Sophia watched her guests. There was Marianne, a recent divorcée who had started coming six months ago and now laughed like she’d forgotten she could. There was Carl, the retired carpenter, who had shown up to the first party grumbling about his bad hip and now helped Sophia move furniture before every event. There was her own daughter, Lena, who had once rolled her eyes at her mother’s “big life” but now brought friends and stayed until the last candle guttered out.

That was the same week she fired her second husband.

And oh, the parties. This was where the entertainment piece came in.