A Dress to Die For by Christine DeMaio-Rice Read Free Book Online

funny, even. She said, ‘I know you’re using my daughter for her mind.’ And the funny thing was, she was mad about it, no, not mad, but like it was wrong, even though… wait, no. I’m not saying she’s got it right but...” He had to lean against a parking meter he was laughing so hard, and it was so rare and beautiful to see him lose control that she had laughed, too.
    Laura smiled at the memory of it when she and Mom got to the front stoop. Ruby’s light was on, and she wondered if she could recruit her sister in double-teaming Mom into getting into more detail about the dress. Having come all the way back to Brooklyn for the sole purpose of finding out about the Brunico saffron gown, Laura had no intention of going to bed without a full and complete accounting.
    A manila envelope was leaning against the front door. Mom picked it up, opened it, and pulled out three letter-sized envelopes.
    “What is it?” Laura asked, seeing her name on one.
    Mom stuffed them back inside the larger one. “Nothing.”
    Laura snatched the manila envelope and turned her back to Mom. The three white envelopes were labeled: Laura, Ruby, Jocelyn. “What is this, Mom?”
    “I wanted to look at them first.”
    Ruby came out of her garden apartment in yoga pants and a tank. “What’s going on?” Behind her came Elaine, wearing head-to-toe Lululemon, which fit as though it had been made for her. Elaine was the first after Thomasina and had rebound written all over her yogi-tight ass. Despite that, she acted as if Ruby was her own personal permanent girlfriend. Laura felt sorry for her.
    “We got these envelopes,” Laura said. “And now she’s having a breakdown.”
    Ruby put her hands on her hips. “Mom? What’s going on?”
    In the streetlights, with some undecipherable concern weighing her mother’s eyes, Laura thought for the first time that her mother looked old.
    Mom deflated. “I knew it as soon as I saw it.” She looked across the street and sighed. “It’s your father’s handwriting.”

CHAPTER 4

    Mom poured three glasses of wine from a box on the counter. Having left Elaine in the downstairs apartment, Ruby crouched on the chair by the door, feet up on the seat, arms wrapped around her knees. The yoga habit had made her even slimmer and suppler than she’d been. Mom gave Ruby a glass, which she dangled between her knees. Laura took the last.
    Jimmy, their next-door neighbor and landlord, wasn’t much of a wine drinker. A nice-looking retired cop, he had plenty of time on his hands and much of it was spent hanging around Mom. When he’d chased reporters away from their door with a crowbar three months ago, Laura had assumed he was either drunk or crazy. Turned out he was neither.
    “I think you should burn the things,” Jimmy said as if reading Laura’s mind.
    “Well good thing your ex-wife never showed up,” Mom said. “I’d have to watch for a stake and a woodpile in the back.”
    “Can we get this over with?” Ruby said. “Laura and I are going out with Stu.”
    “No, I’m not,” Laura said. “I have to go back to work.”
    “It’s nine o’clock already,” Ruby said.
    “So? I have two jobs, you know.”
    “Quit one and have a life.”
    “Why? So I can learn to sit with my ankles behind my ears and wear cotton spandex all day?”
    Jimmy interrupted them. “This is what you were talking about?” he asked Mom. “These two? Like this?”
    “Since they could speak.” Mom picked up her envelope from the pile. “I’ll go first.” She ripped it open, unfolded a single sheet of paper, and read aloud:
    Dear Jocelyn,
    It’s been a long time since we’ve spoken. I hope you are well.
    “Twenty years later,” Laura interjected.
    “You,” Jimmy said, pointing. “Put a lid on it.”
    “Go to hell.”
    “Seriously,” Ruby said.
    “Who is this guy?” Laura asked Ruby. “Where was he when we ate ramen noodles twice a day?”
    Looking up at Jimmy, Ruby asked with faux-sincerity.