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"Of course Why shouldn’t I cook? When Daddy was assigned to Hong Kong we had a chef as like part of the family; he used to talk Cantonese to
and Mother was at the beauty parlor I loved hioing on, Jenny was looking back and forth frohter, shaking her head Of course She should have known she couldn’t fool these two They must have seen that under her facade of self-confidence about the party she was frantic They knew her far too well-and they’d coed each of them in turn
"Since Tom loves Chinese, I decided to take care of the food," Audrey went on, dropping so-like into the wok "But where have you been, hmm? Run into some kind of trouble?"
"Oh-no," Jenny said If she explained what had happened, she’d just get yelled at for going into a bad neighborhood Not by Dee, of course-Deirdre Eliade’s recklessness was matched only by her somewhat skewed sense of hu a ga to need it after all"
"Why not?"
"Well" Jenny didn’t want to explain that, either She didn’t kno to explain it She only knew she needed to look at that box before anyone else arrived "It ?" She peered into the wok to change the subject
"Oh, just so around the kitchen with her usual race, her tailored clothes un -
rease "That’s stir-fried pork and spring rolls to you provincial types Also fried rice and the tri a leisurely sip of Carbo Force, her favorite energy drink, "is death on wheels You have to lift at the gym for a week to work off one pork chop"
"Toht"
Dee gave a h, and hostility flashed across the rooet over it Can’t you call a truce for just one day in the year?"
"I don’t think so," Audrey hu roll out of the ith chopsticks
Dee’s teeth flashed white in her night-dark face "And ruin a perfect record?" she said
"Look, I a to have Tom’s party ruined -not even by o to your rooently and picked up a cleaver
The box, thought Jenny-but she did have to change her clothes She’d better ed her crewneck sweater and jeans for a flowing cream-colored skirt, a tissue-linen blouse, and a beaded batik vest that gloith hundreds of tiny golden threads
Her eyes were drawn to a stuffed white rabbit on the dresser The rabbit was holding a daisy with the words love you eift fro, but one she knew she would keep forever The fact that he wouldn’t say the words in public just made this secret confession all the sweeterp>
For as long as she could remember, she had been terribly in love with Toht of him, it was like a sudden quick ache, a sweetness almost too much to bear She felt it in various places in her body, but it was an e, mainly, and centered in her chest It had been that way since second grade Stuck around the frarade Halloween Hop (in costuraduation dance, at the junior proo, at the beach They had been a couple for so long that everyone thought of thele unit
As always, the very ie of Tom seemed to wrap a thin blanket of coing at her underneath the co at her to think about it
The box again
Okay, go look at it Then think party
She was dragging a brush through her hair when there was a perfunctory tap at the door and Audrey ca rolls are finished and the stir-fry has to wait till the last minute" Audrey’s own hair, which she alore up, was glossy auburn, almost copper Her eyes were chestnut and just now narrowed in disapproval "New skirt, I see," she added "A long one"
Jenny winced To kind Audrey knew it and Jenny knew she knew it "So?" she said dangerously
Audrey sighed "Can’t you see? You’re letting hiet too sure of you"
"Audrey, please-"
"There’s such a thing as being too good," Audrey said firmly "Listen to me, because I know Guys are weird, n’est-ce pas? You never want one to be that sure of you"
"Don’t be ridiculous," Jenny began, then stopped For soame store Eyes as blue as the core of a fla, her head tilted back to look at Jenny through spiky jet-black eyelashes that touched equally spiky copper bangs "If a guy feels too secure, you lose his attention, he takes you for granted Starts looking at other girls You want to keep hi what you’ll do next"
"Like you do with Michael," Jenny said absently
"Oh, Michael" Audrey esture with exquisitely polished nails "He’s just keeping the seat warm until I decide who’s next He’s a-a book? Even Dee thinks you give in to Tom too much"
"Dee?" Jenny raised her eyebrows ironically "Dee thinks all guys are lying hounds As boyfriends, anyway"
"True," said Audrey "It’s strange," she added thoughtfully, "how she can be so right about that and so wrong about everything else"
Jenny just made a wry face at her Then she said, "You know, Audrey,nice first-"
"H," Audrey said
Jenny sighed Audrey was the newcoroup; she’d moved to Vista Grande last year All the others had known each other since eleest of all When Audrey arrived, Dee had gotten-well, jealous They’d been fighting ever since
"Just try not to kill each other during the party," Jenny said Deliberately she pulled her hair back -
the way Tom liked it-and anchored its silkiness with an elastic band
Then she so back to the kitchen"
When they did they found that Michael and Zach had arrived-looking, as usual, as different as night and day
Michael Cohen was shaped like a teddy bear, with dark hair as ruray sweats and the eyes of a sarcastic spaniel Zach Taylor had light hair pulled back in a casual ponytail, an intense beaky-nosed face, and eyes as gray as the winter sky
"How’s the flu?" Jenny said, kissing Zachary’s cheek She could do this safely because she’d been exposed to his gerray eyes softened for just an instant, then went cool again Jenny was never quite sure if Zach liked her or merely tolerated her the way he did everyone else
"Hello, Michael," she said, giving him a pat instead of a kiss The liquid spaniel eyes turned toward her
"You know," Michael said, "soeneration Do we knoe’re doing? Are we any better than the Me Generation? What do we have to look forward to, except driving better cars than our parents? I mean, what is the point?"
"Hello, Michael," said Audrey
"Hello, O light ofroll I see before
"Don’t eat that Put it back on the plate with the others and take it out to the living room"
"I live to serve," Michael said and departed