Warming Trend by Karin Kallmaker

years.”
    Eve couldn’t have said why she pretended not to understand. “Since when?”
    Monica touched her hand. “Brave soul. I feel guilty, I guess. If I hadn’t vented…I should have known she’d interpret what I said the way she did. She was too young. I really do believe she did it to help me, not because, well, not what other people said. Especially about her father, people saying he was a communist.”
    Eve didn’t want to think about the ugly rumors surrounding Ani’s motives. “It’s okay, Monica. Ancient history. I really am too wrapped up with the Dragonfly to think about dating. If I change my mind, you’ll be the first to know.”
    “Okay. Hope the rest of your night goes well.” She waved an elegant hand and returned to the dining room.
    Three years, Eve mulled. Maybe that was why Ani was in her head. A kind of an anniversary, maybe. Driving home after a satisfactorily busy night, and too aware that it all started over again far too early in the morning, she remembered that she’d made shepherd’s pie for Ani the first time she’d come over for dinner. God, she’d been nervous. Nervous to pieces about this gorgeous young woman, very smart but way too young for her. Ani would point out that six years wasn’t that much of a difference, and she was right—if they were both in their forties. But she had been twenty-six while Eve was thirty-two. Ani had so many crossroads ahead of her while Eve had already made a lot of her big choices.
    “Why are you living in Fairbanks if your family is from Juneau?” Ani had asked her that night. After dutifully handing over a bottle of wine and loaf of bread, Ani had accepted the task of slicing mushrooms.
    “I followed a guy. I was young and stupid.”
    “A guy?”
    “I already said I was young and stupid. Todd convinced me to drop out of culinary school and come make a fortune cooking on fishing boats out of Sitka. The pay was great—for two months a year. He seemed happy to be unemployed after that. I grabbed the first cooking job I could find that had a steady paycheck—City Hall, Fairbanks. In the cafeteria. After a couple of years I was moonlighting more as a caterer than I was cooking for the city, and it paid better. I guess I developed some guts. Fairbanks does that to a person.”
    “That it does. So what happened to him?” Ani passed over the chopping board with the mushrooms, and Eve added them to the diced potatoes she was steaming in the microwave.
    “He’s probably still unemployed in Sitka.” Eve shrugged. “I met a girl. It wasn’t heaven, but it did sort out some of my issues. We dated for almost two years.”
    “Is that the one who went back to her ex?”
    “Yeah. Cyndy. She was so sorry she had somehow forgotten to tell me she was still in love with her ex while she was saying she loved me.” Eve knew she sounded bitter, but, truthfully, the bitterness was real. She’d felt like the old cardigan that Cyndy had kept around until she was absolutely sure she was going to get the mink coat she really wanted.
    “That’s cruel. I hope they broke up after two months, in a spectacularly public fashion.”
    Eve smiled. “Well, it was six months and private, but I have to say I wasn’t broken up to hear the news.”
    “Oh—not to change the subject, but Tonk is in the truck, which is cool. He likes going with me and hanging out. But he could use some water. Can I get a bowl?”
    Eve found a good-sized candidate. Ani slipped into her boots and went out to the truck. Moments later Eve could hear the clank of the dog’s collar and Ani’s chatter as she pointed out the water.
    The pies were just about assembled. Only the mash needed to be spooned into place on top. Eve went to the back door. “Tonk can come in the house, you know.”
    “I don’t want to impose—he takes up quite a bit of floor space.”
    “It’s okay,” Eve said. “I like dogs.”
    The relieved grin that crinkled the corners of Ani’s eyes was proof