Page 8 of The Five-Star Weekend

She said, “I’m sorry. My father died unexpectedly in December, and I’m still fragile.”

She wouldn’t have been surprised if Isaac had fired her on the spot, but instead he backed away from his computer and took her by the hand, and led her over to the vintage sofa in the loft’s living area. He made her a cup of Yellow Gold tea and brought out an assortment of cashews, Turkish figs, and dried apricots from Kalustyan’s on Lexington. He told Caroline that he’d lost his mother when he was nine years old, and not a day went by that he didn’t mourn her.

He was so sweet in that moment and his loneliness so obvious (his relationship with Sofia was a sham, Caroline decided then; they were together only because they were good for each other’s brands) that she forgot herself. She dismissed Sofia’s request—Please, no trouble—and kissed him. To his credit, he pulled away and said, “This isn’t what you want.” What he meant wasThis will not replace your father’s love.What he meant wasI am in a position of power and you are not and therefore this won’t be fair to you. We have seen stories like this play out before and they always end badly.

Caroline said, breathing into his mouth, “It is what I want. It is.” And she kissed him again.

Caroline receives her mother’s text as she’s leaving Isaac’s loft and beginning the long walk to her sublet on the Upper East Side (it’s too hot for the subway and she doesn’t have money for a cab). Sofia is returning to New York the following day, and as agonizing as it will be for both Caroline and Isaac, the affair has to end.

Caroline and her mother haven’t spoken in months. This, Caroline has to admit, is her fault. Caroline got an A in both Intro to Psych and Social Psych so she understands that she’s punishing Hollis because Hollis is the surviving parent. Everyone at the funeral kept commenting on how “strong” Hollis was, which made Carolinelivid. Hollis used to be a devoted wife and mother, but when her website went stratospheric, she shoved both Caroline and her father into a corner. Well, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but there was a marked difference in their family dynamic. Hollis’s social media presence became her new baby; it was top of mind for Hollis every second of every day. Caroline and her father used to jokingly call Hollis “the Cooking Kardashian,” but now that her father is dead, it isn’t funny. Caroline is furious with her mother for reasons she can’t articulate, and the stark truth is that Caroline is still in so much emotional pain that holding a grudge feels good.

But Hollis has always been intuitive. Caroline wouldn’t be surprised if her mother had somehow sensed that Caroline just experienced the first breakup of her adult life.

Would you consider coming to Nantucket this weekend? Please, Caroline. I’ve done something.

Caroline hates that Hollis has reached out now, when she is at her most vulnerable. She takes a deep breath—the city air is redolent of exhaust, sweat, and trash—and calls her mother.

Hollis answers on the first ring. If she hadn’t, Caroline might have hung up.

“Darling?” Hollis says.

“Yes,” Caroline says.

Neither of them speaks for a moment. Caroline breaks first, mostly out of impatience. “You said you’ve done something. What have you done?” She braces herself for the worst.

“Well,” Hollis says, “I’ve decided to host something called a Five-Star Weekend, and I was hoping you could help.”

All Caroline hears ishostandfive-star,and she thinks,Of course she’s hosting something fancy.Can Caroline end the call? She sort of wants to, but she’s surprised by how much she’s missed her mother’s voice.

Hollis goes on to explain: four friends, one from each phase of Hollis’s life, coming to stay at the house on Nantucket.

To Caroline, the Five-Star Weekend sounds like some kind of internet challenge for boomers. “What sort of help do you want fromme?”

“I’d like you to come to Nantucket and film it,” Hollis says. “The original woman who did it, Moira, took pictures and made a Shutterfly album. But I thought, since you’re a filmmaker”—I’m a college student,Caroline thinks,who, until today, was sleeping with a filmmaker—“you could document our adventures.”

Adventures?Caroline thinks. Like a trip to the needlepoint store? Or ordering a kombucha at Lemon Press instead of a latte? Caroline pictures a glass of chardonnay on a porch railing with beach dunes in the background as Bonnie Tyler sings “Holding Out for a Hero.”

Absolutely not,Caroline thinks. But before she can decline, Hollis says, “I’ll pay you twenty-five hundred dollars. How does that sound?”

It sounds as good as a hot stone massage, a chilled raspberry White Claw, and a sneaky link with Jacob Elordi. Caroline’s pockets are hurting, but she saw the hypocrisy in asking her mother for spending money when she had basically slammed the door in her face.

“Fine, I’ll do it,” she says. Caroline needs funds, but also, thanks to Sofia’s imminent return, she wants to get out of the city. “When do you want me there?”

“Friday morning,” Hollis says. “I’m sorry, I know it means missing work—”

“That won’t be a problem,” Caroline says.

The next day, Caroline shows up at Isaac’s loft wearing black to mark the death of their romance. Caroline can tell by the serene energy in the loft that Sofia isn’t back yet.

“She lands at five,” Isaac says. They gaze at each other with longing and Caroline thinks,One more time?But Isaac slices the air between them with his hand. “We must get back to business.”

Caroline nods. “I’ll be taking tomorrow and Monday off.” She knows she can ask for whatever she wants now.

Isaac frowns, then grasps Caroline’s chin in his fingers so that she has no choice but to look into his brown eyes.Sofia Desmione is not worthy of those eyes,Caroline thinks. “You need time away?” he says. “Where will you go?”

“To Nantucket to see my mother,” Caroline says. “She’s hosting a weekend for her… friends.” After Caroline hung up with Hollis yesterday, she realized she’d forgotten to ask the most important question. She’d texted Hollis:Wait—who did you invite to this thing?

Three dots rose on Caroline’s phone, then disappeared, then rose again, then disappeared again.

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