“That’s the most romantic-slash-creepy thing—” but two more women clitter-clatter down the staircase, spoiling the statistic.

“We’re early,” says one, and the other says, “I’m Shandra.” Their dresses are tight-fitting and short both ways, the sort that always remind Padgett of a costume she wore when she was a kid, of a tube of toothpaste. Of course, she also had a paper chef’s hat for the cap, and these women just have makeup, so glittery in the diminished light it looks like masks. They are miles from the aloof corporate glamour she’d made up in her head about this party. “Be with you in a minute, ladies,” Martin says, all gallantry and coasters.

“Who are you?” says the one who isn’t Shandra, like Padgett is something she’s found in that tiny purse. Padgett says she’s Padgett. “Can I get a rickey then?”

“Can I get a rickey? Can I get a rickey too?”

“She doesn’t work here,” Martin calls out, and the women look her over again. Padgett knows, she’s pretty sure, that these women are not hookers, but they seem like the type who would squeal, and not slap you, if you asked them, which is maybe worse.

“Sorry,” the woman says now. “I always think everyone’s a server. Ask Shandra.”

“So true,” Shandra says. “Are you into fashion? You look like that.”

Padgett adjusts her sleeve. The sweater she is wearing, and has worn for five days, she snitched from her mother one day when it got colder. “I’m really jazzed about it,” the woman insists, not evidently joking, or maybe so deadpan she’s even meaner than she seems, a seventh-grade birthday party all over again. The chemicals, with the pill and two drinks, are drifting everything apart. Padgett says, “It’s time for a drink,” and the women nod and say definitely in spooky unison.

“Tonight’s special is our version of a classic, the Horse’s Neck,” Martin says, “with Hallowed Spirits whiskey—”

“Rickeys,” Shandra says, suddenly a toucan. “Rickeys! Rickeys!”

Padgett cannot help admiring the way Martin does not, in the slightest, give them a sigh. “I’m betting you ladies have a special way—”