A Cup of Tea - Amy Ephron [27]
Jane didn’t hear her come in. The first thing she was aware of was Dora’s arm around her waist and then Dora was kissing her neck lightly. Jane’s mother was upstairs and physically unable to navigate the steps alone, so Jane felt free to let her hand rest on Dora’s thigh. But that was not the intention of Dora’s visit.
Dora put the letter in front of Jane on the desk and stood behind her while she read it. Dora was of the mind that they should tell Rosemary about it immediately but Jane stopped her. She took the letter from Dora and put it in the desk drawer. She locked the drawer and put the key in her pocket as if that would somehow keep the secret safe.
Jane couldn’t see the point of revealing it to Rosemary (Jane’s part in it aside), why did she need to know? Philip was at war and if he never returned…why did she need to have knowledge of his betrayal?
Dora, on the other hand, was convinced that Eleanor had behaved improperly and swore that she was going to give her notice.
Jane took some issue with that. Philip had behaved improperly. Why did Eleanor get blamed? They had a bit of a fight over this. And in the three years since they had been lovers, they’d never fought. But the definition of an affair, which is surely what Eleanor and Philip were having, is that it involves and affects more than two people which is how it comes by its name.
They shouldn’t have wasted any time arguing about Eleanor’s fate for, as it turned out, the girl had devised her own plan. When Dora returned to the hat shop, Eleanor was waiting for her.
After Mrs. Witherspoon had been fitted with a new hat for church and been sent out into the street with the hat already on her head, Eleanor said to Dora, “I was hoping I might speak to you.”
“That’s curious,” said Dora, “I was wanting to speak to you, too.”
Eleanor took the liberty of sitting across from her at the desk instead of standing, as she usually did, a discreet distance away. “I’ve been very happy here,” she said. “And I appreciate the opportunity you’ve given me. I’m not really suited to working in a store.”
Dora, who was poised to give her notice, was astonished.
Eleanor went on…“The people, you know,” and it began to sound a bit as if it were a prepared speech, practiced and refined for its effect. “It takes a certain personality,” she said. “You have it. I am too moody. Too flighty. I’ve learned an enormous amount from you.” Her manner was both polite and oddly menacing. “Some of your customers like me. I think, is it not true, that sales have gone up since I have been here? I would like it if you would let me design for you.” She looked at Dora directly. “You have customers who like my work. I wouldn’t like to take business away from you.” She said this last bit softly but the threat was implicit.
Dora agreed immediately. “Of course, you wouldn’t,” she said as she’d considered the possibilities and realized she didn’t want to lose part of her clientele in the middle of a war. “There would be a lot of details to work out,” said Dora.
“Whatever you think is fair,” said Eleanor who instinctively knew that in business, as in life, there was never a need to press after you’d won. And though Dora concealed it from Jane for some time, it seemed she wouldn’t be completely gone from their lives then.
As shabby as Wetzel’s Boarding House was, it had afforded Josie and Eleanor each a certain respectability. It wasn’t quite proper at the time for two women to live in an apartment alone, but they rented an apartment and concocted a story that made them look more respectable than they really were.
They claimed that Eleanor was married, for, of course, she would need to be married—she was so thin, the baby had started to show immediately—to Josie’s brother, “Frank”, who was properly at war which wasn’t far from the truth except that Josie didn’t have a brother. Josie bought a thin platinum band from Dentons’ and made Eleanor wear it on her ring finger.