“They want your mother to come along, too,” Loretta said. “I think that’s good, don’t you?” Crystal said that it probably was. The meeting was at L’Auberge d’Hiver restaurant. Loretta wore a simple Calvin Klein dress but with outrageous earrings. Carol Brown wore a dress she had bought just that morning at Bloomingdale’s. Loretta insisted that Crystal try the gazpacho with chilies and shrimp. The waiter suggested that they share an Île Flottante for dessert. Sidney, once their luncheon had been completed, said that he thought they might shoot the entire movie in Italy or Greece. “Perhaps in a small village near Piraeus,” he said. Across from them, two very loud people sat discussing how much money they had made that day. Nobody mentioned Rowena. When she got home, Crystal called the hospital, and they said that there was no change in Rowena’s condition. Loretta had said that she had cosmetics sent over to Rowena but didn’t see how she was going to be strong enough even to make herself up.
