The Cherry Cola Book Club - By Ashton Lee Page 0,73
and Grill. He had all of them taken in by a seamstress down at Hodge’s Department Store without even telling me. He thinks it’ll show off his new athletic frame better. I reminded him that he was still very much a married man, and he said he was just doing it to promote our show more effectively. Really, Maura Beth, there’s no one like him.”
“Look at it this way, Becca. He’ll have plenty of opportunities to wear that suit when he negotiates all those big real-estate deals of his. Meanwhile, why not go ahead and let him be Roy Rogers or Tex Ritter for the evening? Just make sure he doesn’t bring a horse into my library. I don’t have the budget for the cleanup.”
Becca’s tension immediately dissolved into laughter. “Maura Beth, you always have the right answer for everything. Cowboy shirt, boots, and jeans, it is, then. And I’ll make him keep Trigger in the stable.”
They both chuckled, said good-bye, and hung up, but Maura Beth stared at the phone for a minute or two with something that felt a lot like resentment. Was Jeremy ever going to call?
Finally, he did, and Maura Beth could tell by the tone of his “Hello, sorry this has taken so long,” that the news was not going to be good. “The majority of the parents thought it was too expensive,” he continued, “and the headmaster said we just didn’t have the money to send one of the buses down there for—his words here—a ‘glorified book report.’ Translation: That kind of travel money is reserved for the football team’s road games.”
“I’m so disappointed,” Maura Beth said. “We’re not off to a good start with our attendance.”
“Maybe if I’d thought of it a little sooner and had more time to talk to the parents. Anyway, there is a bit of good news in all this. Three of the families want their boys to attend. So they’ve ponied up for hotel rooms over in Corinth, and I’ll be driving down in a few hours with three of my students and one set of parents as chaperones. I know six is a far cry from twenty-one, but it’s better than nothing.”
There was a hint of relief in Maura Beth’s sigh. “You’re absolutely right. You went out on a limb with this ambitious project, but we’ll have a good time no matter how many people show up.”
After Maura Beth hung up, she paced around the apartment for a while, unable to sit still and calm herself. Having a good time was hardly the goal here. That could easily be done at any bar or restaurant. So much more was at stake, and she began to doubt the effectiveness of her untiring campaign with many of the local businesses. True, the first person had yet to walk through the door of the library, but she couldn’t help projecting how many actually would. Numbers flew out of her head and swirled before her eyes. Twelve? Too few. Fifteen? Still not enough. Twenty? The beginning of respectability. Thirty? Was that even possible?
No matter what Periwinkle had said, it was hard work becoming a Scarlett.
The hours leading up to seven o’clock were as unsettling as the original ultimatum from Councilman Sparks had been several months earlier. Maura Beth spent most of the time in the library lobby, arranging tables, chairs, and posters with Renette Posey and Emma Frost, but no configuration seemed to satisfy her.
“Everything has to be just right,” she was telling her clerks after the latest round of musical chairs. “And this isn’t it.”
Renette walked toward the front door and then turned around, making a frame of her hands. “It’s the same semicircle we had last time—only a little bigger. It looks just fine when you first walk in.”
But Maura Beth was still shaking her head. “I’m going by instinct here, ladies. Something tells me we need to think even bigger tonight. We only have fifteen folding chairs out there right now. Let’s double that, okay? If we have empty seats, we have empty seats. But let’s don’t get caught scrambling if we’re lucky enough to have overflow. It won’t look professional, and the last thing I want tonight is to come off like I don’t know what I’m doing.”
So the three of them dragged more chairs out of the storage closet in the back and began making a double row in front of the podium. Finally, everything was laid out so that it passed muster, and Maura Beth