She organized her paperwork to take it with her to read on the set, if necessary, and by six-thirty, she was gone. At seven, she was sitting with Carmen. But it was just as the producer said. Carmen was a disaster. She had sat home all weekend and cried over the tabloid story, and she was still in a deep depression about losing the baby.
You need to see a therapist, Allegra said calmly, as Carmen blew her nose for the thousandth time that morning.
They can't change anything. My baby's still gone, and these awful people print lies about me.
They print lies about everyone. You can't let that ruin your life and Alan's. You have to show them you don't care, and you have to show Alan you can take it. Do you think he wants to be stuck with a wimp for the rest of his life, who's buckling at the knees every time someone takes a potshot at you? Carmen, that's pathetic. She gave her a pep talk for hours, and watched her on the set. She was depressed, but she was still doing a good job whenever she was on camera. They had to give her that much.
Allegra was still there at ten o'clock, when someone came to tell her, on the closed set, that there was an urgent call being put through by her office. When she took the call in a soundproof room, it was Alice on the line. She said that she had an emergency call from Delilah Williams, the wedding consultant.
She's calling me here} Allegra asked in disbelief.
No, I am, Alice apologized. But she said it was an emergency of the highest order.
Is she out of her mind?
It sounds like a good possibility. Shall I put her through?
All right. As long as I'm here, go ahead, but don't track me down for her again, just take a message.
Allegra? The giant crane in purple intoned into the phone, sounding more ominous than anyone Allegra had ever heard. You haven't answered a single one of my phone calls. Her reproach was that of an irate lover. I know nothing about the cake, the tent, the music for the church, or the reception, for that matter, nor the color for the bridesmaids. She was clearly outraged. But not nearly so much as Allegra, who was absolutely livid.
Do you realize that you've called me on a closed set? Do you have any idea how inconvenient, not to mention inappropriate, that is? And the reason I haven't called you is that I've been too busy getting clients out of jail, into concert tours, and up on their feet for their movies. And the last thing I need is you bugging me about the bridesmaids.
Do you even know who they are yet? She sounded incensed, but Allegra was more so. She had work to do, and clients to take care of. She couldn't be bothered with this nonsense.
I have chosen the bridesmaids, Allegra conceded to her, unable to believe that this was their conversation, and it had been considered an emergency of the highest order. Did that refer to the cake, or the music? I'll have my secretary send you a list of the bridesmaids' names, Allegra said darkly, furious at having to be bothered.
We need to know their sizes, Delilah Williams said with equal determination. She was used to dealing with people like Allegra, doctors, lawyers, psychiatrists, celebrities, actresses, none of them capable of putting on a wedding they all thought they were too busy and important to plan one. But she could do it for them, and make them behave, if she had to. Do you have their sizes? she said in a voice that Allegra thought only female impersonators could muster.
Please have my secretary ask them.
Certainly, Delilah said, satisfied now with the communication. I can't believe you haven't found a dress yet, by the way. You'll really have to try harder.
I'm going back to work, Allegra barked at her, frustrated by how much the woman got on her nerves. She didn't want to be rude to her, but there seemed to be times when there was no option.
As soon as they hung up, she called her mother at the show, and she realized she was trembling when she heard her mother. If you don't call that woman off, Mom, I'm going to kill her.
What woman? The only one she could think of who deserved that, in her mind, was Elizabeth Coleson. But she didn't think Allegra knew about her.
What do you mean what woman?’ I mean that buzzard you unleashed on me to plan the wedding. I'd rather hold it in the park and hand out hot dogs and Twinkies than have this woman call me on a closed set to discuss the music and the cake, and the color for the bridesmaids.’ Mom, you can't do this to me.
Just trust me, dear. She'll do a beautiful job, and you'll be so happy. It was nearly impossible to imagine, and Allegra rolled her eyes, said good-bye to Blaire, and went back to Carmen.
Everything okay? For once, she looked concerned about something other than her own problems.
You wouldn't believe it, Allegra said, overwhelmed with exasperation.
Try me.
The wedding coordinator my mother hired was calling to bug me.
What? Carmen looked amused as she changed her makeup. Wedding coordinator? What's that?
What I did when I bought the wigs, and the polyester clothes, and the plastic bouquet for Vegas.
Is that what she's doing for you? Carmen looked amused for once and Allegra laughed.
I hope not. You never know though. You two were so smart to go to Vegas.
You can too, you know, she said. They had all loved it, and it seemed to make more and more sense for her and Jeff to do it too and avoid the whole wedding.
It would probably break my mother's heart, if I cheated her out of a wedding. But it would have been worth it, not to see Mary Hamilton again. In some ways, it was a powerful temptation.
In the end, she stayed with Carmen until lunch, and then went back to her office to get organized and sign some documents. She had to be at Suzanne Pearlman's office at two-thirty. They were meeting another set of parents, who had flown in from Chicago. It amazed Allegra now to realize how people flew around the country, looking for babies, interviewing girls who wanted to give their babies up, and being interviewed by them. It seemed to be a major preoccupation. But having seen how obsessed Carmen had been, over a fetus she'd only carried for two months and then lost, Allegra was beginning to understand it. It was an obsession with having, keeping, and acquiring babies.
She had told Sam she'd pick her up at home, and she drove through Bel Air on the way to Suzanne Pearlman's. Allegra was stunned by how much Sam had grown in a few days. She was seven months' pregnant and she really looked enormous. And somehow the odd contrast of it made her seem even younger.
How've you been? Allegra asked as Sam got in. She was wearing a short pink dress that accommodated the bulge, and sandals that wound up her legs, her long blond hair in pigtails, and huge sunglasses. She looked like Nabokov's Lolita.
Okay, Sam answered, with a nod and a kiss for her sister. She was grateful that she was going with her. She had already met several of the couples, and she hated doing it. It was always so awkward and she hadn't liked any of them. Maybe the Whitmans? But they weren't perfect either. How was New York?
Interesting, Allegra answered noncommittally, and Sam laughed. She knew her sister.
Uh-oh. That doesn't sound good.
It wasn't.
Was she a bitch? Yup. Totally. The human iceberg. She was really afraid that I might be Jewish. Can you believe that?
Wait till Daddy meets her. He'll love it.
I can't imagine ever seeing her again, except I know I have to. I don't know how Jeff turned out as normal as he did. It was a total mystery to her after meeting his mother.
Maybe he's adopted, she said sadly. Despite the banter, she couldn't forget where they were going or why. She was going to meet another set of prospective parents for her baby. And just thinking about it depressed her. She had tried telling Jimmy what it was like the last time she went, and this time he had offered to go with her, but she didn't think he should, and it might confuse them. They might think Jimmy was the baby's father. She was always willing to tell the prospective parents the little she knew of Jean-Luc, though it made her sound pretty flaky. He was tall and good-looking and blond, a photographer, and he was French, and about thirty. Which meant he was foreign, possibly talented, and attractive. Beyond that, she could tell them nothing. Whereabouts: unknown. She had no history to offer. They arrived at Suzanne's office ten minutes after Allegra picked Sam up, and they rode up in the elevator in silence.