Black Rose

hand. “Sun, blue water, handsome half-naked men. Just the ticket. You know I worry that you just chain yourself to this place. But you’ve got that girl from Up North managing things now. How’s she working out for you, by the way?”
    “Her name’s Stella, Cissy, and she’s worked for me for a year now. That should be a good indication it’s working out just fine for both of us.”
    “That’s good. You should take advantage of that and get away for a while.”
    “There’s no place I want to go.”
    “Well, I’m going to bring you some brochures, that’s what I’m going to do. I don’t know if I could get through the next day if I didn’t know we’d be sitting on a beach sipping mai tais soon. You were smart to skip most of the parties, though I was sorry I didn’t see you New Year’s Eve at Jan and Quill’s. Lovely gathering, really, though it didn’t come near the one you put on. Flowers were on the skimpy side, and the food wasn’t much more than mediocre. Not that I’d say so to Jan. Did you know she was going in for liposuction next week?”
    “No, I didn’t.”
    “Well, it’s one of those ill-kept secrets.” Cissy edged closer, her dimples doing a conspirator’s wink. “Butt and thighs is what I hear. I just this minute came from lunch with her, and she says how she’s going to be spending a week at a spa in Florida, when everybody knows she’s going for the vacuum, then holing up in her house till she can get around again. And, bless her heart, since you could set a table for a family of four on the shelf of her ass, I’d say it’ll be more than a week before she’s walking straight again.”
    Despite herself, Roz laughed. “For God’s sake, Cissy, her ass looks normal enough to me.”
    “Not compared to the new administrative assistant Quill’s said to have his eye on. Twenty-eight years old, and you could set that table quite a bit higher on that one, as long as you don’t mind eating off silicone.”
    “I hope that’s not true, about Quill. I’ve always thought he and Jan were good together.”
    “Some men just lose all sense around a big pair of tits, no matter if God or man made them. Which brings me around to what I really came by to tell you. I’m just not quite sure how.”
    “I’m sure you’ll find a way.”
    “It’s just that I feel I must, I’m obliged... How long have we been friends, Rosalind?”
    “I couldn’t say.” Since knowing someone since high school didn’t make you friends, she thought.

    “At our age, it’s best not to count the years in any case. But since we’ve known each other longer than either of us cares to admit to, I feel like I have to let you know what’s going around. But first I want to say, since I haven’t had a minute to talk to you since... the incident , that I’ve never been so shocked or so dumbfounded as I was when that horrible Bryce Clerk walked into your house, just like he had a right to, the night of your party.”
    “It’s all right, Cissy. He walked right back out again.”
    “And a good thing, too, as I don’t know if I could’ve held myself back. I just don’t know. I couldn’t believe that Mandy. Of course, that girl hasn’t got the sense God gave a retarded flea, but that’s no excuse for not taking the time to find out who the man was before she came traipsing into your home on his arm.”
    She waved a hand. “I just can’t speak of it.”
    “Then we won’t. I really have to get back to work.”
    “But I haven’t told you. My tongue just runs away from me when I’m upset. He was there , with that ridiculous, brainless girl again. He was there, Roz, at Jan and Quill’s, big as life, like he didn’t have a care in the world. Drinking champagne and dancing, smoking cigars out on the veranda. Talking about his consulting company. Just turned my stomach.”
    She held a hand to it, as if even now it threatened to revolt. “I know Jan said you’d sent your regrets, but I lived in horror that you’d change your mind and walk in any minute. I wasn’t the only one, either.”
    “I’m sure.” Very sure, Roz thought, that there’d been plenty of excited buzz, and half-hopeful glances toward the door. “Jan’s entitled to have anyone she wants to in her own home.”
    “I certainly don’t agree with that. It’s a matter of loyalty, if not good taste. And I had lunch with her today to say just that.”

    As she spoke, she opened her purse and took out a compact to blot her