Powerful and resonant horns boomed throughout
the club, trumpets and trombones belting out an upbeat swing tune, as a
wonderfully sensuous, dark skinned gal sang the melody in a deep, heavenly
voice. Smoke clogged up most of the
joint, cloaking the patrons in a concealing fog, allowing each group, or each
couple, their own little intimate piece of the dance floor. Smoking a cigarette hanging off the end of a
long, elegant, tortoise shell holder that was all the rage with the high class
dolls, Charlotte's lazy eyes met Lillie’s pale blues through the mist. Pressing her lips together, she stared, and
Lillie squirmed.
“You really carry a torch
for him, don’t you?” Lillie asked softly.
She held a glass in her left hand absently, her fingers forgetting to
hold it upright. The glare she had
thrown at Charlotte was now letting up as she saw the pleading in her
eyes. “You really, really like him?”
“Yes, I really do.” Charlotte’s feet tapped the floor briskly as
she rubbed up upraised arm. “I know that
you had your eye on him…”
Sighing, Lillie uncrossed
her arms, and placed a hand tenderly on Charlotte’s shoulder. Noticing Charlotte’s now downcast eyes, she
leaned in and said nicely, “Then don’t worry about it. Have fun with him. I’m serious, you deserve to have a little bit
of fun, Char.”
Looking up again, her eyes
big and about to run over with tears, she smiled and grabbed Lillie’s
hand. “Do you mean it?”
“Of course! We’ve been friends for how long now? I would never let a man come between us!”
Pulling the slender
cigarette holder away from her lips, she wrapped her friend in an embrace
without hesitation. After the shock wore
off, Lillie lifted her hands and squeezed her friend, a wry smile cracking her
expression. As Charlotte pulled back,
she nimbly planted a kiss on her friend’s cheek. Lillie squealed in surprise.
“Char! What an indecent girl you are!” Laughing loudly, she dabbed at the spot on
her cheek where the kiss had landed.
“Oh, Charlotte! There must be a
bright red pair of lips there now.”
Giggling, Charlotte pulled
out a handkerchief and delicately wiped away the red print. Her dark brown eyes lifted to meet Lillie’s
again, and the sparkle she found there made her realize everything was okay. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist!” she twittered
innocently. As she leaned back,
replacing her kerchief back into her handbag, her eyes dulled and her
expression hardened. “You do know how
much I love Teddy…” she whispered.
“Of course, darling.”
“…But you also know how much
he controls me and holds me back and yells at me…”
“He sure does.”
“So… I’m just having a
little fun.”
“You deserve it… don’t feel
guilty.”
“You’re a good friend.”
“Now!” Lillie cried cheerfully as she raised her
glass to her mouth. Tilting it all the
way back, she emptied it in one swig.
“We must refill our glasses, and then we must become floorflushers!”
Exclaiming, “Yes!” Charlotte
reached to the small table on which she leaned, retrieved her wine glass,
emptied it, and linking arms with Lillie, they pranced away towards the
barkeep. Sweeping their hems under them
as they sat, each woman relaxed on a barstool, bowing into towards each other,
laughing over a joke only the two of them would understand. “Two whiskey-rocks and two dry martinis, if
you please,” Charlotte cooed, and twisted back towards Lillie hastily.
“Tell me everything,” Lillie
chirped, burning with curiosity. “Is he
a good kisser?”
Charlotte raised an eyebrow
slyly. “The best!” The two burst into a wail of laughter, which
was cut short by, “So passionate!
Couldn’t you just tell he’d be that way?”
“The other night when I had
my eyes on him, he’d look at me with this unblinking stare so intensely…”
Lillie feigned a swoon and the two laughed again. “Something deep in his eyes… And I could
never tell what color they were.
Green? Blue? Grey?”
“So intense!” Charlotte
agreed. Two shots of whiskey were
slammed down in front of them. Each
woman lifted her own into the air. “To
best friends!”
“Best friends!” Lillie
cheered back, and each tipped their drink back fiercely. They simultaneously hammered the short, dense
glasses on the bar top, letting them run into each other with a clink!
“Oh, Char, I gotta level with you…”
“What?”
“Teddy telephoned my house
this morning.”
“Oh! God… What did he say?”
“He wanted to know where you
were last night, since you never turned up.”
“And?”
“I told him you had stayed
over at my place, and that seemed to cool him off.”
Touching her fingers to her
cheek, she muttered, “Oh, my word…”
“I just thought you should
know what I said, just in case…”
“I got it.” Averting her eyes momentarily, she swallowed
and composed herself. Lifting the newly
arrived martini, she said, her voice shaking, “Thank you, Lil. You saved me.”
“Don’t mention it.” Smiling again, she said, pleading, “Don’t
worry about it, okay? We’ve got an edge
started. I think we need to get zozzled
tonight.”
“I think you’re…” Adjusting
the skirt below her, Charlotte swiveled in her seat, her eyes sweeping across
the far end of the bar. She stopped
cold.
“What, Char? You think I’m what?” Following her friend’s gaze, she saw a man
sitting at the far end of the bar, holding a drink in his hand nonchalantly,
his hat tipped to the side at that just-right angle, blanketed in the poorly
lit fringe of the room. That foxy smile
adorned his face, and he winked at her.
Without answering her friend’s inquiry, she almost threw her drink back
on the bar, bounded off of her perch on the barstool, and ran towards him. She too was cloaked in darkness as she
wrapped him in a warm embrace, slowly pressing her lips to his.
“Harry…”
“What, you didn’t think I’d
show up?”
Excerpt from "Dauntless" Copyright © 2013 by Erin M. Truesdale
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