“What’s wrong with this picture?” she muttered.
Anna Ruth is the fair-haired glory girl, and I’m the butler. Violet scowls at me and hugs her. What in the hell is going on? That did sound like Marty, didn’t it?
The doorbell sounded. Beulah was standing on the porch. A large-boned, gray-haired woman in the same black suit she wore every month to the club, she looked nervous.
“Hi, Cathy. I’m not late, am I?”
“No, darlin’, you are not a bit late. We are sitting in the parlor for the meeting. Just go on in and save me a seat beside you. Marty won’t be coming tonight.”
“Oh, dear.” Beulah wrung at her hands. “That puts Violet in a stew.”
“Not tonight. She’s all worked up over Ethan’s speech,” Cathy whispered.
When everyone was seated in the parlor, Violet made her entrance between Ethan and Clayton, walking down the aisle between the folding chairs like a queen. She sat between Anna Ruth and Annabel and beamed while Clayton gave the introductory speech and glowed while Ethan spoke of his plans to improve the whole district.
Anna Ruth got all misty-eyed and flushed at several places in his speech.
Beulah kept stealing glances through the door at the cherry cheesecakes.
And Cathy was so busy thinking about whether to top out the crape myrtles or let them get taller for another year that she didn’t hear a word of what he said. She thought he might introduce her as his fiancée at the end of his speech, but he didn’t. And she’d worn her brand new navy blue straight skirt with the little short jacket to match and her mother’s pearl necklace. She’d even shaved her legs for the second day in a row and put on panty hose.
“And now before we go to the refreshment table, we have to pin our newest member. Anna Ruth, would you please come forward and accept the pin that says you are a member of the Blue-Ribbon Jalapeño Society?”
Anna Ruth dabbed at a tear. “Thank you for voting me into the club. I can’t tell you how pleased I am or how much I will slave for this club.”
Violet fastened the pin to the lapel of her jacket, and everyone clapped. Cathy felt guilty putting her hands together, but she managed a few claps before settling them back in her lap.
The refreshment and gossiping stage of the club lasted thirty minutes and then everyone was expected to go home. Anna Ruth kept watching the clock and was the first to air-kiss Violet and gush on and on about what a lovely time she’d had. Evidently, she had no intentions of making a mistake at her first formal club meeting.
She shook Ethan’s hand for the third time and offered again to support him and stressed “in any way.” Cathy hung back until they were all gone and waited until she caught Ethan coming out of the kitchen alone.
“I’d like a word, in private,” she whispered and laced her fingers in his.
He nodded toward his office and almost shut the door, leaving it open by two inches in case his mother came searching for them. A politician couldn’t be too careful, not even with his future wife. He planted one of those dry kisses on her forehead and said, “You look very pretty today, sweetheart.”
Her chin quivered. “Thank you, but I want to tell you something and it is very difficult for me to say.”
He dropped her hand and touched her chin. “What is it, sweetheart? Please don’t tell me you are getting cold feet about the wedding.”
“No, but I will not live in the same house with your mother. I want us to have our own house. I don’t care how small it is at first. I just want to be like a normal newly wedded couple and—”
Ethan dropped her hands. “That’s unreasonable.”
“But—” she said.
The door swung open and Violet came into the room like an unwanted odor. “Here are the love birds sneaking away for a moment together. That’s so sweet, but Clayton needs you in the parlor to go over the next speech you’ll be giving on Friday night. And before I forget, Catherine, we are to see Annabel about the cake Friday night. She just told me that she would be ready for us then. Now Ethan, you go on to the parlor and I’ll walk Catherine to the door.”
He made a hasty escape out the door.
Violet tucked her arm in Cathy’s and led her into the foyer and toward the front door. “Darlin’, you did fairly well today with your outfit, but please don’t wear that on the press day. I’m thinking maybe something in a royal blue would be good with your hair and eyes. Pearls are so out, especially the ones that are aged. Maybe a scarf instead of a necklace and a flag pin on your lapel would be just the thing. Oh, and we need to make a date soon for your wedding dress. I’m thinking old-fashioned with a high collar and pointed sleeves. That would show the voters that you are serious about your job as a politician’s wife.”
Cathy was on the porch and the door had shut behind her before she could say a single word.
* * *
Trixie parked her car beside Andy’s at the far end of the Walmart parking lot, threw her bags into the backseat, and got into the passenger’s seat.
“I’ve got a surprise,” he whispered. Charm oozed out of him like filling from a Hostess chocolate cupcake. He leaned across the seat, tilted her chin up with his left fist, tangled his fingers in her hair with his right hand, and kissed her in a clash of hot passion that came close to fogging the car windows.
He kissed his way to her neck and nuzzled there, inhaling her perfume. “God, I missed you. It’s been too damn long. I’m so glad that Anna Ruth went to her aunt’s after the meeting.”
That’s where he went wrong the first time. He should have never brought up Anna Ruth, not when they were about to spend time in a motel room getting super satisfied with passionate sex. But if he was very, very good, she might forgive him one mistake.
He drove for a while, made a few turns, and caught Highway 75 south. “We are going out to dinner, to a movie, and then to the motel.”
