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  “Hell, yes,” Liza said, as Roger came back with a tray of cake boxes and the cake topper. She ripped the bride and groom off the cake top and put it in front of Diana and said, “Pay attention, Little Stats, we’re about to have a moment.” Diana looked up and Liza stomped on the head of the groom, shattering it into dust. “Now,” she said. “He is officially history. And if there’s a God, he has a splitting headache.”

  “I think you can count on that,” Roger said. “He got hit a lot.”

  “Good,” Liza said. “Now we’re going back to Min’s and get drunk.”

  Diana looked at Min through her tears. “Can I wear your bunny slippers?”

  “You can have my bunny slippers,” Min said, thinking of Cal in furious misery.

  She looked toward the door and saw him standing there, watching her, and then Tony was in her way, spreading out his hands, saying to Liza, “Nice job on the cake topper, ace. I suppose you had to kill the groom,” and Liza said, “Defend him and die,” and Tony said, “No, he was an asshole even without the haircut,” and Diana laughed and then cried again.

  Out in the hall, Cal turned and Min saw Cynthie standing behind him. He stopped for a moment, and then he left, and Cynthie went with him.

  Right. You wouldn’t stay to help because it’s not about you, is it, buddy? Min thought and then shoved him out of her mind and turned back to Diana.

  “I’m a coward?” Cal had said to Tony when Min had gone, pleased to be fighting with somebody he could hit.

  “I can’t believe you’re running away from this one,” Tony said. “Hell, Cal, you’re thirty-five, aren’t you tired of that shit by now?”

  “You’re thirty-five, too,” Cal said grimly.

  “And I have never in my life looked at a woman the way you look at Min,” Tony said. “I’d be pissed at her, that all-men-are-pigs bit is a pain in the ass, but I’d tell her that, I wouldn’t walk away from her. What’s wrong with you?”

  “This is not about me,” Cal said.

  “Jesus,” Tony said and turned back to the ballroom.

  “Where are you going?” Cal said.

  Tony shook his head. “Back to where there’s real trouble. We’re all in there. Why aren’t you?”

  Then he walked away and Cal looked past him to where Min had her arms around Diana, and Bonnie was leaning close to them, and Roger was holding a tray of cake in one hand and patting Diana on the back with the other, and Liza was smashing something with her foot, and as Tony got closer, he spread his hands out, and Diana looked up and gave him a watery smile and Cal knew he was clowning again, doing his bit. Fuck, he thought. I should be in there. Then Min looked up and saw him, her face set and stormy, and he flinched and thought, The hell with you, and turned, furious and miserable to see Cynthie, looking lovelier than ever.

  “Are you all right?” she said.

  “No,” Cal said.

  She smiled at him. “I know a place we can get a drink.”

  “Where’s that?” Cal said.

  “My place,” Cynthie said.

  “Let’s go,” Cal said, and left, knowing Min was watching.

  Cal spent most of Monday fuming about what a bitch Min had been, and Tuesday wasn’t much better. It didn’t help that in the same two days, Cynthie had called twice to talk him into the drink he’d turned down when he’d dropped her off at her place, every client had become intensely stupid, and his partners kept looking at him as if he’d been drowning puppies. Worst of all, he missed Min so much, wanted her so much, that it was making him sick. The crowning touch to his day was his mother, calling him at work to find out if he was seeing Cynthie again.

  “No,” he said. “I’m never going to see her again, so get off my ass about her.”

  “Calvin,” his mother said, in a voice that would have stopped him cold any other day.

  “In fact,” he said, “since I’m such an overwhelming disappointment to you, I’m never going to see you again, either.”

  “Calvin?” his mother said, a new note in her voice.

  “Forget it,” Cal said, and hung up.

  Tony came over and unplugged his phone. “You get this back when you call her,” he said. “Until then, you don’t talk to people.”

  “I’m never calling her again,” Cal said. “She’s been a bitch my whole life and I’m done with her.”

  “Not your mother, you dumbass,” Tony said. “Min.”

  “She’s been a bitch for a month and I’m done with her, too,” Cal said. “The hell with both of them.”

  “That’s very mature,” Tony said, sounding just like Min.

  Roger shook his head and went back to work, and Cal ignored them both to savagely edit a seminar packet.

  When he got home, he threw his suit coat on the couch, picked up his Glenlivet and then stopped as Elvis began to sing “She” next door.

  “Jesus fucking Christ,” he said and slammed the Glenlivet down.

  When he pounded on Shanna’s door, a strange woman answered, brown-haired, a little below medium height. “Oh,” he said. “I thought . . . Shanna . . .”

  “Oh, she’s here.” The woman smiled at him, a sweet smile that reminded him of Min, her eyes huge in her round face as she stepped back. “Shanna?”

  Cal looked past her to Shanna, carrying two ruby goblets out of the kitchen.

  “Cal!” she said, smiling. “This is Linda. Linda, this is my next-door neighbor, Cal.” Her smile widened and she jerked her head toward the stereo. “First date music.”

  “Oh,” Cal said, taking a step back. “Hell, I’m sorry . . .”

  “Don’t you just love Elvis?” Linda said.

  “Yeah,” Cal said. “Good for you, Shan. I’ll see you later.”

  “Stay for a drink,” Shanna said, with a look that telegraphed, Get lost.

  “Can’t stay,” Cal said. “I have to . . .” He jerked his head toward his apartment, at a loss for what he might have to do over there besides fume.

  “Is Min there?” Shanna said, putting the glasses down on the breakfast bar. “Maybe later we could—”

  “No,” Cal said, his rage back on the surface again. “Min is not there.”

  Shanna stopped, reading his face. “Oh, no. What did you do?”

  “Strangely enough, nothing,” Cal said. “Why do you assume—”

  “I don’t care,” Shanna said. “Get her back.”

  “It’s done,” Cal said.

  “No, it is not,” Shanna said. “You really lost something this time.”

  “This is not about me,” Cal said.

  “Yes, it is,” Shanna said. “This time it is. What happened?”

  Cal shook his head. “Nope. Not interesting.” He nodded at Linda. “Very nice to meet you.” He turned to go but Shanna grabbed the back of his shirt in her fist and yanked.

  “Sit down and tell me everything,” she said. “Or I will track you back to your apartment and bitch at you until you tell me there.”

  Fifteen minutes later she said, “Well, it’s a toss-up as to which of the two of you is dumber.”

  “Hey,” Cal said.

  “You’re desperately in love with each other and you’re playing footsie with it. Do you know how rare what you have is?”

  “Christ, I hope so,” Cal said. “I’d hate to think there was an epidemic of this garbage.”

  “Stop it,” Shanna said. “You want her back.”

  “Why would I—”

  “Stop it!” Shanna said. “You want her back.”

  Cal sat back on the couch and the memory of Min he’d been fighting for two days came back. He put his head in his hands. “Oh, Christ, I want her back. Which shows you how stupid I really am.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, call her,” Shanna said. “Tell her you’re sorry.”

  Cal jerked his head up. “Hey, I’m the injured party here.”

  “Yeah,” Shanna said. “That been keeping you warm at night, has it? Call her. Tell her you want to talk to her tomorr