Nancy’s Theory of Style by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page B

me you’re staying
at Chateau Winkles.”
    “For now. Bailey, this is my friend,
Milagro.”
    Milagro gave a phony smile and said,
“Oh, we’ve met, Nancy ,
at your wedding.”
    “That’s right,” Bailey said with a nod,
but he kept looking at Nancy .
“Do you want to meet up after dinner?”
    “Sorry, but I’m busy working on Gigi
Barton’s party. You never responded to your invitation.”
      “Didn’t I?” He grinned. “Maybe I’ll see you
there. Bye.”
    He sauntered off and conversation grew
quieter as he passed by and people saw him give a one-armed hug to a former
mayor who was also walking to the exit.
    Milagro said, “Bailey Whiteside is a major
douche, although I believe that’s required of political strategists. He’s met me
several times, and he always acts as if he doesn’t know who I am.”
    “Bailey wouldn’t ignore your bodacious
charms if you’d had the sense to be born with a trust fund. Whenever we went on
vacations together, he was always so nice to me.”
    “I’m sure he was. He was giving you the
hairy eyeball.”
    “That’s a vivid and unfortunate
expression,” Nancy said. “I’ve always wondered what would have happened if I’d met Bailey before I
met Todd.”
    “Because a Whiteside is even more inbred
and entitled than a Chambers, right?” Milagro said. “Nancy, I will concede that
Bailey’s kind of hot in a sleazy prep school way, but I wish you would consider
dating someone for himself, and not because your parents would approve.”
    “If you had a good relationship with
your parents, you might understand,” Nancy said. “Are you going to eat that uni?”
    Milagro pushed the plate toward Nancy . “You have it. You look
like one of those lollypop chicks with the giant head and the stick body. Why
have you starved yourself?”
    Nancy used her chopsticks to pick up the
piece of sushi. “I look fabulous and I haven’t starved myself. I hate the food
Todd likes, slabs of dead animal and tubers with cream sauces.”
    Milagro raised her sake cup. “Welcome
back to civilization, Nancy .”
     
    Back at her apartment, Nancy went over the numbers for Gigi’s party.
Froth wouldn’t make a profit on this event, because Nancy was spending her entire budget on a
grand show to promote her business.
    She realized that she was biting at her
thumbnail and chipping her sea-green enamel. She filed the tip and touched it
up instead of ignoring it, because that’s how tackiness started: one day you
neglect a chipped nail and the next you’re wearing a stained sweat suit with
your hair in a scrunchie. If it ever came to that, Nancy would just lie down in a field and let
the vultures peck out her clumpily mascaraed eyes.
    It was almost eleven when her cell phone
rang. She looked at the ID and was relieved when it wasn’t Todd calling. “Hi,
Lizette!”
    “Hi, Nancy . How are you?”
    “Good. How are you? When are you coming
to the city next? I’m just scheduling things.”
    “I can’t make it anytime soon.” Lizette
paused ominously. “ Nancy ,
I just wanted to tell you personally that…you know that spring thing?”
    “Your weekend party at the vineyard? Don’t
worry. I haven’t forgotten it.”
    “Well, Todd’s coming this year,” Lizette
began, “you know how he and Bill have the bromance going – and we knew it would
be totally awkward for you to come, too.”
    It took a second for Lizette’s words to
sink in. “Lizzie, I’m only away from the house so I can really launch Froth. It
was a business decision that Todd and I made together.”
    “I’m sorry, and I know, and I hate being
in the middle of this,” Lizette said. “I would have fought Bill on this,
honestly, Nance, except that he heard something and he won’t even listen to me.”
    Nancy kept her voice calm. “What did he hear?”
    There was an intake of air at the other
end of the line, before Lizette’s words rushed out. “Bill heard that you left
Todd for someone else. It wasn’t Todd