Dazzled by Dollars by Rob Verlander

Author:Rob Verlander
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby

23

A COLLEGE FUNDRAISER

If Marcel were black, he would have borne more than a passing resemblance to the late Prince—slim and petite, he looked as if he’d been dressed in boys’ fashion. His stark white dinner suit bathed Primrose’s simple charcoal pants suit in reflected light. Beside Primrose he looked foreign, as if he belonged to someone else. For the annual Indigenous Dinner at the exclusive school Artie attended in the hilltops of Rose Bay, parents and guests and selected staff mingled in the magnificent modern cobblestoned courtyard that connected two of the more significant buildings on the school grounds. Here they would sip champagne and nibble on canapés, taking in the panorama of the harbour, until summoned by school prefects to the marquee on the main oval below.

‘I hope there’s someone here we know,’ said Primrose as she scoured the assembled crowd for familiar faces.

‘Darling, it will be full of people we know,’ replied Marcel who was smiling at no one in particular as he picked his way between jostling shoulder blades.

‘Just don’t race off on me,’ Primrose almost pleaded. ‘Like you always do.’

Over his shoulder Marcel countered, ‘I do no such thing. Although I can’t help it if I know a few people.’

She understood: being at home most of the day, like she thought Marcel was, would make her restless too. But sometimes she’d lose him in the scrum at the very beginning of these sorts of functions and not see him for an hour. And Primrose didn’t do small talk. Talking of the inconsequential was not something she could manufacture on the spot. Unlike Marcel, who had everyday practical experience with the nanny and the children and the parents from pick-ups at school and the platoon of handymen that flitted in and out of their home.

True to form, it took mere seconds for Marcel to befriend a couple, Patrick and Sally, both lawyers who Primrose barely knew. Marcel embraced the couple in a lavish display of Gallic bonhomie, twice kissing the female component and with undisguised enthusiasm, borne apparently of some familiarity, asked, ‘And how are your boys?’

‘Lively. Lively. Wouldn’t you say, Sally?’ said Patrick.

Patrick and Sally had two boys three years apart. One was at the country boarding campus in the Southern Highlands. ‘Rite of passage, as they say.’

‘Is Scott in year nine already?’ asked Marcel.

At least that was one of the boys’ names. Primrose could not possibly guess the name of the other. She was not good with names. ‘Time flies, right!’ declared Patrick, finishing off his champagne and replenishing it with another from a waiter who happened by.

‘How’s he finding it? The Southern Highlands,’ asked Primrose, who identified a narrow opportunity to contribute to the conversation.

‘Loves it. Loves the outdoors,’ confirmed Patrick. ‘What about Artie? He’d be looking forward to it. When would that be?’

‘Still a few years to go. He’s only eleven.’

‘Really,’ said Sally. ‘He comes across as much older.’

Artie was a serious child. He took after his mother. Although still some time off,

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