“All Right Now” was screaming from the windows.

Bliss.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Say It Ain’t So, Tex

Tex and I were on our way to Twin Dragon for Girl’s Night Out Does Chinese.

I’d spent the afternoon at Flat Iron Crossing Mall.

The next best thing after rock ‘n’ roll to calm a girl’s soul was retail and Auntie Anne’s pretzels, both of which I exercised in therapeutic proportions.

Since it wasn’t safe to go home (because, by now, Vance likely had the whole place wired direct to Command Headquarters), I bought myself a new outfit for Girl’s Night Out, including underwear and makeup.

I called Tod and Stevie and invited them and Tex called me to tell me Kitty Sue gave him a ride home.

I took a shower at Tex’s with a cat lying on the toilet seat watching the whole show. I put on my new red, satin drawstring pants, a bronze silky camisole with sequins stitched across the neckline and strappy bronze sandals. I figured red and bronze were the way to go when going to Twin Dragons as I’d fit in with the decor.

Tex was driving, I was shifting.

“What’s with the earrings?” Tex asked.

“The earrings are bad news,” I told him.

“Not a lot of women would think that about a pair of diamond earrings.”

“I’m not ‘a lot of women’,” I said.

“You can say that again.”

We stopped at a light, I downshifted and explained.

“There’s a war going on. You know that creepy guy who looks like Grandpa Munster who came in yesterday morning? Him against Lee. Who will win me. Bookies are taking bets on it.”

“So creepy guy is tryin’ to buy you with diamonds,” Tex deduced.

“Yep, and a seventeen hundred dollar dress from Saks.”

“What’s Lee giving you?”

I counted and then told him, “Six of the best orgasms I’ve ever had in my life.”

“Too much information,” Tex said.

We shot forward from the light and I shifted to second.

“And I’ve been in love with him since I was five,” I went on.

Tex nodded as I shifted up to third. “No contest, then.”

I sighed.

“No contest.”

We parked and went in. The table was round and full of Marianne, Dolores, Tod, Stevie, Kitty Sue and Ally. Two seats were open between Ally and Dolores. Tex took the one by Dolores, leaving me to sit by Ally.

I turned to her.

“Are you over it?” I asked.

“Whatever you’re mad at Lee about… are you over it?” she returned.

Okay, guess we knew where we stood.

I turned to Tex.

“Are you driving home or am I?”

“Feel like gettin’ smashed?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Go for it.”

I ordered a spiced rum and diet and told the waitress to keep ‘em coming. I didn’t think she understood, seeing as the only English she spoke was what was on the menu, but she nodded and smiled which was encouraging.

We ordered our drinks, we ordered our pu-pu platters, we ate our pu-pu platters, then we ordered more drinks.

The pu-pu platters were whisked away and the soup was being served when Tex inquired, “What next?”

“What next, what?” I returned.

“What next, tonight?” Tex explained.

“You mean, after we eat?” I asked then answered, “We go home.”

Tex stared at me.

“Tex, it’s Girls Night Out. We talk about needing to lose weight while we drink and eat a lot. We talk about how all men are scum and lazy and useless, mostly Marianne’s ex-husband who is scum and lazy and useless and a rat bastard to boot. Last, we gossip about people pretending we’re trying to be thoughtful and caring as we rip their lives to shreds. Then we hug and go home. That’s it. Girl’s Night Out.”

Tex kept staring at me and my soup was put in front of me.

“Shit, if it isn’t Indy Savage.”

At the voice, the hairs went up on the backs of my arms and all the air was sucked out of the room by the gasps going around the table.

I turned, looked up and could not believe my eyes or my f**king, shitty, rotten luck.

Cherry Blackwell was standing behind me.

She was a tall, cool blonde. She had ice blue eyes, masses of white-blonde hair and the best body in Denver, all tits and ass. She was Barbie in human form.

She had been two years ahead of me at school and the most popular girl, bar none. Her Dad was rich, they went to Hawaii and the Caribbean on Spring Break and to exotic places like the south of France and villas in Italy during the summer.

She’d dated Lee for six months during his senior year and they were the most miserable six months of my life. He’d even taken her to prom. He’d broken up with her before graduation and I celebrated by drinking approximately half a keg at a party, passed out in the back of Lee’s Mustang and he carried me to bed (this last Ally told me, I’d been unconscious at the time, more’s the pity).

Cherry and Lee had hooked up again four years ago. They were together for three months, the last two days of their short relationship were marred by a pregnancy scare. Two more of the most miserable days of my life.

The pregnancy scare turned out to be an attempt at entrapment. During those two days, Lee was in such a foul mood, I wasn’t the only one avoiding him. After he found out she was lying, it was over and he never went back. That was the last we heard from her until a year ago.

Rumors flew that Cherry had a fling with Marianne’s husband. These rumors were spread by Cherry, which meant they were probably true. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back of Marianne’s marriage.

One more thing that was important to know about Cherry was that she was a first class, grade A prime, bitch.

“I heard you hooked up with Lee,” Cherry said to me.

“Yeah,” I told her, hoping this would be short and not too painful.

She didn’t work into the slam, she delivered it straight out.

“I’ll give it a week.”

I went stock-still. I could feel practically everyone at the table shifting into bitch smackdown mode.

“It’s already been a week,” Ally butted in.

Cherry looked at Ally, then at me and I noticed two of her Barbie-esque girlfriends behind her, Brunette Barbie and African-American Barbie.