Simmer Down

consumed most of her glass.
    I followed Josh through the maze of full tables. At least he was holding my hand.
    “Josh, it’s no use pretending nothing is up with Hannah, because I saw the shopping list you gave her. It wasn’t just that it was your kind of food—it was in your handwriting. She made me pick her up from the police station the other day and then forced me to chauffeur her around town to shop for the ingredients for the dinner you were making her.”
    Josh stopped so abruptly that I nearly smashed into him. He turned around to face me. “Yes, I did write out a shopping list for her. The other night at the gallery, Hannah told me that she’d changed, that she was interested in food and cooking, and that she wanted to make a wonderful dinner for some guy. She asked me for suggestions, and then she had me write out everything she needed. So I did. If she told you I was cooking for her, she was just screwing with you. One of the many reasons she and I are no longer together. Okay?” He resumed walking, pulling me along and shaking his head in obvious disbelief at how gullible I was.
    As we neared Barry, Sarka, and Dora’s table, Josh stopped to speak to a waitress. Standing there waiting for him, I couldn’t help eavesdropping. Dora was speaking rather loudly to Barry and Sarka. To my dismay, I overhead her describing how she’d gotten rid of Oliver’s pets. “If you can even call hermit crabs pets!” she exclaimed. “I don’t know why he fussed over them so much. He had an enormous fish tank filled with sand for four of those disgusting, slimy crabs! Can you imagine? I just flushed them down the toilet last night. Good riddance!”
    I held Josh’s hand tightly. As unlovable as Ken had at first seemed, he was growing on me, and I was appalled that anyone would simply send a living animal off to the city sewer system. The same idea had admittedly occurred to me when I’d first seen Ken, but I wouldn’t actually have done it! How could Dora so easily have flushed away Oliver’s beloved pets? She must be totally heartless. Did her violence against small creatures mean that she was capable of violence on a larger, say Oliver-sized, scale?
    I looked away from Dora, whom I now saw as a ruthless crab-killer... and maybe more. At another nearby table were Naomi and Eliot. The trendy owner of a trendy gallery, Eliot had obviously taken pity on Naomi. I felt touched by his kindness in giving my wallflower supervisor a night on the town, and not just any night, either, but New Year’s Eve. Because of Naomi’s granola-based social skills, it seemed particularly generous of him to put up with her on a holiday.
    I hurried past them before they noticed me.
    I looked away from the ill-matched couple only to catch a glimpse of Sean and Hannah, who were cozily seated at a table for two. Aha! That’s who Hannah was cooking for! Those two had met at the Food for Thought and must have hit it off. In other words, Hannah had somehow gotten her claws into poor, trusting Sean. Knowing Sean as I did, I suddenly realized that after telling me about the incident he’d witnessed at the gallery between Oliver and Hannah, he must have gone to Hannah and believed whatever self-serving explanation she’d given him. I couldn’t imagine, however, why Hannah had picked Simmer as the place the two of them would celebrate New Year’s Eve. It had been Hannah, I felt certain, who’d made the selection. What could she possibly have said? Hey, Sean, let’s go to my ex-boyfriend’s new restaurant, where we can also see your ex-girlfriend and, with a little luck, her entire family!
    There was something highly disturbing about our two exes hooking up, but as far as I was concerned, the two of them were welcome to each other, especially if my ex would keep Josh’s ex away from Josh from now on. As tempted as I was to stop at their table with Josh and spit out a witty, biting comment, I realized that it would be a mistake to give Hannah any kind of attention. Besides, although the general concept of spitting out a witty, biting remark felt wonderful, I wasn’t able to translate the idea into particular words.
    We got to Josh’s office, which was no bigger than a closet but had two doors, one that opened inward from the kitchen, the other that opened inward from the dining room, both propped open to allow Josh to keep an eye on things. The combination of the two doors sticking into the tiny room, two chairs, and Josh’s