I watch as he changes into himself: blue three-piece suit, pocket square, calfskin shoes. Everything immaculate. And I realize what the difference is.
He’s not being himself anymore. He’s being someone else. He’s distancing himself from me, hiding something. He’s running a game.
Maybe all the recent tragedies weren’t caused by Demi; maybe they were caused by Graham. Maybe he is punishing me, trying to mess with me, trying to unbalance me. He hasn’t fixed the gate. He hardly reacted to the dog. He suggested we call the police. And the way he comforted Demi; it was obvious that wasn’t their first interaction. They seemed almost intimate.
Either the whole world is out to get me or my husband is.
* * *
I TRY TO focus on the thing I can control: Demi. I have to win the game, put an end to all this chaos, bring our perfect life back. Graham leaves. The housekeeper arrives. I dress in my most gray outfit. Then I call all the girls, arrange a pre-party shopping trip. Then I go downstairs to invite Demi.
There is a funny burned smell that magnifies as I journey down the stairs. It smells kind of druggy but it could also be the trees, the mold, weed. Demi bounces out the door before I even reach the patio, like she heard me coming down, was waiting for me.
“Hi!” Her voice is hard. She kneads her fingers nervously. “Is everything okay? Sorry I freaked out last night. I . . . I really love dogs.”
“Everyone loves dogs,” I say. I don’t want to talk about that. I don’t know if it was her. I don’t know if it was Graham. I don’t know if it was God. All I know is that I need to get her at that party tomorrow night. And to do that, I need to track her, and to track her, I need to buy her a dress. I don’t have much time. It’s Ready, aim . . . “I wanted to invite you to a party, Graham’s birthday party. It’s tomorrow night.”
“I don’t think I can go.” This doesn’t surprise me. Anything I offer, she doesn’t want. Anything I ask, she declines. This time I’m ready.
“Graham’s asked for you especially.” She doesn’t say anything, which tells me more than she could say. “He talks about you all the time. Honestly, I think he has a crush.”
“He’s your husband.” Her voice is flat, but I know she likes him. I know she does because he wants her to.
“Oh, no, it’s nothing like that. We’re practically separated. We just live together.”
“He did say—”
I don’t want to hear it. I take her hand to shut her up. “Marriages are so complicated. Especially when money is involved. I just want Graham to be happy. He’s such a good man.”
She blushes. “I feel uncomfortable.”
“Don’t. I’d rather we all just be friends. I feel like . . .” I take a deep breath, reset my bullshit meter. “We were destined to meet, all of us. Don’t you sometimes think fate is just guiding your life?”
“。 . . I think money is,” she mumbles.
“Exactly.” I smile. “Fate is money.”
LYLA
We take my rolls-royce down to meet the girls. Graham bought it for my birthday last year when he was particularly happy about how a game turned out. He got a man hooked on fentanyl. The man left his wife and children to live in the guesthouse. He is currently living on the street. Or dead. The car is gray, my signature color. The one I had before was taupe.
We meet the girls at the secret rooftop bar in Sunset Tower. Only monsters shop sober. These girls shop trashed. They spend more time drinking than shopping. When I arrive with Demi, they all flock around her, exclaiming over her shoes, her coat, her bag. So much that I know they don’t like any of them. This is a tough crowd. They know Demi is from the guesthouse. That she’s a charity case, relatively speaking. They liked Elvira, though. Everyone liked Elvira. But her death has made them only less inclined to liking new tenants.
“So you’re in the guesthouse,” Peaches quickly points out so everyone can breathe easy, knowing she’s worthless.
“Yes,” Demi says. Her lips are even tighter than normal, which is saying a lot.
“That’s so great the Herschels do that,” she says, drifting away, never to be heard from again.
Posey, who likes to prove she’s “down with the people,” immediately attaches herself to Demi. She grills her about her life and her job and her hopes and her dreams like none of them is good enough.
“You should have been a lawyer,” I note after she demands to know how Demi’s parents died like the answer could put her in prison.