Where the Grass Is Green and the Girls Are Pretty by Lauren Weisberger

Author:Lauren Weisberger [Weisberger, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2021-05-18T00:00:00+00:00

16

Character Clause

The row of Town Cars outside of Hudson Yards stretched more than a block long, waiting to deposit their well-dressed couples at the red carpet. Peyton examined them all as her own car inched forward. There were Mika and Joe, in coordinating black suits, and Rachel Maddow in a dapper tuxedo, and that blowhard from Fox whose name she could never remember with his WASPy-looking wife, and Anderson Cooper with Andy Cohen as his date for the evening. There were at least a dozen other anchors, and Peyton had to remind herself that after forty years in the business, Joseph, the network head of ANN, knew everyone. She was still reeling from Skye’s call earlier that morning, telling her that Henry had yanked the funding; her sister was devastated, and Peyton was nauseated by it. She had to figure out a way to help—she would straight-up hand her sister the money if she had it—but she felt horribly responsible for this unexpected ripple effect of misery. When it was finally her turn to climb out of the car, Peyton’s anxiety spiked even more: she desperately wished Isaac were with her. But she took a deep breath and talked herself down: She went to work events alone all the time. She could make conversation with a piece of furniture. And most importantly, she looked freaking amazing in her borrowed McQueen dress, which had a black corset covered with a hundred tiny red rosettes and a full, floor-length skirt that was adorned with small, silver…what? Brackets? Studs? Some sort of hardware that sounded awful in description but in reality made the dress look like the perfect juxtaposition of European princess and Hollywood glam.

Three young women she knew from ANN’s PR department were waiting outside the door with clipboards and earpieces, and each turned to watch Peyton walk the carpet. There were no paparazzi—this was still a media party, after all—but Peyton, with the designer dress and the splurge-worthy Louboutins and the random passersby all turning to stare, felt like she was headed into the Met Ball. She would show all of them! It had been one week off-air, and it was enough already. The paps had long left their New York apartment, the news cycle had moved on to cover the latest Supreme Court drama, and even Kenneth, when pressed by Peyton, conceded there was a chance—however slight—that Joseph would confirm her return to the show at the party that evening. Why else would her invitation remain both extended and encouraged? she’d asked. She was still part of the team, an indispensable part. It would be proven tonight, she hoped, when her exhausting daily calls with Kenneth, Nisha, and Isaac’s attorney would all be worth it. She’d return to her rightful seat at the anchor desk, and she could focus one hundred percent of her efforts on continuing to needle, beg, and persuade Princeton to change their mind. Thrusting her shoulders back, Peyton reminded herself to smile, to laugh, to radiate confidence.

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