Speak Easy by Melanie Harlow Read Free Book Online Page A

knows you’ll need it.”
    She accompanied us to the dress department on the sixth floor, where she began pulling dresses off the rack for me to try on. “Lord, Tiny, you’re so short I don’t know what will fit,” she complained. “But you are nice and skinny. Let’s try these.”
    “Isn’t that a little flimsy?” Evelyn asked when I had the first one on.
    I knew what she meant, but I liked it. It was slate blue satin underneath and had a sheer chiffon overlay in the same color. It had a V neck and no sleeves—a first for me—and hung straight to my hips where its satin sash was tied in an intricate knot on the left. The skirt hung in fluttery panels with a zigzag effect. Glancing at my purse in Evelyn’s hands, I wondered how much it cost—I’d already be down a hundred bucks tonight, and I needed four hundred twenty to buy whisky with tomorrow. Since I was usually so frugal, even the nicest dress in my closet cost less than ten dollars. Something told me this one would be considerably more. “How much is this?”
    “Hmm.” Rosie stood back and pursed her lips. “Good color for you, matches your eyes.” She circled me like a vulture.
    “What does it cost ?”
    “Around twenty, I think. Maybe closer to thirty.”
    My heart plummeted. But then I imagined Rosie in the club wearing this blue number while I stood next to her in my green-checkered church dress. To hell with the cost. “I’ll take it.”
    “Good.” She nodded. “You’ll need new stockings—sheer black,” she said, scrutinizing my lower legs. “With roll garters. Then new shoes, with higher heels.”
    “And a lipstick,” I added.
    Rosie pointed at me. “Now you’re talkin.”
    When I boarded the streetcar for home, I carried bags that held the dress, a pair of black stockings and satin-covered roll garters, black satin t-straps with high heels, a tiny silver mesh evening bag, and a pale peach lace-edged step-in—which Rosie had assured me was all I needed to wear under my dress. She also helped me choose a tube of lipstick called Red Velvet and told me she’d be home at seven if I wanted her to help me get ready. My envelope had taken a huge hit, but I still had enough to pay Angel tonight and buy twelve cases tomorrow. Barely.
    Back at my house, I prepared supper—scrambled eggs and bacon, the one meal I didn’t habitually screw up—and gave the girls permission to go to the movies. I told them I was going out and wouldn’t be home until late, but I warned them to observe their regular curfew or else. Molly’s eyes lit up, and I figured she’d be tempted to take advantage of my absence, but I also knew Mary Grace would tattle on her first chance she got. After doing the dishes, I drove over to the LaChance house, my purchases in the back seat.
    I felt like a doll as they worked on me up in their room, fastening my dress and fussing over my hair and makeup. “You’re so lucky to have this naturally wavy hair,” Rosie said, curling it around her fingers. “And such a perfect little body, straight up and down. I know girls who’d kill for that figure. It’s just right for all the new dresses.”
    “I could never wear this.” Evelyn fingered the soft chiffon.
    “Ya got that right,” said Rosie with a snort. “OK, now the powder and rouge.” Her fingers fluttered and smudged across my face while I tried to hold still. “There. Now, when you get home, rinse your mouth out with Listerine and then put on the lipstick, like this.” She took my new lipstick and put it on her own lips. “Try to make a little bow on the top, like I did.” She puckered and preened in the mirror over their dresser.
    “Got it.” I stood to look at my own reflection. My chin-length hair was styled neatly around my made-up face, and Rosie had lent me a black beaded headband, which hid half my forehead. The blue of the dress brought out the color of my eyes, and I loved the way the sheer black stockings peeked out from under the zig-zag