The Husband's Secret(52)
“So, now, Cecilia.” Marla was flustered with responsibility, and the sausage rolls slid about on the tray in her hand. “Would you like a drink?”
Cecilia wheeled her bag to a neat stop and rescued the sausage rolls just in the nick of time.
“Just a glass of water would be lovely, Marla,” she said. “Why don’t I hand these out for you while I introduce myself, although I think I know a lot of faces, of course. Hello, I’m Cecilia, it’s Arianna, isn’t it? Sausage roll?” Arianna looked blankly at Cecilia as she took a sausage roll. “Your younger sister teaches my daughter Polly ballet. I’m going to show you the perfect little containers for freezing purees for your baby! And Rachel, it’s so nice to see you. How’s little Jacob?”
“Moving to New York for two years.” Rachel took a sausage roll and gave Cecilia a wry smile. Cecilia wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but Rachel didn’t mind her, because she returned phone calls, and every time she said she’d do something, she actually did it. The last Parents & Friends president, Gary Morgan, had been deeply in love with himself, and the only thing you could rely on was that the smell of his aftershave would linger for a good three hours after he’d visited the school office.
Cecilia stopped. “Oh, Rachel, what a bugger,” she said sympathetically, but then, in typical Cecilia style, she instantly shifted into solution mode. “But listen, you’ll visit, right? Someone was telling me recently about this website with amazing deals on New York apartments. I’ll e-mail you the link, promise.” She moved on. “Hi there, I’m Cecilia. Sausage roll?”
And on she went about the room, serving food and compliments, fixing every guest with that strange piercing gaze of hers, so that by the time she finished and was ready to do her demonstration, everyone obediently swung their knees in her direction, their faces attentive, ready to be sold Tupperware, as if a firm but fair teacher had taken control of a rowdy classroom.
Rachel was surprised by how much she ended up enjoying the night. It was partly the very good cocktails that Marla was serving, but it was also thanks to Cecilia, who interspersed her lively and somewhat evangelical product demonstration (“I’m a Tupperware freak,” she told them. “I just love this stuff.” Rachel found her genuine passion touching. And compelling! It would be great if her carrots stayed crunchier for longer!) with a trivia competition. Each guest who got a trivia question right was awarded a gold-foil-wrapped chocolate coin. At the end of the night the person with the most gold coins would win a prize.
Some of the questions were about Tupperware. Rachel did not know, or particularly feel the need to know, that a Tupperware party began somewhere in the world every 2.7 seconds (“One second, two seconds—that’s another Tupperware party starting!” chirped Cecilia), or that a man named Earl Tupper created the famous “burping seal.” But she did have quite good general knowledge and she began to feel quite competitive about the growing pile of gold coins in front of her.
In the end it was a fierce battle between Rachel and Marla’s friend from her midwifery days, Jenny Cruise, and Rachel actually punched her fist in the air when she won by a single gold coin on the question, “Who played Pat the Rat on the soapie Sons and Daughters?”
Rachel knew the answer (Rowena Wallace) because Janie had been obsessed with that silly show when she was a teenager. She sent up a word of thanks to Janie.
She’d forgotten how much she enjoyed winning.
In fact, she was on such a high that she ended up ordering over three hundred dollars’ worth of Tupperware that Cecilia assured her would transform her pantry and her life. By the end of the night she was a little drunk.
Actually, everyone was a little drunk, except for Marla’s pregnant daughters-in-law, who left early, and Cecilia, who was presumably drunk on the joy of Tupperware.