The Book of Fate

22

You know we never ask for anything, Lisbeth, but if you could keep us out just this once…”

As she listened to Wes’s words, Lisbeth sat up in her seat and began to spin the phone cord, jump-rope-style. From the forced pause on the other line, Wes sounded like he was ready to trade. “We’d owe you one,” he offered, right on cue. Lisbeth stopped the phone cord’s spinning. Sacred Rule #4: Only the guilty trade. Sacred Rule #5: And the opportunists.

“Gimme ten minutes face-to-face with Manning on the night of the surprise party,” she said, knowing that like any good publicist, he’d knock the time in half.

“Five minutes is the most he’ll sit for.”

“Deal,” she said as she started rifling through the thick stack of invites on the far corner of her desk. Opening concert at the opera. The annual craft bazaar at the Sailfish Club. Baby naming at the Whedons. It had to be here somewhere…

“So my breakfast with Dreidel…?” Wes asked.

Still flipping through the stack, Lisbeth was barely paying attention. “Breakfast? Come now, Wes — why would anyone care what two former staffers had on their morning toast? Consider it officially dead.”

Manning’s surprise party — and her promised five minutes — weren’t for at least another month. But that didn’t mean she had to stay away until then. Especially when there were so many other ways to get in close. Slamming down the phone, Lisbeth never took her eyes off the stack. Reception for the Leukemia Society, Historical Society, Knesset Society, Palm Beach Society, Renaissance Society, Alexis de Tocqueville Society… and then… there…

Lisbeth yanked the rectangular card from the middle of the stack. Like every other invite, the design was understated, the printing was meticulous, and the envelope had her name on it. But this one, with its cream-colored card stock and twirling black calligraphy, also had something more: An Evening with President Leland F. Manning. Benefiting 65 Roses — the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Tonight.

She didn’t mind the fake stalling from Wes and Dreidel. Or the nonsense about Manning’s so-called surprise party. But once Wes asked her to kill the piece… Sacred Rule #6: There were only two kinds of people in a gossip column — those who want to be in there, and those who don’t. Wes just put himself on the don’t side. And without a doubt, the don’ts were always far more interesting.

Picking up the phone, Lisbeth dialed the number on the invite.

“This is Claire Tanz,” an older woman answered.

“Hi, Claire, this is Lisbeth Dodson from Below the Fold. I hope it’s not too late to RSVP—”

“For tonight? No, no… oh, we read you every day,” the woman said just a bit too excited. “Oooh, and I can call the President’s staff and let them know you’ll be there…”

“That’s okay,” Lisbeth said calmly. “I just got off the phone with them. They’re already thrilled I’m coming.”