“As long as contact was made,” Joan said.
“Oh, it was made,” Marcy boasted.
Joan stood up. “Be careful, Marcy. Now, while you two were out enjoying your fine dining—”
“It wasn’t that fine, believe me,” Frances said. She sat heavily on the couch next to Marcy, her body unwilling to hold her up another moment.
“I’m sorry, Franny, was dinner too much for you?” Joan asked sweetly.
Frances waved a hand at her. “Thank you for your concern, but I’ll recover. You were saying?”
“I was saying that while you were gone, Irene and I checked out the casino and measured the distance from the stairwell to the vault to the employee entrance. And then, we had a drink and had a talk.”
“Lovely,” Frances murmured. She really needed to go to bed. She settled for rubbing the spot above her brow.
“Joan,” Irene said, her voice low and full of warning. “Maybe now is not the time.”
“Not the time for what?” Edie asked. “What’s happened?”
“Nothing has happened,” Joan said. “Well, I mean nothing bad.”
Now Joan had everyone’s attention. “What?” Edie demanded.
“I was hoping for something a little calmer, but here goes—what’s happened is that some of us have lived our lives with regret and choose not to do so any longer. Especially since we could all end up in federal prison.”
“Prison?” Marcy said, her attention snapping away from her phone. “You said we wouldn’t!”
“We are not going to end up in federal prison,” Frances said. “We’ve been over this. We’re very good at what we do.”
“Well … weweregood,” Joan said. “Who knows what we are now, but I guess we’ll find out. Anyway! What I’m trying to say is that life is about love and relationships and all the opportunities that may have passed you by that somehow come around again.”
“I’m not following,” Edie said, confused.
“Irene and I don’t want to miss those opportunities again.”
“What are you talking about?” Frances demanded.
“We got married,” Joan said, and grinned. “At a chapel. Just across the street from the Pelican. Very convenient, actually.” She held up her left hand to show off a green plastic ring. “We’ll get rings later.”
Joan’s announcement was met with silence. Frances was too shocked to even breathe. For heaven’s sake, she’d only just caught on to the fact that they were gay. Andtogether.And now they weremarried?
“Well?” Irene implored. She went to Joan’s side, slipping her arm around her waist. “Aren’t any of you going to say anything?”
“I think it’s amazing,” Marcy said, and bounced up from the couch to hug them both.
Joan looked over her head at Edie and Frances.
“I’m … so surprised,” Edie said carefully. “I mean I know you two were …” She couldn’t seem to find words.
“We weren’t open with it fifty years ago, but times have changed, and it’s been hanging over our heads all this time. We agree, we refuse to live regretting the thing we couldn’t have in our twenties. And, you know, we don’t have all the time in the world now. So, we decided there is no better time than the present. Before we either kick off or end up in prison.” Joan laughed.
“Stop saying that,” Frances insisted.
“Well, congratulations, you two,” Edie said, coming forward to hug them. “But I am never going to get over you doing this without inviting us.”
“We took advantage of an empty chapel,” Joan said. “But you can throw us a party.”
Edie said she would, and they laughed, and talked about how surprised they both were that their feelings were still there. But then Joan looked at Frances. And so did Irene. Then Edie and Marcy.
