Page 45 of Wicked Player
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I’m working on a puzzle with Christian, and my thoughts are completely lost in the upcoming party. Tonight was spaghetti night, and the kitchen is still full of dirty dishes. I never clean up right away. I much prefer to spend quality time with Christian. With him in school and me at work, we don’t spend as much time together as I would like. The dishes can wait until he’s in bed.
I’m not much help. It seems Christian is faring much better than I am. It’s a puzzle of a horse, a gift from Judy. He mentioned once that he liked horses, and the next week, there was a horse puzzle on our doorstep.
I’m seeing Cassie tomorrow, and I’ll need to come clean. Chances are our little movie night will not come up in conversation, but I don’t want to take a chance. I want to be prepared. I still haven’t told her that I’m attending the party. And then there’s the whole issue of an outfit I need to borrow.
Cassie is always more than willing to lend me shoes, a purse or jewelry. She’s taller and slimmer than me, so many of her dresses don’t fit me. But she does have this cute puffy black one which might just fit. It just hangs off the shoulders and falls into a balloon-like shape. She wears it with tall black heels and looks fabulous in it. I imagine myself wearing it, with my shorter chubbyish frame…
Nope. Absolutely not.
I’ll have to think of something else. I did get a big influx of cash recently. One little dress probably wouldn’t break the bank.
“You’re not helping much, Mommy.”
I smile. “Sorry… I’m just distracted.”
He cocks a brow. “What?”
“I’m distracted. It means that there are too many thoughts in your brain swirling around, and you can’t focus.”
“Ohhh…” he nods. “I get istracted a lot at school.”
I laugh. “I bet you do. And the word is d-istracted, with a D at the start.”
“Distracted,” he says, trying it on for size.
“Yes… perfect.”
My phone buzzes, and speak of the devil, it’s Cassie.
“Hey, gorgeous,” she says. “What’s up?”
“Guess what,” I say, deciding to get right to it. “I’m going to the party, too.”
She screams so loud, even Christian can hear her. Obviously, she’s over the moon. “We’ll have so much fun, Clara. I can’t wait.”
“What are you going to wear?” she asks.
“I’m not sure,” I tell her. “I need to buy a dress.”
“Oh… I can’t wait. We’ll have to take a drive to the city,” she says. “Unless you want to get something at Walmart,” she teases.
I laugh. “No, we’ll have to make the drive.” Sometimes I hate living in a small town. That’s a two-hour drive to the nearest decent mall.
“You’re wearing the little red number?” I ask.
“That’s the plan.”
I consider telling her about the movie date, but now’s not the time. We’ll have plenty of time for that when we go shopping. “Can I borrow some shoes?”
“For sure,” she says, excited. “But we can’t pick out the heels before we have the dress, so we should probably go shopping sooner than later.”
And on that note, we make plans to go shopping the next Monday. We both have the day off, and it still leaves us five days until the party.
“Catch you later, alligator,” she says like she sometimes does when we end a telephone conversation.
A wide smile stretches across my face.“In a while, crocodile. Luv ya.”
