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Ellen
    Levine.
    Natalie loved to dress as if she were still the 100-pound sylph she
    was in 1975. Today she wore an olive military coat and periwinkle
    blue polka-dot shirt over a knee-length yellow satin bubble skirt, a
    mix of vintage and, as Natalie—an Anglophile from Scarsdale—
    liked to put it, the high street. Her tangled, blond hair balanced like a
    cumulus atop her head, and stacks of turquoise and silver Navajo bracelets jangled at her wrists. One finger sported a substantial sap
    phire ring, another bands of lapis lazuli and gold.
    She looked like a homeless woman who'd robbed a jewelry store.
    One of Natalie's many talents was to attract people, and Magnolia
    thought of her office as being located on the corner of Grapevine and
    Yenta. Like a cat presents mice to her mistress, New Yorkers on their
    way up and/or on their way down liked to reward Natalie with juicy
    tidbits, and her phone fairly vibrated with this-just-in innuendo, deep background, and the occasional fact. This not only benefited Dazzle, Scary's cash cow, but made Natalie very good company when she was
    in the mood to share, which was often. To show her appreciation for
    information that sustained her place as the magazine world's reigning
    queen bee, Natalie liked nothing better than to find people jobs,
    doctors, and dates.
       More than once, Magnolia had benefited from Natalie's aid. She had given Magnolia her first job, as her assistant at Glamour. She'd recommended the dermatologist Dr. Winnie Wong, who never let a
    little thing like FDA approval deter her; because of Dr. Winnie's signa
    ture glycolic acid potions, Magnolia hoped to forestall cosmetic sur
    gery for decades. Natalie had also introduced Magnolia to her cousin
    Wally Fleigelman, who except for his name turned out to be a perfect
    first husband.
    Magnolia didn't hold it against Natalie that she and Wally stayed
    married for only one year. For all of their hasty courtship, Magnolia
    was crazy in love, but unfortunately, after the wedding, she and Wally
    realized they were from different solar systems. He was an unabridged
    New Yorker, from his accent to his out-there sarcasm, and ten years
    earlier, she had yet to understand what was funny about a Woody
    Allen movie and buttered a roast beef sandwich. And how was Magno
    lia to know that her bridegroom's idea of foreplay would become
    watching the Golf Channel side by side? Recognizing a youthful
    folly—they were both only twenty-four at the time—the newlyweds
    parted amicably, not so difficult when the bride gets the real estate.
    "Magnolia, sit." Natalie pointed to one of the love seats. Their
    sushi waited on delicate bamboo trays. They might be eating takeout from Yamahama Mama, but Stella, Natalie's number-two geisha—the
    one in charge of food, travel, and expense accounts—made sure the
    presentation was up to Natalie's specs.
    "A shame about yesterday," Natalie offered, as she popped a piece
    of unagi into her mouth, careful not to smear her plum lip gloss.
    Magnolia avoided Natalie's eyes. She'd pretend the possibility
    didn't exist that Natalie and others might be feeling sorry for her.
    Magnolia knew pity was the first symptom of a swift but fatal corpo
    rate disease.
    "The thing is, the design Harry James and I created was wonder
    ful," Magnolia said, pitching her voice low to make sure she wasn't
    whining. "We'd finally found an approach that's not the same old,
    more-white-space-than-words clone of every other magazine. What's
    up with Jock that he can't see what a bonehead move it would be to
    scuttle all this good work?"
    "Since when, Cookie, does the smartest decision ever get made?"
    Natalie offered, parking her polished ebony chopsticks at the side of a
    red lacquer plate. "Everyone's got his own agenda. For now, forget the
    redesign. Although from what I hear, it's spectacular."
    Was Natalie gunning for Magnolia to show it to her? That wasn't
    going to happen. Magnolia had learned the hard way that