Steamed

was Veronica, she seemed chatty enough, and I wondered what she could tell me about Eric. At a guess, she knew nothing about my history with Noah. That, or she didn’t care.
    With all the false friendliness I could muster, I smiled at her as I slowly started loading whites into the washing machine. “So, you and Noah, huh? That’s great.”
    “Oh, yeah. He’s the best. Better than my ex, Eric, that’s for sure,” she scoffed as she flipped a page in her magazine. “Oh God. Sorry. I heard through the grapevine at Magellan that you were going out with him. And you found his body? How totally gross!” she squealed. “But I hear you’re with Josh now. Much better choice. I should know.”
    In dignified tones, I said, “I had a blind date with Eric the night he died, so I barely knew him. You must be upset, though. I mean, I know you two had broken up, but still... he was murdered.”
    “You know what? I’m not upset in the least. He was a big liar, and I don’t give a crap that he’s gone. I wasted enough time on him for nothing,” she spat out.
    “Because he was broke?”
    Without a hint of embarrassment, she nodded and said, “Yeah, you found out about that, too? I dumped his ass the minute I figured it out. What a moron he was. I mean, come on, who spends money like that when you don’t have it? I’m a freaking bookkeeper, for cry in’ out loud! Why he thought I’d put up with that is beyond me. After months of driving me around in his slick car, I find out he’s worth nothing? I don’t think so. Not for me. Broke up with him right after. Noah has tons more money than Eric did,” she confided. “He’s made really good investments.”
    It was hard to believe that someone so superficial had a brain with the depth to handle numbers. “So why did Eric pretend he was going to invest in Tim’s restaurant? Obviously he couldn’t afford to, so what was the point of making Tim think he could?”
    “Oh, Eric was such a jackass. He was so obsessed with that restaurant gang. It was actually pathetic how much he wanted to fit in with Tim and Maddie and everyone who worked there. It’s a tight group of people, and Eric was like some loser high-school kid trying to worm his way into the popular crowd. Nobody there particularly liked him, but he used to go into Magellan and throw money around—money, it turns out, he shouldn’t have been spending. He latched onto the staff when they went out to the bars after work and tried to pretend he was, you know, the leader of the pack. People mostly just ignored him and hoped he’d go away.” Veronica tossed her hair. I was pleased to see that she desperately needed a foil. “So anyway,” she continued, “when Tim opened up Essence, Eric just barreled ahead and tried to jump on board and become part of the new restaurant by claiming he wanted to invest a huge amount of money. So he was just angling to hang out there, get free food, and feel wealthy and important.”
    “So,” I asked casually, “did you tell everyone at work why you broke up with Eric?”
    “No way. I mean, at the time I was totally mortified. I would’ve looked like a complete idiot dating someone as fiscally irresponsible as Eric. I was furious at him for fooling me and making me think he was loaded, and I didn’t want anyone to know that I’d been tricked by a moron like Eric. So, between that and his awful parents, I was done with him.”
    I had to nod in agreement. “Yeah, I’ve met them. They’re both pretty out there.” I paused. “Especially the father.” I glanced at Veronica, who was still perched on the dryer.
    “He’s an asshole. Do you know, he frickin’ hit on me once?”
    “No!” I replied in mock disbelief.
    “Yeah, at a dinner party Eric’s parents had. Phil had downed, like, an entire bottle of scotch, and he grabbed my ass in the kitchen. He tried to grab something else, but Eric walked in.”
    “That must’ve been a nice scene. Did Sheryl find out?”
    “No. But then when I found out about Eric’s money mess, Eric said he’d make his father pay it all off. Eric told his father that if he didn’t fix all of his financial problems, he’d tell Sheryl that Phil had hit on me.”
    “And Phil agreed,” I finished for her.
    “You bet your ass he agreed. Would you want to piss off that woman?”
    I shook my head.
    “Eric thought he could get me back if he got Phil to pay off all his debt. At that point I didn’t care. I’d had enough of his