Free Trading Up by Candace Bushnell Page B

was hardly the time to reveal her true feelings about Selden Rose. “I thought he was so interesting,” Janey said with conviction, and Mimi looked pleased. “Did you?” she asked, but as Janey really didn’t, she turned to her sister and said, “Do you know Patty? My sister?” Mimi held out her hand. “I certainly know your husband. Everyone’s always talking about how talented he is—they say he’s going to be the next Mick Jagger . . .” He’s not anything like Mick Jagger! Patty wanted to shout, but instead found herself saying, “Thank you,” primly. It was certainly ironic that Mimi was pretending to know Digger, and to like him, as he most definitely didn’t like her. But in the next moment, and in typical New York fashion, her sister and Mimi seemed to have forgotten all about her, because Mimi turned to Janey, and in a faux-scolding kind of voice, like Janey had actually done something wrong, said, “Janey, you didn’t tell me you were out here during the week.”
    “Oh, I am, ” Janey said. “For the whole summer.”
    “Well then, we have to get together,” Mimi said. “It’s so dull out here during the week. George is out only on weekends, but his sons are here, and I think it’s rot-18947_ch01.qxd 4/14/03 11:22 PM Page 43
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    ten for kids to be left with a nanny all the time . . . And Mauve is out here too. You know Mauve, don’t you?”
    “Oh yes,” Janey said, nodding. This wasn’t technically true, as Janey had been introduced to Mauve only once or twice, but in this situation “know” meant nothing more than the fact that she and Mauve were aware of each other’s existence.
    “Poor Mauve,” Mimi said in a stage whisper, shaking her head in a manner that made Janey suspect everyone had been saying “poor Mauve” for years. “Marrying Comstock Dibble. I keep telling her that she doesn’t have to do it, but she won’t listen. She says she’s in love with him—and what nobody understands is that they really are two peas in a pod. Mauve’s got a terrible temper . . . they can’t even decide when to get married.”
    Patty looked from Mimi to Janey with growing disgust. She wasn’t so much of a rube that she didn’t know that Mimi and Mauve were supposedly best friends, so why was Mimi talking about her friend like that? But naturally, Janey was completely ignoring this fact—she had that intense, catlike expression on her face that could make you think you were the most interesting person in the world—and in the next moment, she said breathlessly, “Maybe it won’t happen.”
    “Oh, it will,” Mimi said. “And then it will be a disaster . . . In any case, you must promise to call me tomorrow . . . I love Mauve, but I don’t need to have lunch with her every day . . . By the way, do you ride?” Janey hesitated for just a moment before she said yes.
    “That’s excellent,” Mimi said. “We’ll go for a hack and talk about Selden . . .
    I’m really very excited about this. I just may have found Selden a wife!” And Janey, caught up in the glory of the moment, emitted her trademark tinkling peal of laughter.
    Moments later, after the horsey-faced Mauve Binchely had arrived (she had a sour expression on her face, which Patty guessed might have been permanent), and Mimi and Mauve had gone off to their table, Janey finally sat back down. She looked like she’d just won a gold medal, and Patty wondered what it was about Mimi that made her so interesting to Janey.
    As she picked up her fork (their salads had arrived while she and Mimi were talking), all Janey could think about was how that little scene with Mimi had come off much better than she’d hoped—unbelievably so, in fact—and how even though you could never tell when people like Mimi Kilroy were being genuine, she’d certainly been insistent about meeting up. And what a coup that was: It was one thing to be invited to a party of a hundred people, but a completely different thing to