Page 36 of The Five-Star Weekend

“Can I get you a drink?” Brooke asks. “The others should be back in a minute. We haven’t had dinner yet.”

“A glass of cold water would be just gorgeous, thank you,” Gigi says.

Just gorgeous,Brooke thinks. She gets down one of Hollis’s cobalt-rimmed glasses and pours from the pitcher of chilled cucumber water in the fridge. Brooke hands the glass to Gigi, thinking that Gigi Ling isjust gorgeousherself. And so stylish! Gigi removes her straw fedora, which is cuter and simpler than the fussy straw hat Brooke chose, and Brooke admires her pixie cut. (Brooke longs to shave off her curly mop of hair, but she fears she’d look like Oliver Twist.)

Gigi’s outfit is perfect simplicity: a ribbed olive tank and slim distressed white jeans with frayed hems. How do other people find good jeans? Brooke wonders. Hers are always too high-waisted and show too much ankle. For jewelry, Gigi has layered delicate gold necklaces, and on her wrist she wears one gold bangle and a leather-banded watch. There’s a ring with some kind of cool greenish stone on her index finger. On her feet she wears white Veja sneakers. Gigi has deep brown eyes and luminous skin, and she emanates the kind of rarefied grace associated with women like Princess Diana and Jackie Kennedy.

Suddenly, the glass doors open and Hollis steps inside. Brooke can’t help but feel a bit crushed; she and Gigi have barely met, and now she’ll have to share Gigi with everyone else. Tatum trails behind Hollis, both of them smelling distinctly of cigarettes, and Dru-Ann materializes from down the hall.

“Gigi!” Hollis says. “Is that you?”

The others watch as Hollis strides over to Gigi, offering a hand, but Gigi opens her arms, and Hollis laughs, and the two women embrace.

Henrietta starts barking. She sniffs Gigi’s leg, raises her nose to the ceiling, and howls.

“Henny!” Hollis cries. “Stop!”

Henny’s barking becomes a low, sustained growl.

Gigi laughs. “She probably smells my cat, Mabel.” She reaches out to pet Henrietta and the dog snaps at her.

“Henny!” Hollis yanks her back by her collar. “I’m so sorry, she never acts like this.” To Henny, she says, “I’m banishing you to the dungeon.” She walks Henrietta down the hall. Gigi smiles brightly (and oh so falsely) at the other women, thinking,The dog knows.

When Hollis returns, she says, “Don’t worry, the dungeon is my bedroom, she’ll be fine. Please forgive her—that’s highly unusual.”

“It’s okay,” Gigi insists. “I’ve been growled at by worse.”

Hollis holds out her arm like a game-show hostess. “Let me introduce you to everyone. This is Tatum, my best friend from high school; Dru-Ann, my best friend from college; and Brooke, my friend from when the kids were growing up.”

Brooke notices that Hollis doesn’t call her abestfriend. But she won’t let it bother her; she won’t getoffended;it’s fine—she doesn’t have to be Hollis’s best friend, she’s here, that’s the important thing. But Brooke assumes that everyone in the kitchen noticed that Hollis didn’t saybest friend,and they’re probably thinking that Brooke is inferior.

The rosé has taken Brooke’s good sense hostage. She blurts out, “And Gigi is your best friend from the internet.”

There’s a beat of silence and Brooke chastises herself. She needs toedither words before she speaks.

Gigi laughs. “That makes me sound rather suspect.”

Hollis says, “Let me show you to your room. Dinner is just about ready.” She holds out a hand and Gigi grasps it, and the two of them head down the hall. From behind, it looks as though they’ve known each other all their lives.

Brooke whispers to Tatum and Dru-Ann, “She seems nice!”

“Sure,” Dru-Ann says. “But whoisshe?” She turns to Tatum. “Did Hollis tell you anything about her?”

Tatum blinks at her.

Dru-Ann says, “Are you really going to be like that?”

Brooke looks at the two women. “I guess I didn’t realize you two knew each other before,” Brooke says. “When did you meet?”

“Hollis’s wedding,” Tatum and Dru-Ann say together.

“Oh,” Brooke says. She didn’t know Hollis back then. She met Hollis when they were both pregnant. “What was the wedding like?” Brooke asks.

Neither Tatum nor Dru-Ann responds; the question just hangs there like a fart. It’s a relief when Hollis and Gigi reappear and Hollis shepherds everyone out to the deck for dinner.

17. Fake It to Make It

Caroline pans around the dinner table. For Hollis’s fans, this is the money shot.

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