At first Lily had been reluctant when Ben had wanted to invite Ken over for dinner. The facade ofpropriety they had created was so delicate that the slightest provocation could cause it to shatter.
“Don’t be so paranoid, O wife of mine,” Ben had said. “Married couples have bachelor friendsover for dinner all the time —just to make sure the poor single guys get a decent meal every once in awhile. No one will think a thing of it. And besides,” he added, “Ken knows the truth. Wouldn’t it be niceto be able to let your guard down for an evening — to spend a few hours not pretending to be my littlewoman?”
Lily had to admit that it would.
Despite the fact that she was not slated to play the role of little woman for the evening, Lily stillgot saddled with the cooking. She didn’t mind it, actually.
Ben’s culinary abilities were limited to picking up the phone and ordering Chinese takeout, andthere was no Chinese takeout to be had in Versailles.
So now, they—Lily, Ben, Ken, and Mimi—were sitting around the oak dining room table, eatingLily’s vegetarian chili with cheese, sour cream, and flour tortillas. Mimi, in her high chair, was wearing aflour tortilla on her head.
Ken, who was quite attractive in a just-stepped-out-of-a-Ralph-Lauren-ad kind of way, took anappreciative bite of chili. “Quite a little cook you got here, Ben,” he teased, winking at Lily. “You knowwhat they say: The best way to a man’s heart is his stomach.”
Lily swigged the Corona and lime that Ken had brought to complement their meal. “Actually, Ithink the most direct route to a man’s heart lies farther south.”
Ben and Ken burst out laughing.
Finally, Ben said, “You sounded like Dez there for a second.”
Lily smiled. “I did, didn’t I?”
Ken turned to Ben. “Dez was your ex, right?”
“Yep.” Ben pushed his empty bowl away. “We were lovers for eighteen months, then friends for adecade. Dez could be maddening, but he was funny as hell. Lily, do you remember when he went to thatfaculty Halloween party dressed as Mae West?”
“How could I forget it?. I helped lace up his corset beforehand, which was no mean feat, let metell you.”
Ben laughed. “Three mai tais, and Dez was sprawled on top of the piano singing Frankie andJohnny,’ to the utter mystification of the better part of Atlanta State’s liberal arts faculty”
Ken laughed. “I take it that when he did this, he already had tenure?”
Lily smiled. “You take it correctly. Dez was always flamboyant, but never foolish.” She lookedover at Mimi, who had poked two eye-size holes in her flour tortilla and was wearing it as a mask. “And it