Chapter 11
Gloria and Geoff arrived on Wednesday, three days before their wedding, which was cutting it close.
They stayed at Eugenia’s apartment, which Gloria still considered home when they were in New York.
They were all leaving for East Hampton on Friday morning, with the rehearsal dinner on Patrick’s boat that night.
Everything was moving at high speed, and Eugenia greeted them warmly when they arrived, despite the unpleasantness between them earlier in the week.
Geoff was on his best behavior, and had had a haircut.
There was a thin veneer covering Gloria’s underlying anger on every subject, which Eugenia chose to ignore.
She didn’t want to spoil her daughter’s wedding week, and kept things light.
The bridal couple had dinner with Geoff’s parents on Wednesday night, and Gloria had a fitting for her wedding dress on Thursday morning with her mother and her best sewer.
There were only a few minor alterations to be made to achieve perfection.
Gloria looked exquisite in the spectacular gown.
She was going to wear her auburn hair in a loose bun at the nape of her neck, with her veil over it.
Everyone in the room, the sewers, her mother, and her older sisters, Eloise and hugely pregnant Daphne, stood watching her in awe.
Eugenia said she was the most beautiful bride she had ever seen, and meant it, and the dress was magnificent.
The sewers helped Gloria take off the gown carefully and carried it away, wrapped in white satin to protect it, to make the final adjustments.
It had been very moving to see her at her final fitting.
Gloria and Geoff had dinner with Umberto and his woman of the hour, Delphine, that night, Thursday, which gave Eugenia time to have an early dinner with Patrick on his boat.
He was moving it to the Hamptons the next day, Friday morning, while the family drove to the rented house for the weekend, and on Friday night Patrick was hosting the rehearsal dinner.
Thursday night was their last chance to have a quiet dinner alone, while Gloria and Geoff had dinner with her father and Delphine.
It was a heavy schedule to keep up with and Patrick noticed that Eugenia looked tired when she came across the passerelle onto the boat.
He called down to the gym for the head masseuse to come up and massage her feet while he poured her a glass of white wine.
“You spoil me,” she said, smiling at him. “I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but it’s sheer heaven.”
“I figure this is your last night of relative peace and sanity for the next few days. How is everyone behaving?” He knew that Eugenia had been nervous about additional battles with Gloria.
“They’re all right. I’ve hardly seen them, I’ve been so busy, going in a thousand directions. Fashion Week will be a relief after this.” She questioned now the wisdom of holding the wedding so close to Fashion Week, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time.
She nearly fell asleep over dinner, and he wished she could spend the night, but she needed to go home, pack the last details, and leave for the rented house in the Hamptons the next morning.
She was more grateful than ever that Patrick was taking care of the rehearsal dinner.
She didn’t have to do a thing, except for the wedding on Saturday.
Then she had to get to work on Monday to prepare for her fashion show a week later.
Patrick hated to bring it up over dinner, but he’d been studying the weather reports for the weekend before she came on board.
There was a tropical storm heading toward Long Island, due to hit land on Friday night, which made him uneasy.
It was moving through the Caribbean and heading for the mainland, gathering strength and speed.
It might just miss them if it hit the mainland late on Friday night, but it didn’t bode well for Saturday, the day of Gloria’s wedding.
“Do you have an alternate plan for Saturday?” he asked Eugenia, concerned about the wedding. “In case of bad weather.”
“The club said they can put up a tent if it rains.” It would add another eighty thousand dollars to the bill, which she wasn’t happy about.
“But they said that tropical storms usually wear themselves out before they hit land.” Unless they got stronger and turned into hurricanes, Patrick didn’t say to her.
She had enough on her plate without his worrying her more than she already was, while trying to keep track of everything.
She had managed to avoid any arguments with Gloria, but she was handling her with kid gloves and they were keeping their distance from each other.
The tension between them was always just below the surface.
Gloria was still angry at her mother and her questions about Geoff.
She was his fiercest defender, which added further tension to the wedding plans.
Eugenia left the boat early, as she still had a lot to do and needed to get to bed. Friday would be a busy day.
—
When she woke up on Friday, it was raining and there was a slight wind.
It got stronger as she got to Long Island, to the rented house.
Her car was full of details for the wedding: escort cards and place cards, the calligraphied menus, the party favors for each guest, silver frames with a photograph of Gloria and Geoff in each, which the guests could replace with their own photographs later.
It was raining harder by midday and the yacht crew put up the plastic curtains to keep the party area dry, hoping the rain would stop by dinnertime.
The boat was so beautiful that the weather didn’t matter, but it would make for a prettier party if they could see the sun setting.
But the dark clouds showed no sign of disappearing, nor the wind of abating.
The clouds got darker and bigger and the wind stronger throughout the day, while Eugenia organized everything she’d brought.
Gloria was staying with her. Geoff was staying with his parents at the Airbnb they had rented in Bridgehampton that night.
He couldn’t see Gloria after the rehearsal dinner, until the wedding.
He thought it was a stupid tradition, and tried to talk Gloria into letting him stay with her at the rented house, but she wouldn’t let him and insisted it was bad luck.
—
When they all got to the dock for the rehearsal dinner, in the vans Patrick had sent for them at their various locations, the sea was choppy but the boat was secured at the dock.
The boat rocked a little but not enough to make anyone sick.
Geoff said he was already queasy when they got to the yacht, and it was only rolling slightly.
The crew had done a beautiful job decorating the boat and the tables.
There were white streamers flying from the masts in the wind and rain.
There were white lace tablecloths on two long dining tables and the buffet, and white orchids and gardenias and candles everywhere.
It looked incredibly romantic and Eugenia thanked Patrick, as a small band played romantic show tunes.
He had consulted Daphne for Gloria’s favorites.
There was suckling pig and a full buffet, and a shellfish table decorated with beautiful shells.
He had gone all out to make it festive and elegant.
Geoff’s parents were awestruck when they saw the size of the boat, and so was Umberto.
He made a point of being nice to Patrick, and the bridal couple looked happy and proud.
Geoff was feeling better by then. There were numerous toasts at dinner, and excellent champagne.
The food was delicious, and the atmosphere was warm and relaxed, as the storm continued to worsen and the wind got stronger by the hour.
They were protected by the curtains the crew had set up in the driving rain, and Eugenia noticed Patrick consulting quietly with the captain at frequent intervals.
The captain looked concerned as the wind whipped around them and the crew added additional bumpers to prevent the yacht from slamming against the dock and getting damaged.
“It hasn’t hit land yet, but they just upgraded it to a hurricane,” the captain informed Patrick in an undertone no one else could hear.
The wind was very strong, and the rain was coming down in sheets.
The yacht was rolling more than at first, but no one was sick or complained.
They were having too much fun to notice.
“It’s expected to hit land between one and two a.m. They’re expecting flash floods on the roads, and they want to set a midnight curfew for the area.
We need to send them home so we can tighten things down and put them away,” the captain said, and Patrick looked chagrined.
“I think the sea is going to get rougher soon.”
“I hate to break up the party, everyone’s having a good time.”
“They won’t if we get it full on when it hits land, and you don’t want people getting hurt when they leave the boat. The ride back to wherever they’re staying is going to be tougher and wetter than when they arrived.” They had already removed some small objects that could fly away.