When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger Read Free Book Online Page B

SoulCycle class.”
    â€œWow, I’m impressed. The Miriam Kagan I know is not the Soul kind of girl.”
    â€œYeah, well, I try to go a couple days a week. Not like the other moms. The instructor asked today who was ‘doubling,’ and half the class raised their hands. Three of them were tripling .”
    â€œThree hours of your day and a hundred and twenty bucks—aggressive. Even for Greenwich,” Emily said. “At least in Santa Monica, they don’t admit to it.”
    Miriam dumped in a splash of half-and-half and grabbed a croissant from the plastic bucket of assorted Trader Joe’s breakfast pastries.
    â€œYou can’t outrun a bad diet, you know,” Emily called.
    Miriam gave Emily the finger and shoved the croissant in her mouth.
    â€œA minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.”
    â€œThese hips can handle one croissant, trust me.” Miriam grabbed a love handle with one hand while balancing her coffee cup with the other. The croissant hung out of her mouth as she carefully lowered herselfinto the chair opposite Emily, trying to ignore the sensation of her stomach fat rolling over the waistband of her yoga pants. The high-waisted waistband. With extra compression. “What are you working on?”
    â€œTrying to get my career back. I’m being Snapchatted to irrelevance. When did we get so old?”
    â€œWe’re thirty-six. It’s hardly ancient.”
    â€œLook around. You have three kids. And a professionally decorated house.” Emily surveyed the family room. “It’s lovely, but whoever did this clearly hates color. It’s like fifty shades of gray without the S and M.”
    Miriam nodded. “Exactly how I like it. So, what’s going on? I hardly think it’s fair to say that your career is in the toilet just because Rizzo Benz went with Olivia Belle. Or are we still not allowed to talk about it?”
    â€œIt’s not just Rizzo.” Emily sighed. “Maybe I’m losing my touch.”
    â€œYour touch? You went from being the top stylist in Hollywood to managing top celebrities in crisis. But if you don’t like it, do something else. You clearly can .” Miriam polished off the last of her croissant. “What does Miles think?”
    Emily shrugged. “He thinks like you. I’m overreacting. I’m great. But he’s not even around these days. He’s about to go to Hong Kong for three months.”
    â€œGo with him,” Miriam said.
    â€œI’m not going to Hong Kong.”
    â€œIt’s a great city.”
    â€œMaybe I’m depressed. Look what I’m wearing,” Emily said.
    â€œLooks fine to me. Move in here and you can live in your pajamas all day. Just give up. I have.”
    â€œYeah, you have,” Emily said. “I never thought I’d see Ms. Editor of the Harvard Law Review doing school drop-off followed by SoulCycle class.”
    â€œThat’s harsh. But fair, I guess. You should hear my mother. She’s literally embarrassed by me.”
    â€œYour mother won a Pulitzer when she was twenty-eight and ignored you until you were in college.”
    â€œLast week Matthew told us, ‘When I grow up, I want to be an inventor just like Daddy.’ And then Maisie, without missing a beat, says, ‘Well, when I grow up, I want to go to the gym like Mommy.’ ”
    Emily laughed. “Ouch.”
    â€œYeah, I know. Like, ‘Sweetie, Mommy has a JD/MBA from Harvard. She made partner at the most prestigious firm in the city at thirty-four. Up until a lousy six months ago, Mommy worked eighty hours a week helping multinational companies and was the breadwinner for this family.’ ”
    â€œDid you say that?”
    Miriam snorted. “She’s five. And the goal is not to become my mother, right? I said something inane about whether she grows up to become a mommy or a musician or an architect or a firefighter,