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they’ve had since the first George Bush was president, and I don’t get it. What happened to that generation? They can’t seem to grasp the joy in spending money.”
    â€œExactly!” What a relief to talk to someone on the same track! Hailey totally got it. “So I’ve decided to take this situation in hand. If they insist on this ridiculous budget restriction, the least they can do is double it.”
    â€œReally. What do they give you now? If you don’t mind my asking.”
    â€œNot a worry. It’s something lame like three thousand a month, not counting the co-op payment.”
    â€œWith the way you spend money, that must disappear fast.”
    â€œPlease! Three thousand is a pittance in Eurodollars. Three thousand will barely buy you a Prada gown or an afternoon of shoe shopping. And it’s not like it’s all about me. I’m constantly buying little gifties for my parents. I do all their Christmas shopping for them, and now Mama and I have plans to redecorate the house in the Hamptons. I’m excellent at what I do, but I can’t function within these ridiculous parameters.” Ever since Daddy’s brusque phone call I had been dreading the family council, but it helped to run my argument by Hailey, who got it.
    â€œSo where are you meeting them?” she asked. “How are you going to play the scene?”
    â€œLike the most professional daughter in the world.” I had thought about it on the plane ride from Heathrow. “First, I’m going to put the numbers in front of them. That my budget, at three thousand dollars a month, is a mere thirty-six thousand a year. Most people can’t survive in Manhattan on a salary like that, and with their two salaries and trust funds and investments, I’m costing them a minuscule amount.”
    â€œI like it.” Hailey passed me the tray, and I took a butter cookie dipped in bittersweet chocolate. “Then I’m going to give them a bit of proof—an example to prove my point. I figure Daddy will be particularly impressed by that.”
    â€œBravo.”
    â€œWhich I could use your help on. I’d like to head out now and pick up a few things for the Hamptons house. This way I can demonstrate how silly Daddy’s budget rules are. He’s going to be so happy to see the place redone. I was thinking of everything in shades of white—vanilla walls, snowy wicker, bleached pine.”
    â€œYes, I’ve seen that done, and it’s so elegant yet casual.” Hailey looped her Fendi bag over her shoulder and scooted forward in the chair. “Where should we start?”
    â€œBloomie’s and Bon Nuit are having Cinco de Mayo sales.” Hailey and I cannot resist sales—the unbelievable deal of getting something at twenty percent off makes our pulses accelerate like seasoned runners’. I handed the waiter one of my shiny hologram credit cards and waved Hailey’s cash away. “My treat, honey. You need some coddling after those rotten things Deanna said to you.” I tucked my card into my Kate Spade bag. “Should we start at Henri Bendel’s?”
    â€œThey don’t sell furniture at Bendel’s, do they?”
    â€œNo, but I hear M.A.C. is coming out with new shades of lipstick this month, and the sales clerk told me she expected them in today.”
    â€œOoh! That’s right.” She checked the lipstick on her napkin. “I’m feeling a little washed out. Let’s stop in the rest room and primp.”
    â€œI was just going to say that!” That’s the thing about Hailey and me: if we didn’t look so different, I would swear we were twins separated at birth. It’s hard to believe two people could love the same things, like Caribbean martinis and Prada gowns, and hate the same things, like sticky cinema floors and men who talk to women’s breasts. I swear, we have the same cravings, laugh at the