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Zenna watched Tali walk out the front door from her small window view in the walk-in
refrigerator. She needed a quiet place to think after seeing what just happened between
Aubin and Margot; she only wished it wasn’t quite so cold. Hearing the pots in the kitchen
come crashing to the floor, she knew Margot would be in the kitchen for a while trying to
clean up more than just one mess. Zenna stepped out of the refrigerator, feeling like a cold
bitch, literally. She thought about how she may have been able to prevent seeing her best
friend’s heart crushed and how she unfortunately played a larger role than she would like to
admit in their inevitable break-up.
The night Zenna and Margot were introduced to Tali at the gallery almost a year ago
Zenna had been feeling flirtatious. She finally had enough money to buy a decent dress and
the confidence she had received from that purchase as well as being a partner in a successful
business had made this Parisian businesswoman’s ego, and hormones, shoot through the
roof. While Margot was busy trying to track down the hand that made the tart, Zenna was
pulled out of the crowd and into a small room with an abstract black and white painting
on the wall, lit up by a spotlight that shone from the ceiling on the other side of the
room. Aubin, who was the one that brought herself and Margot to the gallery party, began
discussing the underlying meaning of what to Zenna seemed to be a pretty straightforward
piece of art – a large straight line with two small circles hung at the top of the canvas; on
the bottom the eye was immediately drawn to a large patterned chalice. Zenna found it
amusing that Aubin was not noting the obvious sexual context, but couldn’t decide if it were
on purpose just so that he could hear her say “penis” aloud.