A Big Storm Knocked It Over Read Free Page A

else.
    â€œHello, sweetie,” Dita said. “I’m so sorry about your wedding. Those ghastly White Russians.”
    Jane Louise knew this voice. Its tone did not encourage conversation. It made breezy, unchallengeable statements.
    Dita thrust onto Jane Louise’s desk a large box covered in shiny black paper and done up with an enormous silk bow—pink.
    â€œOpen it, please,” said Dita.
    Jane Louise obeyed. Inside a nest of bright pink tissue was a large sprigware pitcher—a Georgian water jug from an antique shop Jane Louise had never so much as dared to browse in.
    â€œOh,” said Jane Louise. “I love it!” She felt she would have to clench her teeth to prevent herself from bursting into tears.
    â€œSprigware,” Dita said. “To go with your nice white ironstone. I felt a little decoration would be a good thing.”
    â€œOh, it’s wonderful,” Jane Louise said.
    â€œAnd do you suppose your old man will like it?” Dita said.
    For a moment Jane Louise thought she was referring to her father, long deceased, but Dita meant Teddy.
    â€œIt’s just the sort of thing he’d like,” Jane Louise said.
    â€œNow, sweetie,” said Dita, clearing away the tissue paper and tapping an unfiltered cigarette on her case to pack it down, “let’s get serious.”
    For an instant Jane Louise wondered if she and Dita were going to talk about why they seemed no longer to be friends. Sven had once warned Jane Louise that Dita would be a dangerous person to know. Jane Louise had had dangerous boyfriends, but in her experience, women had never been the enemy.
    â€œCan we change the lettering on Dream of the Biker’s Girl? ” Dita said. She blew a smoke ring. “The author hates it. I can’t think why, but she feels it isn’t raunchy enough.”
    â€œWhat isn’t raunchy enough?” asked a voice from the hallway, and in strolled Sven. He stared at Dita. “An infiltrator from editorial.”
    â€œOh, hello, Sven,” Dita said. Her voice was perfectly formal.
    â€œYou never come down here anymore,” Sven said. He leaned over and filched a cigarette from the open walnut case, brushing Dita’s arm. He took the lighter out of Dita’s hand and lit his cigarette with it. Jane Louise held her breath. “You don’t mind, I’m sure,” he said.
    â€œIt’s heaven to be able to smoke in peace,” Dita said to Jane Louise as if Sven were mere dust on the window ledge. “Upstairs you can hardly light up without two editorial assistants coming in to give you a health lecture.”
    Throughout this interchange Sven gazed at Dita. If this made her nervous, she did not show it. It made Jane Louise sort of hysterical, however. She longed to get them out of her office.
    â€œListen,” she said to Sven. “Why don’t you go out and smoke that thing in the hall?”
    Sven feigned hurt. “You don’t make her smoke in the hall,” he said.
    â€œShe’s here on company business,” Jane Louise said.
    Sven crushed out his cigarette. “Well, Josita,” he said, using Dita’s real name. “We all missed you at Janey’s nice wedding. We were all sure you’d barge in at the last minute.”
    â€œNick’s papa—” began Dita.
    â€œOh, yes. Nick’s thousand-year-old papa,” Sven said. “Well, girls, I’ll vanish. I’ll just grab another smoke as a keepsake.” He took another cigarette and put it behind his ear. As he turned to leave his eyes met Dita’s. It was perfectly clear to Jane Louise that they either had slept together or were going to.

CHAPTER 3
    Teddy liked a real dinner: It made him feel adult. Jane Louise, who was a very good cook, felt that on the first business day of married life you ought to feed your husband his favorite meal.
    He was not home when Jane Louise walked in, which gave her a