Lunch: Tap or Toe — Diane Meier

Matthew Molinsky is a Park Avenue Billionaire with big appetites and an even bigger sense of entitlement. Ceaselessly courting the press, he maintains a high profile, measured each week by the media ink he's amassed. Carrie Van Rhinehardt was his childhood friend, connected to Matt now, by a confusing pre-teen memory, and his position as what she terms, her "very own Semi-Celebrity".

Matt pulls Carrie back in his life the way he seems to exploit everything; carelessly and with naked self-interest. But why is she so susceptible?

New York breeds a special kind of mogul, and Tap or Toe suggests that the seed of the entrepreneur who can turn weeds into billion dollar blooms, is often visible at a very young age. And it's not always pretty.

Not exactly a romp through the stylish, New York world of Marketing and Money, but a witty and yet critical glance from a front-row seat. Tap or Toe looks at privilege and celebrity, but far closer to the bone -- the way some seemingly minor incidents of childhood can become formative in the development of values or a sense of self.

This short story, the second of a series of three (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner), takes you behind the scenes in the lives of characters who create the images we come to recognize as Status and Style.

Author, Diane Meier, has run her own luxury marketing firm for decades, with clients like Neiman Marcus, Elizabeth Arden and DeBeers in her portfolio.

Her first book, The New American Wedding; Ritual and Style in a Changing Culture, explored the many stylish options available in creating authentic ceremony and celebration. And her first novel, The Season of Second Chances was Henry Holt's lead book for Spring, an Independent bookstore choice (Indie-Bound) top choice and noted as a top Summer Reading Choice by The New York Times.

See more at dianemeier.com