Page 28 of Hotter in the Hamptons

“Okay!” Ryan said a little too brightly. “Maybe weshouldgo somewhere else.”

Because he was a good friend, he took her home.

***

Lola woke up in her bed, though how she got there, she couldn’t be sure.

Ryan was passed out next to her, his arms over his face. It was too bright in the bedroom, too hot. They were both drenched in sweat. She realized they must have gone to bed with the blinds open, something Justin never would have let happen, and the sun had filled the room and cooked them in its light.

The headache hit her then. There was no glass of water on her nightstand. She was going to have to get up.

She stumbled out of the bed, trying to be quiet. She still had last night’s dress on. At least her shoes were off.

Lola chugged two glasses of water in the kitchen and took some Tylenol from the bathroom. She was glad Ryan was sleeping in her room. Without him, she’d be totally unmoored. Then she remembered he was leaving today for the whole summer. It wasn’t a breakup, but the result was the same: another person she loved gone. How was she going to survive the next three months alone in this apartment, in this city, where everything she did was a reminder of all she had lost? The solitude, she felt, would consume her.

For just a moment in her delirious, hungover state, it occurred to Lola that being alone might be good for her, that she’d never let herself be alone, and that maybe that was why she’d ended up here, with a life that felt all wrong.

But she quickly pushed the thoughts away, desperate to avoid the sting of loneliness, afraid it was a black hole that she’d never find her way out of.

If that meant a summer in the Hamptons? Well, she could do worse. The decision had made itself.

She took her dress off and tossed it onto the floor. And then, in just her bra and thong, she sat at the kitchen table with her laptop and pulled up the Blade website.

“Isn’t traffic to the Hamptons the worst?” the website of the private helicopter service read. This made Lola smile: the hyperbole, the marketing. It was funny. It wasfun. She’d have fun again.

There’d been a time when Lola would have gotten a promo code to get a free ride, but those days were over. Now that she was canceled, she’d be paying full price for a lot of things.Might as well get used to it, she thought, grabbing her Amex. Within minutes, she’d booked the flight for later that same day.

So what if she had no income coming in? She had a large chunk of cash she’d been saving for a rainy day. What was this if not a metaphorical rainy day?

In her office, she surveyed her pile of stuff for Capri. It was everything she’d need for a summer in the Hamptons. Without folding a single thing, she stuffed all of it into her largest suitcase.

By the time Ryan woke, she was showered, drinking a La Colombe cold brew, and rolling out her forehead with her Skinny Confidential roller.

He rubbed his face in the doorway as he eyed her suitcase by the door. “Lola, what’s going on?”

“Giancarlo left a car at the house, right?”

He nodded, blinking slowly. “Yeah, his Jeep stays out there.”

She grinned. “So we don’t really need two cars, do we? We could, perhaps, travel there in a little more style?”

His mouth fell open as he realized what she was saying.

“Cancel your rental car,” she said. “I’m going with you.”

Chapter 6

Lola had used up the entire supply of complimentary barf bags by the time the helicopter landed at East Hampton Airport.

At a certain point, it felt less like she was working through a hangover and more like she was exorcising a demon. Several demons, probably.

She wished she could have enjoyed the helicopter trip more; the views of Long Island and the sparkling Atlantic below them would have been, on any other day, incredibly beautiful. She at least could have gotten some good content out of it. But all she could do was retch into a bag until there was nothing left in her stomach but regret.

In the Uber from the airport to Giancarlo’s cottage, Ryan rolled the windows down with an apologetic smile. “Your breath, babe,” he said. She winced.

The driver handed her a bottle of Fiji water, which she gratefully accepted, marveling at how little dignity she had left.

They drove in silence down the quiet, tree-lined streets, mansionshidden behind verdant hedges.

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