Club Dead

enjoyed the wonderful treat.”
    “Thank my brother,” Janice said, her broad smile restored. “And, after all, you just paid for it.” She held up the earrings.
    I was smiling, too, as I left the warmth and camaraderie of the salon, but that didn’t last too long. The thermometer had dropped and the sky was getting darker by the minute. I walked the distance back to the apartment building very briskly. After a chilly ride on a creaky elevator, I was glad to use the key Alcide had given me and step into the warmth. I switched on a lamp and turned on the television for a little company, and I huddled on the couch and thought about the pleasures of the afternoon. Once I’d thawed out, I realized Alcide must have turned down the thermostat. Though pleasant compared to the out-of-doors, the apartment was definitely on the cool side.
    The sound of the key in the door roused me out of my reverie, and Alcide came in with a clipboard full of paperwork. He looked tired and preoccupied, but his face relaxed when he saw me waiting.
    “Janice called me to tell me you’d come by,” he said. His voice warmed up as he spoke. “She wanted me to say thank you again.”
    I shrugged. “I appreciate my hair and my new nails,” I said. “I’ve never done that before.”
    “You’ve never been to a beauty shop before?”
    “My grandmother went every now and then. I had my ends trimmed, once.”
    He looked as stunned as if I’d confessed I’d never seen a flush toilet.
    To cover my embarrassment, I fanned my nails out for his admiration. I hadn’t wanted very long ones, and these were the shortest ones Corinne could in all conscience manage, she had told me. “My toenails match,” I told my host.
    “Let’s see,” he said.
    I untied my sneakers and pulled off my socks. I held out my feet. “Aren’t they pretty?” I asked.
    He was looking at me kind of funny. “They look great,” he said quietly.
    I glanced at the clock on top of the television. “I guess I better go get ready,” I said, trying to figure out how to take a bath without affecting my hair and nails. I thought of Janice’s news about Debbie. “You’re really ready to dress up tonight, right?”
    “Sure,” he said gamely.
    “ ’Cause I’m going all out.”
    That interested him. “That would mean . . . ?”
    “Wait and see.” This was a nice guy, with a nice family, doing me a heavy-duty favor. Okay, he’d been coerced into it. But he was being extremely gracious to me, under any circumstances.
     
     
    I ROLLED OUT of my room an hour later. Alcide was standing in the kitchen, pouring himself a Coke. It ran over the edge of the glass while he took me in.
    That was a real compliment.
    While Alcide mopped up the counter with a paper towel, he kept darting glances at me. I turned around slowly.
    I was wearing red—screaming red, fire engine red. I was going to freeze most of the evening, because my dress didn’t have any shoulders, though it did have long sleeves that you slid on separately. It zipped up the back. It flared below the hips, what there was below the hips. My grandmother would have flung herself across the doorsill to keep me from going out the door in this dress. I loved it. I had got it on extreme sale at Tara’s Togs; I suspected Tara had kind of put it aside for me. Acting on a huge and unwise impulse, I’d bought the shoes and lipstick to go with it. And now the nails, thanks to Janice! I had a gray-and-black fringed silk shawl to wrap around myself, and a little bitty bag that matched my shoes. The bag was beaded.
    “Turn around again,” Alcide suggested a little hoarsely. He himself was wearing a conventional black suit with a white shirt and a green patterned tie that matched his eyes. Nothing, apparently, could tame his hair. Maybe he should have gone to Janice’s beauty shop instead of me. He looked handsome and rough, though “attractive” might be a more accurate word than “handsome.”
    I rotated slowly. I wasn’t confident enough to keep my eyebrows from arching in a silent question as I completed my turn.
    “You look mouthwatering ,” he said sincerely. I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
    “Thanks,” I said, trying not to beam like an idiot.
    I had a trying time getting into Alcide’s truck, what with the shortness of the dress and the highness of the heels, but with Alcide giving me a tactical boost, I managed.
    Our destination was a small place on the corner of Capitol