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.“You know, Lucy Metcalfe went on that Atkins diet and lost sixty pounds,” she said to Nita.“Lucy Metcalfe went to Atlanta and had her stomach stapled,” Eadie said, lifting her big margarita.“Any idiot can do that.” She grimaced and sipped her drink.She’d had about all she could take of Virginia Broadwell.Another ten minutes and things were going to get ugly.Virginia was accustomed to ignoring Eadie Boone.“Lavonne, have you lost weight?” she said, smiling sweetly.“You look like you have.”Unperturbed, Lavonne buttered another roll and took a big bite before answering.In June, she had gone on Weight Watchers and gained ten pounds.Then in August she went on the Palm Beach Diet and gained fifteen more.If she kept dieting at this rate, she would put on forty pounds by Christmas.“No, Virginia,” she said finally, still chewing.“I haven’t lost weight.Thanks for asking though.”Eadie touched her big margarita glass to the rim of Lavonne’s glass.She motioned for the waiter to bring them another round.It made Nita nervous the way Eadie and Lavonne were draining their big drinks.The last time Eadie and Lavonne drank tequila around Virginia, they’d gone out to her house in the middle of the night, stolen her lawn jockey, and painted him to look like Bozo the Clown, then returned him to his rightful place in the middle of the front flower bed.It had taken Nita a week of steady pleading to talk Charles and Virginia out of hiring a private investigator to find out who defiled the jockey.“So what’s your plan for finding a caterer?” the irrepressible Virginia said, trying to sound like a coconspirator.She rested her sharp little chin on her palm and looked from one to the other.“My plan is to get the hell out of town,” Lavonne said.“My plan is to throw my suitcase into the back of my car and head for the beach.”Eadie thought this was funny.“Now you’re talking,” she said.“I’ll go with you.”“I haven’t been to the beach in so long,” Nita said wistfully.The last time had been six months ago for their sixteenth wedding anniversary.Remembering, Nita felt a vibration of guilt in the pit of her stomach.Charles had ordered room service and they’d eaten on their balcony overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.Maybe the condoms weren’t even his, Nita thought suddenly.Maybe he’d found them on the ground and picked them up and put them in his pocket.Virginia looked at her daughter-in-law as if she were noticing her for the first time.“Nita,” she said sharply.“What’s wrong with you? You look terrible.”Nita blanched and knocked her water glass over.“Charles hung his hunting jacket in my closet,” she blurted out, mopping the water with her napkin, “and I had to move it.” She looked around the table.They were all watching her now, Lavonne and Eadie above the rims of their big-as-a-cereal-bowl margarita glasses, and Virginia with a pinched expression on her face, as if she’d just caught a whiff of something unsavory.“Maybe you should try sleeping pills,” Virginia said.Nita said, “Sleeping pills?”The frustration of watching this exchange grew inside Lavonne like a tumor.She’d been watching it for years, Virginia, cruel and manipulative, and Nita, soft and yielding as butter.Lavonne felt Nita’s life would be better if just once she told her mother-in-law to fuck off.Except for Nita’s steadfast refusal to join the Junior League, Lavonne could not think of a single time Nita had openly opposed Virginia.She took everything Virginia had to dish out, and never said a word in her own defense.“Maybe you should try Prozac.”“Prozac’s not the answer for everything, Virginia,” Lavonne said.“It’s the answer for most things,” Virginia said.“Well, you should know,” Eadie said.“I don’t have to sit here and be criticized by an adulteress,” Virginia snapped, feeling her fa¸cade of sympathetic good cheer beginning to slide.“Well, fuck me,” Eadie said.“I think that’s her point,” Lavonne said, sipping her drink.Nita had had enough of this bickering.She couldn’t handle open conflict.She put her hands on the table, palms down, and leaned forward slightly.“Maybe we should just concentrate on making this the best firm party ever,” she said with the forced fervor of a cheerleader.Lavonne smiled and said, “Hear, hear.” Virginia took a deep breath and regained her composure.Eadie sipped her margarita and thought, Oh, this’ll definitely be the best party ever.They’ll be talking about this one for years.The waiter brought their food and they settled down to eating.While they ate, Virginia droned on about the Ithaca Cotillion Ball she had attended two weeks ago.The Ithaca Cotillion Ball was one of the oldest debutante balls in south Georgia.People from all over rural Georgia sent their daughters to be presented here, people from towns like Moundsville and Sandy Hook and Shubuta [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]