Free Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand

with Sancerre), and Malbecs
     reminded her of Edge (that night at Picholine, which she could
not
allow herself to dwell on). Margot wished she could look at a wine list and not think
     of men at all. She wished she could look at a wine list and think about herself.
    She handed the list to Autumn. “Would you mind picking the wine?”
    Autumn looked so happy that Margot immediately felt petty for denying her this tiny
     pleasure in the first place. “I’d love to!”
    Margot leaned back in her chair and tried to relax. Jenna and Finn were talking between
     themselves sotto voce, which Margot found rude, if completely predictable. Finn seemed
     to still be in foul humor. She had always been petulant and spoiled. When Finn was
     seventeen, she had landed a job on Nantucket, nannying for the Worthington family,
     who were friends of Beth and Doug Carmichael. Finn had lasted thirty-six hours before
     she quit. She missed Connecticut, she claimed, and she missed her parents. What Finn
really
wanted was to return to Darien in order to have sex with her boyfriend, Charlie Beaudette,
     whileher parents—the ones she purportedly missed—were on vacation for two weeks in the
     south of France. Beth and Doug had tried to talk Finn into staying—she would outgrow
     her homesickness, she would have a wonderful summer—but Finn was determined to go,
     and the Carmichaels were powerless to make her stay. Margot had been on Nantucket
     that same week and had a front-row seat for the drama. Back then, Drum Jr. was less
     than a year old, and Margot was working as an associate principal at Miller-Sawtooth.
     As a new mother and a placement professional, Margot had determined that Finn lacked
     character, had no sense of responsibility, and no hustle. Margot could not abide people
     without hustle. Finn’s inner core, Margot suspected, was as soft as a rotten banana.
    Thankfully, the wine arrived, and they ordered their meals. Jenna turned to include
     Autumn and Margot in the conversation, although Margot couldn’t keep track of what
     they were talking about from one minute to the next. Her mind was on other things.
     She had ordered the crab cake to start, Autumn had the chowder, Jenna and Finn had
     both gotten the foie gras. Margot thought, in no particular order: It was funny the
     way Jenna and Finn always ordered the same thing, and they had dressed alike. Had
     they ever had a fight? If so, Margot didn’t know about it. They had been friends for
     more than twenty-five years, and it had always been harmony. The summer of the nanny
     job, Jenna had supported Finn’s decision to go home. She was the one who had confided
     to Margot that the real reason Finn wanted to go home was to screw Charlie Beaudette.
     Jenna had found it romantic—instead of stupid, immature, and shortsighted.
    Margot allowed that her bitterness regarding Finn might have been born of jealousy.
     Margot herself had never had a friend the way Jenna had Finn. She had had friends,
     of course, some casual, some closer, but Margot and her friends had bickered andswitched alliances; this had been true in high school, and then again in college.
     As an adult, Margot and Drum Sr. had become friends with the people whose children
     went to school with their children, and did the same sports and activities as their
     children—which was, Margot realized, an insufficient litmus test for friendship. Few
     of those friendships had survived her divorce. None of the couples she and Drum used
     to hang out with called her for dinner parties anymore. Now, when Margot saw those
     people, they scheduled the children’s playdates like business transactions.
    If Margot needed to talk to someone, she called Jenna, or her sister-in-law, Beanie,
     or her father. She sometimes talked to Edge. At the start of their relationship, he
     had been sweet and attentive, but lately the sweet attentiveness had dwindled. For
     the past four or five months, he had sounded like a man of