Memories were funny things, Laine realised. They were all connected. She couldn't examine one without a dozen others emerging.
Laine is packing her suitcase for a weekend in the Hampton's when the phone rings. Peter is taking her away for her sixteenth birthday. They will probably sleep together for the first time. Laine has almost convinced herself that she is still a virgin.
She snatches up the received impatiently. "Yes?" she snaps.
"Laine? It's Stacey."
Her knee buckles slightly. Stacey knows, Stacey knows! a panicky inner voice cries. She falls back on her bed.
But Stacey doesn't know. Stacey has other things on her mind. Stacey is pregnant and she wants to… take care of things in New York.
Stacey is near hysteria and Laine agrees to help her abort Sam's baby.
Laine closed her eyes briefly, willing the barrage to stop. She thought she had buried all those recollections. The Persistence of Memory… that was the name of Salvador Dali's most famous painting, wasn't it?
Melting clocks or no melting clocks, Dali sure knew what he was talking about.
Laine is walking home after a particularly gruelling school day. She has thrown herself into junior year, as though being on student council and arranging school dances will redeem her from her past.
Different Starbucks, same familiar figure… Déjà vu, Laine thinks dully. Or Fate?
He tells her he came looking for her. He tells her that he went to the Dakota but the doorman wouldn't let him leave a message. He tells her that he can't stop thinking about her.
She wants to ask him if he knows about the abortion. She doesn't. She does, however, agree to meet him the next day.
The harsh jangle of the phone was a welcome relief. She clutched the receiver tightly. "Hello?"
"Lainey."
She can't do this.
"Meet me at Central Park."
No. No. No.
"Yes."
Spring was almost over and winter was making itself known early. Laine threw on an old coat and stepped out into the cold afternoon. As she made her way to the park, she recalled winters past; her secret fling with Sam last winter and losing her virginity to him the winter before that. She wondered what this winter would bring.
The whole thing was completely ludicrous, she realised that. She had risked losing everything for this guy - Stacey, Peter, her entire future. The life of a Manhattan socialite no longer held the allure it once did but Laine had been in training for so long that she couldn't even consider another life.
Besides, what would her parents say? She was sure they would disown her if she brought someone like Sam Thomas home. And she couldn't feel bitter about that. Wasn't this the life she had chosen?
She knew how much rested on her shoulders. Her parent's circle of friends was so tight and so narrow minded. Laine was an asset to her parents, with her high society boyfriend and bright prospects. Sam's stepfather may be a millionaire, but he wasn't connected like Peter's father. The idea of marrying someone unconnected was anathema to the inner circle.
She had enjoyed the perks of an upper crust life for eighteen years, and now it was time for her to sacrifice something.
Laine reached Central Park and kept on walking.
