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she stole my notes right off my hard drive!”
“Couldn’t she be fired for that? For unethical behavior?”
“Well, I can’t actually prove it. But I got a very confidential lead about Soper bribing someone at the DOT, and now Montoya has lined up an interview with that same someone. And she was at my desk one night before she quit, fooling with my computer. Said she was interested in one of my programs, but that’s bullshit. She hates computers. I’d bet money she read those notes.”
“You’re beautiful when you’re angry.” I couldn’t resist; he needled me often enough.
“Very funny. She better not tip her hand to Soper, though, or he’ll really freak. He thinks he’s untouchable, but this bribery deal could bring him down for good.”
“Mercedes seems so talented,” I continued innocently. What a relief to be back on teasing terms after the chilly anger that had sent us to this party separately instead of together. “I saw her interview Roger Talbot on that afternoon show the other day and she was brilliant.”
“Brilliant?” he yelped. “How brilliant do you have to be to bat your eyelashes? ‘The people of Seattle are so grieved for you, Roger’ ‘Roger, how will you pursue public office without Mrs. Talbot at your side?’ What a phony.”
I giggled at his rendition of Mercedes’ soulful on-camera manner, and he narrowed his eyes.
“Wait a minute, you never fall for that kind of crap. You’re just giving me a bad time, aren’t you? Wicked witch.”
Down below, the DJ cued up “Respect”—Otis, not Aretha. Time for a peace offering. “Look, Aaron, the Dome room’s next on my rounds, and I’m due for a break anyway. Come dance with me?”
He looked away uncomfortably, straightening his shiny black cape. “I promised Corinne, when she gets back from the rest room. If she ever gets back. She’s spending half the party in there.”
“Oh. Well, don’t let me keep you.” Corinne, with her golden curls and her syrupy Southern drawl and her icecream-scoop cleavage. I have long red hair, which I’m regrettably vain about, but I’m also skinny as a broomstick, and in my witch’s hat I towered over Aaron’s middling height. The difference in our statures bothered me, and amused him. He just called me silly nicknames and insisted that he didn’t have to be bigger than me, only smarter and more charming.
“Corinne’s kind of my date tonight, Stretch,” he was saying. “I’m trying to keep an eye on her. She’s been really down since she broke up with that Russian guy.”
“She’s been looking kind of rocky,” I agreed. “But I think it was Boris who broke up with her.”
Actually, I knew it was. Boris Nevsky—Lily called him Boris the Mad Russian Florist—had given me the gory details as we planned Paul and Elizabeth’s wedding flowers. “She vanted to get merried!” he’d announced, mournful and astonished, shaking his shaggy Slavic head over the parrot tulips and the hellebores. Having dated Boris a couple of times myself, I was astonished too, but there’s no accounting for taste.
“I wondered about that,” said Aaron. “Corinne claims she dumped him, but she’s awfully depressed about it. And I think this wedding stuff is making her feel extra-single. Funny how weddings do that to women. Us bachelor groomsmen feel just fine.”
“I bet you do.”
He chuckled. “Hey, I meant to ask you, aren’t the bridesmaids supposed to be close friends of the bride? I didn’t know Corinne and Elizabeth were such buddies.”
“Sorority sisters at the UW, along with Mercedes,” I said. “Though frankly, I think Elizabeth’s main criterion was looks. She’d already picked out these slinky bridesmaids’ dresses, she just needed bodies to fill them. Says she doesn’t have time for girlfriends.”
“Too busy cashing out stock options at the top of the market. So it’s Mercedes the bitch and Corinne the goddess, and who else?” He glanced around as he spoke, keeping watch for Corinne. “I know you told me the lineup, but I keep forgetting.”
“Funny how you remember batting averages but not bridesmaids’ names.”
“Matter of priority, Slim. Help me out here, in case I miss the rehearsal. I go in by myself, and then out with a bridesmaid, but which one? Tell me it’s not Mercedes.”
“No, it’s not, but why should you miss the rehearsal? This is important, Aaron.”
“I know, I know. But I might have to go back East on short notice. So who’s my partner?”
“Well, we’re matching you by height, so you go with Corinne, and Paul’s brother Scott gets Mercedes.”
There’s often a glow of romance