“Of course it is,” my mother insisted, looping an arm through Vero’s. “We won’t be out long. Georgia and Sam won’t even know we were gone, and the three of us haven’t had any girl time since we got here. Besides, I want to hear all about this mysterious friend Vero’s been spending so much time with. He must be quite a hunk!”
“You have no idea,” I muttered as they strolled arm in arm through the lobby door.
“Come on, Susan,” Vero said. “Let’s go see what’s cookin’ at Chubby’s.”
CHAPTER 16
It was just after nine by the time Vero and my mother hailed a taxi and we all climbed in.
“Where to?” the cabbie asked.
“Chubby’s,” Vero answered.
“I could really go for a burger,” my mother said as she buckled herself in. “Is the food there any good?”
The driver raised an eyebrow at his rearview mirror. “I never heard anyone complain about the menu.”
“Perfect. Let’s go.” Vero slammed the door.
Five minutes later, the cabbie jerked to a stop beside a short, brick building. A hot pinkOPENsign flickered in the window, which had been darkened with black paint. Loud music played inside, and a boisterous crowd had formed in front of the place.
“The line looks pretty long,” Vero said as we exited the taxi.
“The food must be very good here,” my mother said, rising on her toes to search for the end of the line.
“Wait here,” I said, passing my mother off to Vero. “I’ll see how long the wait is for a table.” I squeezed past a group of tipsy womenin matchingBRIDESMAIDT-shirts and maneuvered to the front of the line.
“Hi,” I said, tapping the hostess station to get the attention of the young woman behind it. “Can you tell me if Pokey’s working tonight?”
She glanced up from her tablet, her thick false eyelashes fanning the air. “Slow Poke? Yeah, he’s working.”
“Great. How long is the wait for a table?”
“Does your party have reservations?”
“No, but it’s only three of us.”
“I have an opening at eleven.” She turned away from me and called over the crowd, “Wagner party. Your tables are ready.” A cheer arose from the group of drunken bridesmaids.
I checked my phone. Eleven was two hours from now. The entire FCPD would probably be looking for us by then. I offered the hostess a folded twenty I’d scraped from the bottom of my purse. “We’ll just sit at the bar.”
“No seating at the bar.” She waved me away from the door, holding it open for the clash of women rushing toward it. She counted their heads as they stumbled inside, searching the line for more of them. She called out to one of the bridesmaids. “Where’s the rest of your party? You’re missing three people.” The girl only shrugged, her answer swallowed by the thumping music inside.
I didn’t have time for this. I retreated to find Vero and my mother.
“Come on,” I said, plucking them out of the crowd. “Let’s try around back. Maybe there’s another way in.”
We weaved through a crowd of noisy middle-aged women wearing “over the hill” party hats and carrying black balloons, then past a group of much older women as they disembarked from a nursing home bus and shuffled on canes and walkers to the end of the line. We rounded the side of the building, nearly tripping over two drunken bridesmaids in the alley. A young woman braced herself against the building between them, her bushy white veil blowing across their faces as they attempted to hold her hair back while she puked. One of the bridesmaids blew out a mouthful of tulle. In a fit of impatience, she plucked the veil from the bride’s head and tossed it onto the ground.
I stepped around them and tried the back door of the restaurant, but it was locked.
My mother stopped to fuss over the girls. “Oh, you poor thing,” she said, digging in her fanny pack for one of Delia’s elastic hair bands and offering it to one of the bridesmaids. Vero ducked, picking up the abandoned veil as she took my mother’s hand and led her quickly back to the front of the restaurant.
I ran to catch up as Vero pulled the veil over my mother’s head. “What are you doing?”
“I have an idea.”
“Maybe we should go someplace else,” my mother said through the thick layers of tulle as Vero arranged them to cover her face.
