enjoyed him, and she liked hearing all the pertinent insider information he had shared with her. It added local color. Leslie introduced her to the two French girls from Vogue, who were very stylish and avant-garde. They spoke perfect English, and greeted Coco warmly, despite the flock of handsome men around them, most of whom were dressed like Nigel, in jeans, tweed jackets, and brown suede shoes. It was a good look and Coco liked it. She thought that most of the men in the room were sexy and handsome and seemed more polished than their counterparts in New York, although most of the men she knew there were students or recent graduates like Sam. Ed, of course, was at a whole different level, and wore a suit most of the time, except on weekends. There wasn’t a suit visible in Leslie’s living room. They were all much more casual, and the Italians looked more stylish than anyone else. Leslie made a real effort to introduce Coco to as many people as she could, although it had gotten difficult to move around her living room, so many more people had arrived as the evening wore on.
Nigel came to say goodbye to her before he left, asked for her cellphone number and said he’d text her and take her to a party sometime soon, or maybe they could have dinner together. She gave him her number willingly, and stayed for another hour after he left. One of the Italians had been flirting with her at a distance, but never came over to talk to her. She ended up chatting with a very interesting group of women who worked for Condé Nast, and an auctioneer at Christie’s who was in the art department. Coco could see that Leslie knew lots of interesting people, and Coco wasn’t alone for a minute all night. She left after midnight, and the party was still going strong, but she’d had two glasses of wine and one of champagne, and she was tired. She slipped away quietly, after thanking Leslie for a fantastic time. Several people were smoking joints by then, and the whole group seemed slightly drunk, some more than others. The alcohol had flowed generously all evening, and people had settled into smaller groups, some sitting on the floor.
Politics was a popular subject, and Leslie seemed to know a number of people in fashion. Coco noticed that all of the men in the fashion business wore heavy oxfords and no socks. The rest of the guests were more traditionally dressed. Leslie herself had worn a short tight black knit Alaïa dress that showed off her figure and her hair was as dark as Coco’s. She wore it in a knot, with no makeup. She was an attractive woman and didn’t look her age. Coco liked her, and had had a great time at her party.
She fell asleep minutes after she got home, and tried to describe it all to Sam the next day. He was impressed, and said he’d had a nice evening with Tamar. They’d gone to a movie and had dinner at a kosher restaurant on the Lower East Side, since she was Orthodox, and would only eat kosher meals, which would delight his mother if he told her about Tamar, but he didn’t intend to. He didn’t want to fuel his mother’s obsession about his getting married, especially to an Orthodox Jewish girl.
“No more BLT sandwiches or lobster for you, if you stay with her,” she teased him and he laughed.
“My mother would have a heart attack if she knew what I eat when I’m with you. That sounds like a pretty racy crowd you fell in with last night,” he said, half impressed and half worried for her. “Be careful not to get in over your head.” But fortunately, no one knew her circumstances, so fortune hunters weren’t likely to go after her. She just looked like an exceptionally pretty young woman, and dressed like everyone else their age. Unless they knew who her father was, which most people didn’t, they wouldn’t suspect that she had inherited a fortune. He was glad that she was happy and having fun, and meeting new people, which had been the whole point of going there, and staying occupied. She had spent a year of intense mourning, now she needed to get back into living. The world she was exploring sounded like fun for her. At times, Sam envied her the options she