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“It’s okay.” Eve tugged at the skirt of the dress. “I’ll multitask.”
A short time later, she wasn’t sure she had a mind. The pool house had been transformed into a female fantasy of gold, white, and silver canopies, lounge chairs, towering white candles. White tables held frothy pink drinks in crystal flutes, and silver trays of colorful food. Yet another held a tower of gifts with trailing ribbons.
To the far side of the deep blue water of the pool was the salon. Reclining chairs, massage tables, manicure and pedicure stations—and the tables with all those tools and implements that always gave Eve a slightly queasy stomach.
“Bellinis!” Mavis pushed one into Eve’s hand. “Mine are with the nonalchy bubbles since I’m nursing. But they’re still delish. We’re going to draw lots for services in a few minutes. After some lube.”
“Don’t put mine in.”
Mavis grinned. “Too late,” she said and danced off.
Eve thought: What the hell. And knocked back half the Bellini. It was pretty delish.
“What do you think?” Peabody asked, and gestured to encompass the whole space.
“I think it looks like a really classy bordello without any johns. In a good way.”
“That was pretty much the idea. Listen, while it’s all the chatter, we can slip out. You can fill me in on anything new.”
Eve looked at Peabody, looked at the space, looked over to where Louise laughed with a group of women. “It’s a party. The rest can wait. But since you asked, and meant it, the hurt downgrades from pig squeal to agonized moan.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Woot!”
As Mavis announced the first names for services, women shrieked. And Eve polished off the first Bellini.
Louise put another in her hand, tapped her own glass to it. “When I was a girl,” she began, “I dreamed about getting married, and all that went around it. For a long time, after I grew up, I put those dreams aside. For the work, and because no one measured up to what I had dreamed as a girl. Now, with Charles and what we have, with all this, and what I have right this minute, it’s so much more than I ever dreamed.”
“You look stupid with happy, Louise.”
“I am. I am stupid with happy. I know this is a bad time for you—and celebrating when Morris is going through so much—”
“We’re not thinking about that now. So, how long before somebody gets drunk and falls in the pool?”
“Oh, no more than an hour.”
It was an hour, almost to the minute, but nobody fell in. Mavis stripped off her boots, pulled her dress over her head and dived in, bare-ass naked. The gesture met with enthusiasm, so much so that dresses flew, shoes soared. Women, in a variety of sizes and shapes, joined her.
“My eyes,” Eve moaned. “There aren’t enough Bellinis in the world to save my eyes.”
They swam naked, and when someone ordered music, they danced. They chattered like magpies and drank like fish. They reclined in the salon with their faces and bodies coated with strangely colored goo. They gathered in corners for intense discussions.
“It hits every note.”
Eve glanced over at Nadine. “Does it?”
“Look at Peabody shaking it with Louise. And Mira over there chatting with Reo and—whoever that is, some friend of Louise’s from the hospital. They’re chatting like sisters while they get facials. I get caught up with work. You know how it is. And I forget to just hang with women. Just be with others of my species without any agenda. Then there’s something like this, so completely female, and I like it. A lot. It hits the notes.”
“I didn’t see you jump naked in the pool.”
“I haven’t had enough to drink yet. But the night’s young.” Nadine gave her slow, feline smile. “Wanna dance, cutie?”
Eve laughed. “No, but thanks. Two things, then we’ll get another drink. I might have a break on the Coltraine case, and I’ll give you a heads up when it cracks open. Don’t ask, not here. Second, I read the book. Your Icove book. You got it. I already knew the ending, but you pulled it off so I wanted to see how you played it out.”
“It’s been killing me not to ask you.” Nadine closed her eyes, drank again. “Thanks. Serious and sincere thanks, Dallas.”
