Simmer Down

with her. She loves those things. Dora is sweet in many ways, but she and I are very different from each other. She’s a little older than I am, but it’s not the age gap thing. We just don’t have much in common other than the fact that our husbands are in business together. Or were in business.”
    For a second, it seemed to me that I’d misjudged Sarka the other night at the gallery by mistaking her boredom for standoffishness and arrogance. But did her boredom at Food for Thought really explain the difference between her coldness then and her friendliness now?
    “Dora seems like she’s holding it together, considering what she must be going through,” I commented.
    “For now. I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet, though. I asked her to come out with us tonight because I’m afraid if she sits in that house all alone she might suddenly realize how depressed she is and have a breakdown. It’s bad enough that her husband died, but the fact that he was murdered makes it even worse. At least she wasn’t the one who found him. Barry said he’ll never forget seeing Oliver like that. So, I just think Dora should be with friends right now. She was crazy about Oliver, and, in his heart, he was crazy about her, too, even if he didn’t always act that way.”
    “Did they fight a lot?” Ade spoke with clips held between her lips. “He was almost never around anytime I’ve been to their house.”
    Sarka shook her head slightly. “No, they didn’t really fight, but I think Oliver met and fell in love with Dora before he should have. Not to badmouth him now that he’s gone, but he probably needed a few more years to date other women before he settled down, if you know what I mean. He had a bit of a wandering eye,” she explained.
    “Really? I wouldn’t have guessed that based on the way Dora speaks about him.” Adrianna was very good at eliciting gossip from people.
    “Don’t mention this to Dora, but Oliver was quite a flirt. Over the years he made a number of suggestions to me. You know, suggestions that we be more than just friends. I was never really sure if he was kidding or not, and I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.”
    I perked up. “Did he ever try anything with you?”
    “Not really. But he would touch me all the time, you know, put his hand around my waist, hug me a little too long, that sort of thing. I think it bothered Barry a lot, but I asked him not to say anything to Oliver. There was no point, and I didn’t want to start a fight. Oliver never really crossed the line with me. It was more about the idea of crossing the line.”
    “Chloe, can you hand me the dryer?” Ade asked me. “Okay, Sarka. I’m done cutting, and now I’m just going to blow it out smooth and rounded under at the bottom. But you think Oliver was coming on to other women besides you?”
    “I don’t know for sure. Dora might have had her suspicions, for all I know, but it’s not the kind of thing we talk about. Dora is too proud to discuss anything like that with me. We spend a lot of time together, but we’re not really very close friends. She did seem jealous of that new girl that they hired to do publicity. Hannah something?”
    “Hannah Hicks.” I snarled and handed Ade the blow dryer.
    Adrianna rubbed a smoothing serum through Sarka’s hair and began pulling long sections through the brush as she aimed the dryer at them.
    “Yes, that’s her,” Sarka yelled above the din of the blow dryer. “They were spending a lot of time together working on new ways to promote the clubs. And I know Dora didn’t approve that the Full Moon Group was paying for that girl’s apartment downtown. As opposite as we are, I do have a certain loyalty to Dora, and I’d hate to find out that Oliver was cheating on her. But maybe Dora just resented the money it was costing. The fact is that she can be quite a cheapskate.”
    “Dora?” I blurted out. “I thought she... uh, I had the impression that she...” I just couldn’t finish the sentence, or I couldn’t have finished it without calling Dora an outright liar.
    “Not that she’s stingy, really,” Sarka said. “Not with her friends. Or with the people who work for her. But that’s where her generosity ends.”
    No time ago, she had unambiguously stated her intention of donating tons of her newly acquired money to charity. Someone was lying. I thought it was Dora.
    Adrianna finished styling Sarka’s hair and pulled the hand mirror from her