Page 83 of Festive in Death

“How did you meet him?”

“Oh, he didn’t tell you?”

“We didn’t get into that.”

“It was so cute! I’m a dancer. I’m going to be a triple threat—that’s what my voice coach says. I’m taking lessons, and acting lessons, and more dance lessons. JJ’s paying for all of it. I’m an investment.”

She flushed prettily.

“Anyway, I just couldn’t stay in Shipshewana my whole life, could I?”

Eve got a strange picture of a pirate ship sailing through fields of corn and cows. “I don’t see how.”

“I know. Even though I miss everybody like crazy, you have to, you know, try to like fulfill your destiny. My theater teacher back home said I had real talent. A natural talent. So I came to New York. I want to work on Broadway, but it’s really hard. They can be so mean at the auditions. And I didn’t have as much money as maybe I should have. Things are really expensive here. I got a job as a waitress, but it gets really confusing. Then I got a dancing job. In one of those places, you know.”

She winced a little.

“Yeah, I know.”

“It was embarrassing at first, but like Sadie said, everybody’s got a body, so big deal. And if you have a nice one, you can make some real money. I didn’t like it a whole lot, but I was willing to sacrifice until I got my big break. You’ve got to pay your dues.”

She took a sip of her coffee-flavored cream and sugar.

“So,” Eve speculated, “you met JJ at the place where you danced.”

“Oh yeah, right. One night JJ came in, and he got a lap dance. And then he got another one, and he bought me a drink. He wanted to, you know, but I don’t do that. I’m not licensed, plus I don’t want to, you know? For like money.”

Eve considered the fancy apartment, the feathery peignoir—reserved judgment. “Okay.”

“So JJ was with some, what do you call it, colleagues, and some of them got a little pushy. But not JJ. Anyway, he came back the next night and bought me another drink, and he was nice to talk to. Then he asked me out.”

She pinked up again. “A real date. Dinner and everything. He took me out a few times—twice to a Broadway show, which was the ult. Then we, you know, but it wasn’t like he was a customer. We were dating. I didn’t know he was married, then he told me, and I was going to break it off because, you know, that’s just not right.”

“He didn’t tell you he was married before... you know?” Eve qualified.

“No, but he explained how his wife’s so awful, and controlling, and he’s trying to get a divorce, and they don’t even have sex.”

“She doesn’t understand him, appreciate him,” Eve said.

“I know!” Irony wafted over Felicity’s blond curls. “Then he bought this place so I’d have a nice, safe place to live. And he got me the lessons. And I have charge accounts and everything. I just have to be patient. It gets lonely sometimes because he has to travel so much for work, and he’s trying to convince his terrible wife to agree to a civilized divorce. He’s so sweet to me, and after he gets his divorce we’re getting married. See.”

She held out her hand—fingernails painted like her toes—to show off the rock on her ring finger.

Eve thought back to the hidden accounts, calculated what the rock would go for, if real. No charges or withdrawals corresponding, to her memory.

It struck her Felicity got the clichéd line and the fake diamond, and was naive enough to believe both.

“We’re just crazy about each other. We’d spend every minute we could together if it wasn’t for his awful wife, and if he didn’t have to travel for work, like he is now.”

Eve wondered if they grew them all this naive and gullible in Shipshewana.

“He’s away on business now?” she asked.

“Yeah, he had to leave a couple days ago to give a big presentation way out in New L.A. He’s really important, but you know that, so the client people wanted him especially. But he’s going to be back for Christmas. He maybe has to spend most of it with his wife, because of how people gossip and stuff, but we’re going to have our own Christmas here. Isn’t the tree pretty?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty. Do you know a Trey Ziegler?”

“Uh-uh. Is he a friend of JJ’s? I haven’t been able to meet his friends because of gossip and how his awful wife would use it to ruin him in the divorce. It’s nice to meet you, so I can have somebody to talk with. Sadie, my friend from where I used to dance, says men never divorce their wives like they say, but JJ’s not like that. We’re crazy about each other.”

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