The Darlings by Cristina Alger Read Free Book Online Page B

came with their drinks.
    â€œOh, I know. It’s really nothing. It’s not his fault. He’s just a little—I don’t know, distant?—lately. My father’s the same. It’s stressful at their office right now. And Adrian’s off with clients a lot, too, and I’m alone. I hate being alone. It makes me feel needy, you know? I wasn’t like this before.”
    Two middle-aged men, both in red power ties and pinstriped suits, sat down at the adjacent table. They stared predatorily at Daria. One leaned in and whispered something to the other; they both grinned. Daria recrossed her coltish legs and ignored them.
    â€œEveryone’s stressed right now,” she said. “Jim’s been a maniac, honestly. He takes calls from Asia in the middle of the night. He screams at waitresses who take too long with our food. Last week he bit my head off for ordering too much Pellegrino on Fresh Direct. Pellegrino, honestly. The guy gets driven around in a chauffeured Escalade and he’s bitching at me about Pellegrino. I love your bracelet, by the way. Is that new?”
    Lily managed a weak smile. She held out her wrist. The bracelet was new. Though she knew it was counterintuitive, there was something about the downturn that made Lily want to buy more, not less. She had been shopping a lot lately, with almost reckless abandon. She would “stop in to look” on her way to somewhere else, and somehow emerge with an espresso maker or a pair of espadrilles. She bought birthday presents for no one in particular, dresses without occasion. If the wares were small enough (a pair of earrings; lingerie) she would stuff them in her purse and dispose of the shopping bags and price tags and put the receipts into a wastebasket on the street. The closets were bursting with new things. It wasn’t even that she was hiding them from Adrian; seeing new things, tags still on, made her uncomfortable.
    The satisfaction of a new pair of earrings or shoes had an immediate satiating effect, but one which would be replaced later in the day with a tidal wave of guilt.
This is it for the month
, she would think furiously. But then a particularly dull Monday would confront her; Adrian would be out of town and her girlfriends were busy and her date book was glaringly empty, and Lily would find herself once again wandering though the aisles of Bergdorf Goodman or Williams-Sonoma or even Duane Reade, hungrily snapping up things she hadn’t known she needed until she saw them.
    â€œMaybe you’re bored,” Daria suggested, shrugging. “Have you been working lately?”
    â€œA little. Barney’s is taking our holiday leash line. So that’s fun.” In truth,
Bacall
was moving sideways, and Carter was unwilling to sink more money into it until the economy picked up. There was still an occasional online order, and there was the Barney’s deal, but at the end of the day, it was still a net-negative cash-flow situation. More of a vanity project than a job. Lily found herself working on it less and less, her productive hours dwindling from nearly full-time to decidedly part-time, then finally to scant, now-and-then hours, the kind tucked away for hobbies or household chores.
    Lily swirled the drink in front of her, watching as the ice melted and wet beads began to form on the outside of the glass. “Do you ever worry about Jim?” She asked casually.
    Daria’s eyes widened. “Worry?” She put down her drink. “What do you know?”
    Lily looked up, and catching the worried look in her friend’s eyes, felt instantly terrible. “Nothing!” she exclaimed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply anything. Really, Jim is smitten with you.”
    Daria nodded uneasily. She glanced away; one of the middle-aged men at the next table caught her eye.
They look like traders
, Lily thought.
Or hedge fund managers. A little too slick to be investment