“But…”
“No buts.” Andy glanced over at her. “By the way, you look beautiful tonight, honey. I always did like you in that shade of blue.”
She wore black slacks and a pale blue sweater set and black high heels. Gold hoop earrings dangled from her ears, and a silver clunky necklace with a silver heart pendant dropped just to the top of two inches of cleavage created by a Victoria’s Secret push-up bra.
“No, we are not. We are going to a motel, having mind-boggling sex, and going home,” she said. “I’ve already eaten. I don’t want to sit in a movie. I want sex, and then I want to go home. I’m not going out on a date with you, Andy.”
Andy’s mouth set in a firm, hard line, and his jaw worked like he was chewing gum.
Trixie had seen that look before. Many, many times. So what had set him off this time? Then it dawned on her like a flash.
Anna Ruth was pressuring him to get married. He wanted to be seen with Trixie so that it would get back to Anna Ruth and she’d break up with him. Of course it would all be that bitch Trixie’s fault.
“Why?” Andy growled.
“Because I might not like you, but I love the sex we have, and Marty will kill you dead if she finds out we are together,” she said.
“Marty! You put her ahead of me?”
That was his second mistake and three was his limit, so he was treading on thin ice.
“So when does Anna Ruth want to get married?” she asked.
The jaw worked harder, and his mouth disappeared. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Bleep!
Number three! Andy was out.
No sex for you tonight, feller.
She pointed her finger at him. “You are lying.”
He slapped her finger away.
And that’s where Andy Johnson really went wrong.
“Pull over in that parking lot right there. The one by the Big Lots store.”
“I don’t see a mo
tel or a restaurant,” he said as he stopped the car.
She got out and stomped her way to the bench in front of the store with him scrambling to get the car perfectly into a parking spot with exactly the same amount of space on each side.
He finally got it parked, got out, slammed the door, and sat down beside her. “What in the hell is the matter with you?”
“You wanted someone to see us together, didn’t you? She’s pressuring you to get married because of that damned club shit, and you want her to be the one to break it off instead of you. How close am I?”
He ran his finger up her thigh. “Come on, Trixie. Don’t be mad.”
She slapped it away. “I’m mad because I didn’t want a damn date. I just wanted a motel room and to have sex on a Tuesday night because our Wednesday nights have been interrupted the past couple of weeks. I’m mad because nothing has changed and won’t change. Go home and leave me alone.” She took her cell phone out of her purse.
Darla Jean answered on the first ring. “Trixie?”
“I’m in Sherman on the bench in front of the Big Lots store. Will you please come get me?”
“I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Darla Jean said.
Andy threw up both palms. “What set you off tonight?”
“We got a divorce because you were bonkin’ Anna Ruth. I took the blame because if I’d picked up the damn towels or made sure there were no wrinkles in the sheets when I folded them and put them in the drawer, maybe you wouldn’t have gone out and screwed another woman. But when you slapped my fingers, it hit me. Dammit all to hell, I didn’t bonk another man because you made me so damn mad with your freakin’ OCD, so you had no damn right to screw around on me then or to slap my fingers tonight. Go home or I’m callin’ the cops and havin’ you arrested for harassment.”
“I won’t leave you on a park bench at night,” he said through clenched teeth.
She poked three numbers into her phone and waited.
“You wouldn’t dare!” he said.
She looked him right in the eye and said into the phone, “My emergency is that I’m sitting on a park bench in front of Big Lots and my ex-husband is harassing me. He already slapped me once tonight, and I need a police officer to come down here.”
“Put that damn phone away,” Andy seethed.
“No, ma’am, he’s not threatening me. It’s not me that you need to come down here and save. It’s him. I’ve got a .38 in my purse, I’ve got a license to carry a concealed weapon, and I intend to shoot him in the balls if you don’t send someone to get him away from me. No, ma’am, I will not stay on the phone. You’ve got five minutes and his cute little balls are going to be hamburger meat. And FYI, I’m a damn fine shot.”
She flipped the phone over in her purse and waited.
“You did not just do that!” Andy said.
“I hear the faint sound of sirens. You better get on out to your car and head north. It wouldn’t look too good for you to have your name in the paper for sexual harassment of your ex-wife. But then maybe that would be a good thing. Anna Ruth would leave you and you’d be free to sleep with someone else,” she told him.
Andy jogged out to his car and had already pulled out onto the highway when her phone rang. One look said that it was Darla Jean so she answered it.
“Where are you?” Trixie asked.
“On the way to get you. What happened?”
“It all came to a boiling head tonight and I just now called 911 and threatened to shoot Andy’s balls off if they don’t come make him leave me alone,” Trixie said.
“I told you that you was messin’ with fire. Did you really call 911?”
“Hell no, but he thinks I did.”
“What set you off anyway? I thought that man was so good in bed that you’d walk through hot coals to have sex with him. But you told me after the shotgun thing that you were finished with him,” Darla Jean said.
“Tonight the coals were hot and the weather is hot and my feet are tender and I figured out he was using me to break up with Anna Ruth, and anyway, I’m right here on the bench waiting and he’s on his way home.”
