"WE'RE GETTING MARRIED"

Post-Peri, the women claimed they had uniformly done well. Jackie said she was dating her personal trainer; Magda had published her first novel; Ramona was married and pregnant; Maeve had opened a cafe; Sapphire had rediscovered an old love; Sarah said she was happy to be pursuing a twenty— seven-year-old boy-toy.

As for Peri, he recently moved abroad, in search of fresh marriage prospects. One of the women had heard he got dumped by an English woman who had really wanted to marry a duke. "He always dates the wrong women," Sapphire said.

Six months ago, Peri came back for a visit and took Sarah out to dinner. "He took my hand in his," she said, "and

he was saying to his friend, 'She's the only woman I ever loved. For old time's sake, I went back to his apartment for a drink, and he asked me to marry him so seriously, I couldn't believe it. I thought he was lying. So I decided to torture him.

"He told me, T don't want you to see any other men, and I won't see any other women.

"I said, 'Okay, thinking, How's that going to work? He lives in Europe and I live in New York. But the next morning, he called me up and said, 'You realize you're my girlfriend now.

"I said, 'Okay, Peri, that's cool. "

He went back to Europe, and, Sarah said, she forgot about the whole thing. One morning, she was in bed with her new boyfriend when the phone rang. It was Peri. While Sarah was talking to him, her boyfriend said, "Do you want some coffee?" Peri went nuts.

"Who's there?" he said.

"A friend," Sarah said.

"At ten in the morning? You're sleeping with another guy? We're getting married and you're sleeping with another guy?" He hung up, but a week later he called back.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

"For what?" Sarah said.

"We're getting married, aren't we? You're not still seeing someone, are you?"

"Listen, Peri, I don't see a ring on my finger," Sarah said. "Why don't you send a messenger over to Harry Winston's to pick something up, and then

we'll talk."

Peri never called Harry Winston's, and he didn't call Sarah again for months. She said she sort of missed him. "I adore him," she said. "I feel compassion for him because he's totally fucked up."

It was getting dark outside, but nobody wanted to leave. They all wanted to stay, transfixed by the idea of a man like Tom Peri, but not Tom Peri.