Lola stepped ahead to lead the Martin party. With a word from her, the velvet rope was moved aside and they were allowed into the private elevator bank where Chip’s friends still stood waiting. The elevator attendant ushered Lola, Scarlett, and Spencer in, but there wasn’t quite enough room for anyone else.

“We’ll take the next one,” her dad said. “You go up first.”

The doors closed, and a soothing but overly loud recorded voice welcomed them to the elevator ride up to Point Manhattan. The main light in the elevator went dim, and greenish light came on overhead. Scarlett looked up to see that the ceiling of the elevator was entirely made of glass, so they could watch as they shot up the endless, dark channel into the air, cables and floors flying past. The voice continued to tell them about all of the wonderful things they would be able to see when they reached the top. Scarlett looked into the pinstripes of Spencer’s jacket and concentrated on not being sick. This was a little too much elevator for her, even though it was probably safer than the one they had at home.

“Hey, Lola…” someone said, her voice tinged with sarcasm. “Nice dress.”

“Thanks, Boonz,” Lola replied coolly.

Boonz, Lola’s archenemy, was somewhere in this elevator with them. Scarlett wanted to look for her, but that would require turning away from her study of the jacket fabric.

“Can’t believe you guys actually got married,” Boonz went on.

“Well, believe it,” Lola replied.

One of the guys started to snicker. Why, Scarlett had no idea. She saw Spencer turn to look to see what was going on behind him. It messed up her calming view.

“Hey,” another girl said, her voice thick with sarcasm, “aren’t you the guy from…”

“Yes,” Spencer said flatly.

“Married,” Boonz said again. “I’m going to have to get you guys a really nice present.”

“Just having you here is enough,” Lola said sweetly.

“Oh, I know. And I guess you won’t need anything now, right? You’re set.”

It was a good thing that the elevator slowed and jerked to a soft halt at that moment, giving Scarlett the quick dizzy spell that reminded her that they were dangling from a cable hundreds and hundreds of feet above the ground. She wanted to get off as quickly as possible, but she was behind Lola, who was moving at a dignified, leisurely pace. Lola stepped off to the side to make some adjustment to her dress, and Boonz and her party drifted past, barely containing their laughter.

“I’m going to take a wild guess,” Spencer said in a low voice. “I’m going to say those are Chip’s friends.”

Scarlett was clinging to his sleeve for balance as her head caught up with her altitude.

“It could have been worse,” she managed to reply. “Lola could have married one of them.”