Windfall Page 0,17

and started unpacking. It was a pitifully short affair. She'd left most of the good stuff behind, and what good stuff she had left was horribly wrinkled. We made a dry-clean pile, a "burn this" pile, a Goodwill pile, and a keeper stack. That one was short. It filled exactly one drawer of the dresser.

"Makeup?" I asked. She pointed to a tiny plastic case that couldn't have held more than lipstick, mascara, and maybe an eyebrow pencil. "Shoes?"

She pointed to the battered running shoes and held up a pair of black, squarish pumps, something suitable for a grandmother, so long as Grandma didn't care much about appearances. I winced. "The bastard didn't even let you keep your shoes?"

"He cleaned out the house and gave everything to the Salvation Army," she said. "All my clothes. Everything."

"Jesus." I had a sudden flare of suspicion. "Um, look, Sarah, not that I'm doubting you or anything, but wasn't Chretien the, um, guilty party... ?"

She had the good grace to look just a little ashamed. "He found out about Carl."

"Carl?"

Chapter Five

"You know."

"Nope. Really don't."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, if you're going to force me to say it... I wasn't exactly guiltless. There. I admit it. I was having an affair with his business partner."

"Jesus."

"And the donkey he rode in on," she finished, just the way she'd always done it when we'd been in school. "But he didn't have to get so personal about all of it. He cheated on me, after all. You'd think he'd at least understand that it was... well..."

"Recreational?" I supplied dryly.

"Yes! Exactly!"

"Should have joined the bridge club, Sarah."

She gave me a helpless, angry look. "I'm not saying I was guiltless, but... he gave me a couple of hundred dollars and told me to buy replacements. In my new price range. God, Jo, I didn't even know where to shop!"

I took a deep breath and said, "Tell you what? I was going to the mall anyway with a friend, so if you want to get ready-"

"I'm ready," my sister said instantly.

I picked up the phone and called Cherise.

Cherise had, of course, changed clothes in the interim. She'd gone to a magenta see-through mesh shirt with lime green tie-dyed patterns, over a lime green camisole. It all matched the lime glitter toenail polish, which evidently she liked enough to accessorize to.

"Ten," I said instantly when she got out of her red convertible. "Maybe a ten point five. You blind me with your magnificence."

"But of course. Man, Jo, I knew you were a saint, but you gave up your hottie for your sister? Damn. I'd have blown off taking my grandma to dialysis for that man!"

Sarah came out of the apartment behind me, wearing her wrinkled khaki walking shorts and badly fitting button-down shirt. Cherise's perfectly made-up eyes widened into something usually seen only in Japanese animation.

"Oh my God," she said, and looked at me in horror. "You told me it was bad, but damn, this is a seven point five on the fashion disaster scale. And what's with her hair?"

"Cherise," I said. "I know it's hard for you, but please. Sarah's had a bad time. Be kind."

"I was being kind. That is way worse than a seven point five."

Sarah said, "Jo? Did she just say you have a boyfriend?"

Trust Sarah, of course, to blow past Cherise's fluff to get to the potentially disastrous part of the conversation.

"Not just a boyfriend," Cherise said. "Boyfriends are Ken dolls. Boyfriends are safe. Her guy is the kind of hottie who needs to keep a fire extinguisher around, just to hose down any passing women who spontaneously combust."

I stared at her, amazed. For Cherise, this was, well, poetic.

Sarah was, meanwhile, frowning at me. "And you didn't tell me about him?"

I didn't want to bring up David yet. That was going to be a strange and difficult conversation, with somebody as earthbound-normal as Sarah, and I couldn't really mislead her too far. Trying to keep him secret would only lead to low comedy and farce. Not to mention put a serious cramp in my love life.

"He had to leave," I said. Not a lie. "I'll see him later."

"I should have known you'd have a boyfriend," Sarah said. She sounded bitter. "What was I thinking? When do you not?"

"Kind of a 'ho, isn't she?"