Read Online Come Dancing by Leslie Wells - Free Book Online Page B

switching off my lamp, the phone rang. “Were you going to call me this week?” came my mother’s two-pack-a-day voice.
    “Sorry, I was really busy. Did you just get in?”
    “Yeah, I was down at Buck’s for a while. When are you coming home? I haven’t seen you since Christmas. You can’t be—” she coughed— “that busy.”
    “I’m not sure. I have a lot of deadlines coming up.” Immediately I felt guilty; I knew I needed to pay her a visit. “Maybe I can get there in August when it slows down.”
    “This guy I know from the bar drives a truck up to New Jersey every so often. I told him I might hitch a ride with him and come see you. Lately the weekends have been pretty quiet around here.”
    “I imagine you’ve had more going on than me,” I said, trying to discourage her. Dot’s personality was way too big for my little loft. “What’s happening at the store?”
    “I finally asked Erwin for a raise, but he’s hemming and hawing, the skinflint. This week he’s got Marie and me double-checking the inventory. Oh, by the way, her cousin did wind up getting back with that guy.”
    I couldn’t recall which cousin this was; the extended families of her friends tended to coagulate in my mind. “I hope that goes fast for you. I’d better turn in; I’ll talk to you soon.”
    “I’ll be at Buck’s again tomorrow night, so don’t call until after ten.” She hung up.
    I wondered how much my mother was drinking these days. After Dad left, she’d gone on some real benders. I remembered struggling with algebra homework back in high school, forcing myself not to call the bar because it annoyed her. One night I’d picked up the phone at twelve, then cradled it. By two a.m., I’d resolved to call in half an hour if she didn’t show. Finally I heard her Dodge Dart roll up the driveway at quarter to three. I ran out into the freezing February darkness, clutching my denim jacket over my gown. My mother was tilting sideways in the front seat, fumbling for something on the floor mat.
    “Dropped my smokes,” she mumbled. What remained of her lipstick was smeared, and her eye shadow had bled to her cheek. Her shoulder-length shag, an unnatural blonde with coppery highlights, was flattened against her face. I crouched and picked up her cigarettes from the gritty mat. “Come on, let’s go in,” I said, shivering.
    Later as I tried to get to sleep, I wondered if my Dad was going to come back for me. Ever since he’d left in September, I’d envisioned him pulling up to the house, saying, “I’m sorry, sweetheart, I had to get myself situated. Go pack your things.” At first I’d given him a deadline of Christmas, but when the holidays came and went with no phone call, I’d decided he just needed to get set up wherever he’d landed. Now I wondered if he was ever going to show.
    I blamed Dot one hundred percent for the destruction of our family. And after all that, her affair with her manager had only lasted six weeks, and then she’d had to quit because it was too awkward to keep working together. To my mind, she almost deserved having to worry so much over paying the bills. And I loathed the way she chased after men. The older I got, the more I picked up on the desperation in her voice when she talked to them on the phone.
    That night, I’d turned my face to the wall and watched the shifting shadows from the occasional passing headlights. In the morning, I dragged myself out of bed to call my mother’s new boss at the convenience store to tell him that, yet again, she was feeling “fluish” and wouldn’t be in today. I knew it was only a matter of weeks before she got fired.
     
    Harvey stopped in my doorway. “I have someone for you to meet,” he said. “This is Briar Greene. She’s coming from TownTalk magazine to join us in editorial.”
    A smug-looking girl about my age stood beside him, surveying me with a self-assured smile. Wearing a stylish suit that showed a lot of leg, she gave me