“Oh, Carla? Before I forget, Tony Presto’s here. He wants to talk to you about the conference next month.”

I said, Sure, of course. New guests were coming in behind us, and Aaron and I moved away to let Doug greet them. “What conference?” Aaron wanted to know, and I said it was something Viridian had been talking about. I hadn’t yet told him since I hadn’t really imagined myself going. I spotted the bar and steered us toward it, and then there was Lolly and a couple of the other regulars to greet.

I hadn’t been trying to keep things from Aaron, though he certainly was starting to feel that way. But he’d been either uninterested or begrudging or negative about so much of what was new with me that I’d gotten into the habit of not bringing any of it home with me.

Jonathan and I got the food out to the serving table, and people crowded up to it, trying to look casual instead of like hogs at a trough. We got some extra trays ready to set out as needed, then stood against the wall to make sure there were enough forks and napkins and coconut shrimp wraps and everything else. Jonathan fretted that he needed to get out of the kitchen and circulate. There were supposed to be some film people here tonight.

“It’s under control for now,” I said. I saw Aaron, still near the bar, talking to two girls wearing black T-shirts. One of the T-shirts said Pancho, the other, Lefty. I guess it would work as a conversation starter. The girls weren’t twins, but they both had hair dyed a shiny cellophane red. They were all laughing together. Aaron was holding up one hand, then the other. He appeared to be trying to determine which was his right and which his left. Fine. I wasn’t going to worry about him for the moment. “You should go,” I told Jonathan. “Hey, where’s Ed?”

“Trouble in paradise,” Jonathan said, lowering his voice. “I think he’s hiding out in the magazine office. He and Doug had a big fight about money.”

“What happened?”

“The phrase that kept coming up was, ‘down the toilet.’ Ed said they shouldn’t be having a big expensive party when they were already spending so much to keep the house going. The magazine came up, too. And not in a good way. Here’s hoping they don’t raise my rent. I’ll just take a quick lap. Do I need to fix my hair?”