LITMIR.BIZ

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      “Listen, we were watching the news,” Rick said in a rush. “I heard what happened and I thought, well, I should be here. I should be here to support Mary Ann’s cousin.”

      “We?” Dena repeated.

      “Right…er…” He put the flowers on the side table again and became very involved in fluffing them back up.

      “Rick, baby, don’t leave me hanging,” Dena jeered. “Who’s we?”

      Rick’s hands fell to his sides. “Well, if you must know, Fawn was with me, but don’t take that to mean… We were just watching television after all.”

      “So you’re not with her anymore?” Dena asked, although she didn’t sound as if she cared all that much.

      “No…we are… I had to get on with my life after all. Mary Ann told me she’s getting married and, well… I mean if I had reason to think she was having second thoughts… She’s not, right?”

      “Get. Out!” Dena hissed just as the door opened again.

      This time it was a nurse. “Miss Lopiano, I’m supposed to run some tests…”

      Dena raised her hand bidding the nurse to wait and turned to Rick. “Why are you still here?”

      “I could just wait in the corner,” he said hopefully. “Wait until she…um, your family shows up.”

      Dena gave me a meaningful look. I got to my feet and took Rick by the arm. “We’re leaving.” I pulled him through the door and down the hallway.

      “I’ll wait here then,” he suggested once we had reached a vending machine.

      “For Mary Ann?” I asked. “Really? What do you think is going to happen?”

      Rick pulled away from me and looked up at the ceiling. “I know you and Dena hate me. You have the right to but—”

      “Rick, someone shot Dena. Right now all my hate is reserved for the guy who pulled the trigger. I don’t have room in my mind to hate you. I don’t have room for you period. And neither does Dena and neither does Mary Ann.”

      “I just want to talk to her.”

      “Not today. She’s got enough to deal with.”

      Rick reached out and grabbed my arm but his grip was much tighter than mine had been on his. “I am not something that Mary Ann has to deal with. I’m here to comfort her. I understand her, she can talk to me.”

      “No,” I said, peeling his fingers away. “She can’t. You severed whatever special connection you had with Mary Ann when you decided to stuff your weasel inside Bambi slutty taxidermist.”

      “Her name is Fawn.”

      “Whatever. You’re being a burden, Rick. Accept it and move on.”

      Rick’s eyes flashed in what could be either anger or pain. He leaned forward and for the first time I became aware of his height. Rick wasn’t very muscular but he had to be at least six foot three.

      “Rick? Is everything all right?”

      We both turned to see a woman in a bright orange belted sheath dress coming out of the elevator. The vividness of her clothes seemed to clash with her reddish-brown hair which was gathered up in a cheap plastic clip.

      Rick immediately pulled away. “Everything’s fine,” he said. I have never seen a man look more guilty. “I didn’t expect—”

      But the woman cut him off by turning to me. “You must be a friend of Dena’s. I’m Fawn.”

      She extended her hand to me but I just stared at it. Fawn read my reticence correctly and quickly pulled her hand back. “I guess you’re also a friend of Mary Ann’s,” she said quietly. “We didn’t mean to cause any trouble. It’s just that after seeing it on the news Rick thought we should come…he did know Dena after all and he’s had nothing but nice things to say about her.”

      “Dena doesn’t want to see Rick,” I said coolly. “And you…well, she doesn’t even know you.”

      “Right, I’m sorry.” Fawn shifted from foot to foot. “We’ll go…or I’ll go wait in the car if you want to stay a little longer, Rick.” She looked up to Rick in a silent request for instructions.

      “Rick doesn’t need to stay,” I said shortly. “You can both leave.”

      Rick crossed his arms across his chest and for a moment it looked as if he was going to stomp his foot in protest, but instead he nodded to Fawn, who quickly fell behind him as he strode toward the elevator. Fawn turned to me and mouthed “sorry” as Rick jammed his finger against the call button. She didn’t protest when he pulled her inside as the doors parted.

      It hadn’t been that way when Rick had been with Mary Ann. He had doted on her. Once, after consuming one too many glasses of scotch Rick had told her that she owned his soul. But men were always making wildly romantic declarations to Mary Ann. Just last month Monty had thrown rose petals at her feet and pronounced her to be queen of his heart. Anatoly didn’t do stuff like that. Thank God.

      In what couldn’t have been more than ten seconds later, the bell of the elevator rang again and this time it was my sister, Leah, who walked out holding what might have been the biggest gift basket I have ever seen. She had to strain her neck to see over the large purple-and-white ribbon. She raised her eyebrows up and down in what could only be described as a facial wave when she saw me.

      “I think I just saw Rick Wilkes getting out of the elevator while I was getting on,” she said once she had made it to my side.

      “Yep, you did.” I sighed. “He’s such a jerk.”

      “We were at his house last year for Mary Ann’s surprise party. You appeared to like him well enough then.”

      “That was before I knew he was a cheater.”

      “That’s right, I forgot about that,” Leah said in a voice that implied she wasn’t all that interested in remembering. “Anatoly told me I’d find you here. What did you bring Dena? It wasn’t spa products, was it?”

      “I brought flowers,” I said as I tried to count the myriad number of spa products in the leather basket. “But I forgot to bring a vase.”

      Leah rolled her eyes. “Typical. You know what else is typical? It’s typical that I had to find out about this through Anatoly. Of course I was listening to Mornings on Two while making breakfast this morning and they reported that someone in the Lake Street area was shot last night, but they weren’t releasing names and it never occurred to me that I might know the victim! Why didn’t you call me, Sophie?”

      “You don’t even like Dena.”

      “I disapprove of her,” she corrected. “There’s a big difference.”

      “Is there?”

      “Absolutely. I can honestly say that Dena is the only brazen hussy I have ever genuinely liked.”

      It was a joke meant to lighten the mood but the worry in her eyes undermined it. Even her most recent Botox injections couldn’t hide her distress.

      “Look, Dena’s getting examined or something right now. Why don’t we grab a cup of coffee down in the cafeteria?”

      “I don’t eat in hospital cafeterias,” Leah said distractedly. “Is there a waiting room around here? We could talk there.”

      A little shudder went up my spine as I remembered last night, sitting in that awful room waiting for news on Dena. “There’s a Starbucks a few blocks away.”

      Leah sighed. “You can’t expect me to lug this all the way to Starbucks. Which one is her room?”

      “That one but—”

      Leah marched

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