Unholy Matrimony by Peg Cochran Read Free Book Online

too.” Lucille’s lips tightened. Just wait till they found that so-and-so. She was going to give him a piece of her mind. Putting everyone to all this trouble and breaking Bernadette’s heart. Lucille glanced over to where Bernadette was still leaning against the limo. She had her cell phone in her hand and was busily texting. Lucille didn’t think she looked like her heart was broken, but with kids you never could tell. Maybe she was putting on a brave front.
    Lucille followed Flo to her car—a low-slung, bright red Mustang. She wished they could take the Olds. She had to bend nearly in half to get into Flo’s car, and when she did manage to fall into the passenger seat, she felt like she was sitting on the ground.
    Flo got into the driver’s seat and reached for a small black box attached to the window with a suction cup.
    “This here’s my GPS.” She powered it on and began pushing buttons. “If you get a new car, one of these will probably be built right into your dash.”
    Lucille grunted. “I don’t want a new car. The Olds is fine. She can still get up to speed as fast as she used to.”
    Flo gave Lucille a quick sideways glance. “I’d think you’d want something new.”
    Lucille shook her head. She didn’t like change—she’d had the same house, the same husband, the same hairdo and a lot of the same clothes for years now. She found comfort in knowing what to expect.
    Flo turned the key and the Mustang came to life with a low growl. “Ready?”
    “As I’ll ever be.” Lucille grabbed for the door handle as Flo turned out of the parking lot, tires squealing.
    “Turn left,” came the disembodied voice from the GPS.
    “She talks funny,” Lucille said, closing her eyes as Flo turned left in front of a tractor trailer that was a little too close for Lucille’s comfort.
    “She’s English,” Flo said, following the directions to make a left turn at the light. “Real classy, don’t you think.”
    “Sure.”
    Lucille wasn’t sure she’d want someone talking to her in her car who was classier than she was.
    “Turn right,” said the disembodied voice.
    “She sounds awfully stuck-up.”
    Flo grunted. “Shit, I missed the turn.”
    “Recalculating,” said the voice with a hint of disapproval in its tone.
    Flo quickly turned around in a store parking lot and headed back to make the missed turn. Traffic was heavy and she couldn’t get into the left lane fast enough.
    “Recalculating,” admonished the GPS.
    Flo managed to find a place to turn around again, and in her haste to make the correct turn this time around, turned one street too soon.
    “Recalculating,” sniped the GPS.
    “Oh, shut up,” Flo said as she grabbed the GPS from its perch on the windshield, rolled down her window and heaved it out. “Bitch,” she yelled after it.
    “Now how are we going to find this place?”
    “We’ll find it. It can’t be that hard.” Flo stomped on the gas and they shot forward.
     
    • • •
     
    The Peacock had a brick front painted a dull gray with a small diamond-shaped window in the door. The Peacock was stenciled over it in very small letters. Lucille and Flo circled the block three times before noticing it.
    “Sheesh, you’d think they didn’t want no one to know the place was here,” Lucille said as they got out of the car and walked around to the front of the building.
    Lucille pushed open the door. The bar was very dimly lit and for a moment she couldn’t see. The walls were covered in blue and green peacock feathers interspersed with smoky mirrors. A spinning, mirrored disco ball rotated from the center of the ceiling, throwing tiny squares of light around the room.
    Waiters wearing frilly aprons circulated between the tables.
    Lucille poked Flo. “How come the waiters don’t have no shirts on?”
    “I don’t know, and I don’t care,” Flo said, ogling a tall, dark-haired man flaunting a six-pack.
    “Do you see Taylor?” Lucille stood on tiptoe trying to see into