LISA

"Here we are, sweating away while Little Miss Party Organizer is getting pampered in the Montauk Spa Hotel," Chahee jokes when we sit down for a break. Randy, who had a break earlier, is helping too, and we've done a lot in the past two hours. I'm impressed with Chahee, who is a lot stronger than her skinny frame led me to believe. It must be all the yoga as she hasn't sat down once, carrying tables and seating units, then rearranging them until she was happy with the result.

"She's definitely got the better end of the deal," I agree, downing a bottle of water.

"Yeah. But this is very satisfying. It's looking great already, and we haven't even started on the finishing touches." Chahee looks pleased with herself as she checks her watch. "We have another two hours left before the caterers and bartenders arrive. After that, we can go home and get changed. Nola will be here to oversee them until the party starts."

"Seventy people," I mumble, more to myself as I glance over the seating areas arranged around three firepits on the lawn behind the pool. Along with the standing tables, there will be more than enough space for Jennie's guests to be comfortable. "Are you sure Jennie will be okay with this? She said she didn't want a party…" I'm especially worried about the enormous white '40' inflatable I ordered at Ella's request. It's floating in the pool, adorned with a string of solar lights. Perhaps that was just a little step too far, but even I got carried away, wanting Jennie to have a spectacular night. Now I'm not so sure anymore.

"Oh, Jennie's just very modest. She doesn't want people to go to any trouble for her but trust me, once she arrives, she'll be delighted," Chahee assures me. "Ella and I put together the guest list and we didn't want to miss anyone because she'd feel bad about that. So, we've got everyone from our yoga class, myself and Neil, of course, ten of our mutual friends and their spouses, Mark and his new girlfriend—Ella insisted that it would be fine so let's see—Nola and her husband, the Johnsons, the Metcalfes, the Harper-Collins family, the neighbors on both sides, a couple of Ella's friends and their parents, and five of Jennie's friends from New York who have rented a house nearby so they can stay the night. Oh, and the Phifers, the Wetherbys, the Rubins and her fellow volunteers from Camp Rubin. Some of them are on duty tonight but the ones that can make it will come. I think that about covers it."

"Nice that you invited the volunteers. She'll love that."

"Yes, they've been a great influence on her. The volunteering makes her happy." Chahee turns to me and smiles. "And so do you."

"I'm not sure how happy she'll be when I turn up tonight, with everyone she knows present." I shrug. "I'm not going to walk up to her and kiss her of course, but even if I'm just here as a friend…"

"Stop worrying." Chahee puts a hand on my shoulder. "Let's just get this set up beautifully first. How about we clear a space for the musicians next to the sliding doors? That way, we won't have extension cables lying around that people can trip over." She gets up and walks into the kitchen to inspect the sockets. "So many things to think of. I don't understand how people do this by themselves."

"You've never organized a party?"

Chahee looks embarrassed as she shakes her head. "I married Neil when I was young. He was already fairly wealthy, so I've always had others do everything for me. Apart from raising the kids," she says. "My mother was never around when I grew up, she was always working because she had to. I wanted them to be raised by me, not by a nanny, but my mother looks after them when we're away and she's a great help."

"Is your mother retired now? What did she do?"

Chahee laughs. "Nothing fancy, I come from nothing. My mother was a housekeeper and we lived in an annex on the land of the family she worked for full-time. And now, she still lives in an annex, only this one is very, very nice and it's on our land. We had it built for her after we got married. She's quite happily retired now and spends most of her time baking cakes or fussing over her grandkids who are adolescents now and don't really need fussing over."

I'm surprised to hear this as I imagined Chahee growing up rich, and as if she can read the next question on my mind, she says: "I didn't marry Neil for his money."

"I didn't think—"

"Of course you did, and I don't blame you. I was eighteen and he was thirty when we met. Neil was working his way up the property ladder and I was working as a waitress in a restaurant in East Hampton where he came for lunch on a regular basis. There weren't many Russians here back then, and I liked that I could speak my mother tongue with him. He was handsome and chivalrous and although he grew up wealthy and I didn't, we shared the same values because of our cultural background." Chahee chuckles. "Imagine my mother's delight when I told her he'd proposed."

"And you're still happy?"

Chahee takes a moment to think about that, then nods. "Yes," she says. "We're still happy together. We've had our problems of course. Every marriage has its problems. A while back, I really wanted a change. The kids were becoming independent, and I didn't really know what to do with myself, so I signed up for a reality TV show when the producers asked me. I only did one season as the constant cameras were driving me crazy and I had to watch everything I said at all times." She takes a long drink of her water and wipes the sweat off her brow. "Anyway, that was my moment of fame and it didn't make me happier. Neither did the one-off fling I had with another man, so I've come to realize that what I have is pretty damn good and I'm going to work hard on our relationship. I'm content, you know?"

"That's nice and thank you for being so candid." I smile at her and hold up my bottle. "Cheers to contentment."

"Nah-ah!" She waves a finger in front of me and shakes her head. "You can't cheer with water, it's bad luck. Come to our house and we'll do it properly with vodka. I'd love to have you over."

"Thank you, that's a deal," I say, deciding I really like Jennie's best friend.