it’s pretty funny now,’ Emmy said while Leigh dissolved into laughter. ‘Adriana engaged? It’s impossible to imagine.’
‘No more impossible to imagine than the serial monogamist putting out for every foreign stranger who crosses her path,’ Adriana shot back.
Leigh wiped away a tear, taking care not to pull the delicate skin beneath her eye, skin that was probably already doomed anyway from her smoking days. She wasn’t sure if it was the endorphins from a particularly strenuous yoga class or the semi-dread of having dinner with Russell’s parents later that night, or just the desire to share in her friends’ fun, but before she could stop it – almost before she even knew it was happening – Leigh started to talk without any forethought or awareness.
‘In honor of your acts of bravery,’ she was saying, the words feeling as though they emerged entirely of their own volition, ‘I, too, would like to propose a goal. By the end of this year, I will …’ Her words faded. She’d begun speaking without knowing what to say, assuming something would come, but she had nothing to offer. She found her job mostly rewarding, if a tad boring at times; she was perfectly comfortable with the number of men she’d slept with so far; she’d already snagged herself a boyfriend fitting all of Adriana’s criteria – not just any man but a famous one, a man half of the country and the entire female population of Manhattan clamored to date; and she had finally saved enough to buy her own apartment. She was doing exactly what was expected of her. What was she supposed to change?
‘Get knocked up?’ Emmy offered helpfully.
‘Have plastic surgery?’ Adriana countered.
‘Make your first million?’
‘Have a threesome?’
‘Get hooked on booze or drugs?’
‘Learn to love the subway?’ asked Adriana with a wicked smile.
Leigh shuddered. ‘God, no. Not that.’ She grinned.
Emmy patted her hand. ‘We know, honey. The dirt, the noise, the unpredictable schedule …’
‘All those people!’ Adriana added. After twelve years of friendship, she felt like she knew Leigh better than she knew herself. If there was one thing that drove the poor girl mad – even more than mess or loud, repetitive sounds or surprise – it was crowds. The girl was an anxious wreck these days, and Adriana and Emmy discussed it every chance they got.
Emmy broke the moment of silence. ‘Take it as a good sign that you don’t have an area of your life that requires massive restructuring. I mean, how many people can really say that?’
Adriana nibbled a leftover piece of toast. ‘Seriously, querida, all you have to do is appreciate your perfect life.’ She held up her coffee mug. ‘To changes.’
Emmy reached for her nearly empty glass of grapefruit juice and turned to Leigh. ‘And to recognizing perfection when it’s present.’
Leigh rolled her eyes and forced a smile. ‘To gorgeous foreigners and boulder-sized diamonds,’ she said.
Two glasses met hers and made a wonderful clinking sound. ‘Cheers!’ they all called in unison. ‘Cheers to that.’
If all of her irritatingly verbose colleagues didn’t shut the hell up in the next seven minutes, there was no way Leigh could make it from West Midtown to the Upper East Side by one. Didn’t these people ever get sick of hearing themselves talk? Didn’t they get hungry? Her stomach rumbled audibly as if to remind the room that it was lunch hour, but no one seemed to notice. They were discussing the upcoming publication of The Life and Leadership of Pope John Paul II with an intensity worthy of a presidential debate.
‘Summer is a tough time for a religious biography – we knew that going in,’ one of the associate editors commented with some trepidation, still unaccustomed to speaking at meetings.
Someone from the sales team, a sweet-faced woman who looked far younger than her thirty-some years and whose name Leigh could never remember, addressed the table. ‘Of course summer isn’t ideal for anything other than beach reads, but the season alone doesn’t account for these disappointing numbers. Orders from everyone – B&N, Borders, the independents – are all significantly lower than forecasted. Perhaps if we could generate a little more buzz …’
‘Buzz?’ Patrick, the queeny head of publicity, sneered. ‘Just how do you propose generating ‘buzz’ for a book about the pope? Give us something even remotely appealing and maybe we could work something out. But Britney Spears could tattoo the entire contents of this book on her bare breasts and people still wouldn’t talk about it.’
Jason, the only other editor who had been promoted as quickly as Leigh and whose existence at Brook Harris was the only thing that kept her sane, sighed and looked at his watch. Leigh caught his eye and nodded. She couldn’t wait any longer.
‘Please excuse me,’ Leigh interrupted. ‘But I have a lunch appointment I can’t miss. A business lunch, of course,’ she added quickly, although of course no one cared. She quietly gathered her papers and shoved everything into the monogrammed leather folder that accompanied her everywhere and tiptoed out of the conference room.
She had just swung by her office to grab her purse when her phone rang and she saw her publisher’s extension on her caller ID. Leigh had just decided to screen him when she heard her assistant’s voice call out, ‘Henry, line one. He says it’s urgent.’
‘He always says it’s urgent,’ Leigh muttered to herself. She took a calming breath and picked up the receiver.
‘Henry! Are you calling to apologize for missing the sales meeting?’ she joked. ‘I’m willing to overlook it this time, but don’t let it happen again.’
‘Ha-ha, I’m cracking up on the inside, I promise,’ he said. ‘I’m not keeping you from a lunchtime manicure or a quick jaunt to Barneys, am I?’
Leigh forced a laugh. It was positively eerie how well he knew her. Although technically it was a blowout and a quick jaunt to Barneys. She couldn’t particularly afford either one right now, but her flakiness in both the personal hygiene and gift departments today had mandated that she splurge. ‘Of course not. What can I do for you?’
‘There’s someone in my office I’d like you to meet. Come on over here for a minute.’
Goddammit! The man had a gift for intuitively