Darla Jean didn’t say anything.
“No lecture?” Trixie asked.
“No, you just sit there and simmer awhile. We’ll talk when I get there.”
“I’ll simmer away, but I’m already over my mad spell.”
“Don’t sound to me like you’re over nothing. I’m on my way. Don’t be lettin’ anybody pick you up. Just sit right there and fight off the Johns.”
“Why? I could be a hooker,” Trixie said.
“If you ain’t sittin’ on that seat when I get there, I’ll turn around and come back home and you can walk.” Darla Jean hung up.
Trixie looked at the phone a long time before she put it back in her purse. It barely hit the bottom before it rang again. She groaned and hoped to hell it wasn’t Cathy or Marty. She couldn’t tell them that she’d gone out with Andy, not on the phone. She’d have to come clean about it eventually, but definitely not on the phone.
It stopped ringing when she finally got her fingers around the thing but started again when she dropped it. That time she fished it out and answered without looking at the ID.
“Are you ready to talk about this?” Andy said tersely.
“Are you ready to drop dead?”
He hung up.
She stuffed the phone in her bra.
Thirty seconds later he called again.
“This is ridiculous, Trix. Hell, you didn’t act this bad when I admitted I was having a fling with Anna Ruth.”
She hung up.
A minute went by and she checked to make sure the phone didn’t need recharging. Another minute and it rang again.
“I’m not staying in town forever,” he said.
“Go home.”
“I’m not leaving you stranded, Trix. Shit! Cathy and Marty were ready to kill me when I cheated. They’d really do it if I left you sitting on a damn park bench after dark this far from home.”
“I thought the affair was my fault because I’m messy. I was pissed but I didn’t even know what anger was until right now. Guess I hit the next step in the process of getting over a cheatin’, lyin’ son-of-a-bitch of a husband. How many were there before Anna Ruth?”
“Don’t go there.”
“Why? Because you can’t count that far without taking off your shoes?”
It was the pause that sent her to the totally pissed off stage. She hadn’t even thought about there being other women until that minute. He’d said that it was a midlife crisis thing and she’d believed him.
“Who was the first, Andy? And how soon did it happen after we got married?” she hissed.
He hung up and she called him right back.
“Got that name ready for me? When you do, we’ll talk. Oh, and tell Anna Ruth we can make her wedding invitations at scrapbook class. I wish Marty had killed you,” she said.
“Well, if she hadn’t voted for Anna Ruth to be in that damn club I wouldn’t be in this position,” Andy said coldly. “Now that she’s in the damned almighty social club, she’s scared to death they’ll kick her out if we don’t get married.”
“Marty did not vote for her!” Trixie yelled.
“Oh, honey, she did. This is all her fault so blame her, not me.”
He hung up again and she heard the screech of tires as he pulled out from the end of the building and headed back north.
She didn’t have a thing sorted out and she was still severely pissed when Darla Jean parked right in front of her and honked.
“You simmered long enough?” Darla Jean asked when she got into the car.
“I’ve never been mad like this. Did you know that Anna Ruth wasn’t the first?”
Darla Jean drove to the nearest McDonald’s and got out. “I di
dn’t know anything, but I’m not surprised. Andy is who he is and he’s always looking around at the women in the room.”
Trixie followed her across the parking lot. “How do you know that?”
“Let’s just say that I know men,” she said.
They ordered and carried their food to the back of the café.
“Talk to me,” Darla Jean said.
“We might be here until morning.”
“I ain’t got to be nowhere tonight.” Darla Jean popped a hot fry into her mouth and fanned her lips with her hand. “Hot, hot, hot. Right out of the grease.”
“I wish my ex-husband was boiling in that grease right now. I hope he does marry Anna Ruth. That’s the best damn revenge on her I could ever get.” Any man that would cheat on his wife would lie about her friends, too. There was no way in hell that Marty would have voted for Anna Ruth.
Darla Jean nodded and mumbled, “I hope you mean it, Trixie. I’ve been prayin’ that you’d come to your senses and see that sorry man for what he is.”
* * *
Agnes meant to slip inside the house, do a snatch and grab of the roast that had been on the special that day, and tote it over to her house for a late night snack. But she heard music and laughter in the garage on the back of the property and kept going that way instead.
Jack had his head under the hood and Marty was sitting in a white plastic lawn chair with her feet propped up on a wooden box. She had a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
“Put that out this minute. You promised your sister that you would quit,” Agnes yelled from the doorway.
Marty dropped it so fast that the red tip didn’t even dim. Agnes beat a path across the garage floor and stomped on it like it was an evil spider. “I catch you with one more and I’m telling Cathy.”
“It was the first one in months, I promise. I’m so angry about the way Violet is treating Cathy that I could just spit. I had to have something to calm my nerves. It was either that or picking up a cowboy on the side of the road and having sex with him in the nearest hayloft. Which one do you think is worse?”
Agnes didn’t even bat an eye when she slapped Marty on the shoulder. “You don’t talk like that in front of Jack!”
The Sisters Café Page 9