“Take Dad with you. Have lots of sex and cheer him up.”
Elaine didn’t smile. “You, Brody and Frank all need cheering up.”
“A three-way? No thanks.”
Elaine still didn’t smile. “How are you? And don’t you dare say, ‘Fine.’ What’s going on in that busy mind of yours?”
“Nothing. I’ve had too much to do to think about anything.” Elaine was glaring at her. Terri gave a deep sigh, picked up a sandwich and unwrapped it. “I haven’t seen Nate since the picnic on Thursday.”
“You mean, not since you two saved that man’s life?”
Terri shrugged. “I guess so. We got him to the ambulance, then Nate left.” She finished the sandwich and reached for another one. “To be fair, the picnic was awful. I was angry and I said too much. Poor Stacy. I don’t think she had a clue what was going on.”
“Have you talked to her since then?”
“I’m too cowardly for that. I figure that by now she’s been told and I fear her wrath. ‘You lived with my fiancé?’ That sort of thing.” She dropped a crust of bread onto the table. “I am like my mother,” she whispered.
Elaine stood up and clasped Terri to her.
Terri clung to her tightly and for a moment there were tears in her eyes. She pulled away. “I’m all right.”
Elaine sat down across from her. “Terri.” Her voice was terse. “I haven’t been here that long but you have to get over this obsession about what-my-mother-did. Her sins are not yours. You aren’t responsible for them.” She picked up Terri’s hands and held them. “Honey, you work all the time. You are twenty-six years old and you’ve hardly had any life outside of work. The only reason you became attached to Nate was because he showed up inside your house. If he’d been staying somewhere else you wouldn’t have looked at him.”
“No. I would have looked.”
“Looked, lusted, then done nothing.” Elaine sat back in her chair. “You need to have some fun.”
Terri was getting suspicious. “You’ve got something in mind, don’t you?”
“The dance is tonight.”
“So?”
“What are you going to wear?”
“Black pants and jacket. Uncle Frank and I will be on drunk duty.”
“You and Frank and Brody. Three old men.”
Terri started to reply, but then squinted her eyes. “What are you planning?”
Elaine got up and went to some dresses hanging inside plastic bags. She removed one from the back. Inside was a very plain gown, off-white, with a high, rolled collar and long sleeves. It was very modest.
“It takes a perfect figure to pull this off and you can do it.”
She’d expected Elaine to pull out some ghastly concoction that sparkled and bared her legs. But this was as covered up as a nun’s habit. It would cling, true, but there’d be no skin showing.
“Try it on.”
“I need to...” At Elaine’s look, Terri broke off. “Okay.” She pulled her T-shirt over her head and stepped out of her shorts and sandals, leaving only her two pieces of underwear. She held up her arms as Elaine slipped the dress over her head, then tied it in the back.
Terri looked at herself in the mirror. The dress fit perfectly. The sleeves were bat wing, and the fabric was a slinky silk charmeuse. All in all, the dress covered her from neck to toes. Not even her arms were showing.
“It’s nice,” she said. “A far cry from the bikini. It’s—Holy hell, Elaine!” Terri had twisted around to see the back—except that there wasn’t one. There was a little shoestring tie across her shoulders, then nothing else all the way down to...to... “Is my crack showing?”
“Of course not.” Elaine turned her to face the mirror. “I knew it would be perfect.”
Terri reached her arms back to feel how much skin was exposed. All of it. The band of her bra was showing. “What underwear am I supposed to wear with this thing—not that I will wear it but I was just wondering.”
“None whatever. Full commando.”
“I can’t—”
“Terri, when you get to my age and everything is going south, you need strong foundation garments. But you, my dear, are so young and firm you could run hurdles and not bounce. You are to wear nothing whatever under this gown. No panties to show a line, no bra to show seams. Naked. Like a wood nymph.”
“No,” Terri said, “absolutely not.” She reached for the tie but Elaine put her hand over it.
“When you’re forty-five I want you to tell me about the parties you missed and the dresses you didn’t