Jacqueline Susann's Shadow of the Dolls Read Online Free PDF Page B

end, not waiting for the hugs and the handshakes. She walked slowly back to the house and found a small bathroom off the kitchen where she could reapply her makeup and give them all time to talk about how amazing she had been, how she still had it. She wondered whether there was any chance George Dunbar would offer her the opening song in his next movie. He owed her, he owed her big-time. But why talk of owing, when now they were such good friends? It wouldn’t even be like asking him for a favor. He’d have a demo cassette at the house, and he’d play it for her and Dave someevening, and she would start singing along, she would show him just how the phrasing should go, and he would beg her to do it. Of course, George , she would say. Anything for you .
    She heard murmuring in the kitchen. She pressed her ear against the door.
    “It’s almost nine and no one is leaving.”
    “It’s a wonderful party, Mrs. Dunbar,” came the voice of the Polish housekeeper.
    “Too wonderful. I have to get them out of here.”
    “Do you want me to put out the candles?”
    “They’re all so drunk, they won’t even notice.”
    “They’ll notice the bugs.”
    “Brilliant! Have the guys put out the candles. I want everyone out of here by nine-thirty. Our dinner reservation is at ten and they’ll never hold it for us on a Saturday night.”
    “For you, they will hold the table. Of course they will hold Mr. Dunbar’s table.”
    “No way anyone is going to hold three tables of eight on a Saturday night, not even for George Dunbar. Tell the bar to cut off the booze.”
    Neely gasped. There was another party after this one; this wasn’t even the real party! This was what the East Coast was like, a social onion, you peeled layer after layer, you thought you’d arrived, and then you discovered there was something else to want, something even more exclusive, even harder to get.
    And Dave Feld hadn’t been invited. Maybe he wasn’t so important after all. There were still three good weeks left to the summer season; maybe it was time to start thinking about trading up.
    “Call the restaurant and ask them to start seating even if we’re a little late. The Burkes will probably get there ahead of us.”
    So it was Anne who would get to go to the Dunbars’ special little dinner party. Without having to sit through this long, boringcocktail party, without having to write a check like everyone else. It isn’t fair, Neely said to herself. It’s never been fair.
    She stayed in the bathroom another fifteen minutes. Let Dave worry about her; she was sick of his midlife crisis, his neediness, his endless talk about life being short and making every day count. Next week Judd and Dylan were coming for a week’s visit, and she was looking forward to the distraction.
    Her sons would have everything. Ted was a great father, she had to admit that much, and he had done it nearly all on his own. But now that they were almost grown up, it was time for Neely to get involved. What did Ted know about the best schools, the best people?
    Neely pictured them sitting in Dave’s backyard, having a talk about buckling down and getting good grades. Judd would go to Harvard, and Dylan would go to Yale. They’d make friends with kids from nice families. They’d all go out to dinner, the boys and their girlfriends and their girlfriends’ parents. She tried to remember the names and ages of all those Kennedy cousins.
    Who needed East Hampton? It was a good place to start, but everyone knew the real power summered on Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard. She would peel another layer, and another layer after that, and she would leave these people behind, because she always had, because life wasn’t about looking back, it was all about looking forward. With her voice and her guts, what could stop her? Maybe she didn’t have Anne’s pretty face, her pretty breeding, and her pretty Radcliffe degree. Maybe she had something better.
    N o one gave a better party than