Page 21 of The Wilder Widows

“Can I offer you some drinks?” We all spun to see the aged cocktail waitress standing in front of us with a tray of brightly colored drinks topped with colorful umbrellas. The color of the drinks couldn’t compare to the bright makeup painted across her face. Makeup that, like her high hair, belonged back in the eighties. Marge pulled from my arm, and her scowl softened as she locked eyes with the waitress.

“Yes. Um, yeah. Thanks. Looks, uh... looks good.” Marge stumbled over her words while she swiped at the back of her neck and shuffled from side to side.

Arching my brow, I watched Marge dissolve into a puddle of mush under the batting lashes of the waitress at least a decade younger.

“Go ahead. Take one,” the waitress said, her sparkling eyes still engaged with Marge’s bulging ones. “On the house.”

“Don’t mind if I do!” Doris said, unaware of the silent seduction happening before her.

Sylvie took a drink, but her side-eye confirmed she also saw the sparks igniting between Marge and what I could only assume was a retired showgirl.

“Thanks. Yeah.” Marge plucked a drink from the tray. “I don’t normally drink, you know, like fruity drinks. But these look, uh... you look good.”

You? I nearly let the laughter I held in slip out while Marge’s face flooded with a red deeper than the cherry sticking out of the drinks.

“They. I mean, uh... they look good.”

The same flush filled the already over-blushed cheeks of the waitress while she dropped her eyes to the ground before fluttering them back up again. “I’ll be sure to come by with more when you’re done with that one.”

“Yeah. Great. That’d, uh, be great. I’ll just be here. Yeah.”

“Okay,” she said and turned away, casting a sweet smile over her shoulder before disappearing into the crowd.

Sylvie and I stared at Marge while she stood with eyes glued to the last place the waitress had been. Finally, Marge blew out the breath she’d been holding and deflated.

“Hey! She liked you!” Sylvie bumped her with an elbow.

“She did? You think?” Marge spun back and raked us with those oversized orbs.

“You were practically doing it on the floor.” I let out the laugh I’d been holding.

“She’s so hot! Wow!” Marge clapped her hands on her head and closed her eyes before snapping them back open and staring back at us. “You really think she liked me?”

Hot isn’t the word I would have used to describe that particular waitress, but she’d definitely been into Marge. Sylvie and I nodded in unison.

“What’s going on?” Doris asked after sucking a long sip of her blue drink through the straw. “Who’s hot?”

“How did you not see that?” I shook my head.

“See what?”

Sylvie smiled. “Marge met a lady.”

“What? Where?” Doris swiveled her head around.

“A hot lady!” Marge added.

“Where?” Doris kept sweeping the crowd.

Exhaling a sigh, I shook my head. “The waitress, Doris. Marge and the waitress definitely want to get it on.”

Her mouth dropped open as she struggled for words. “Wait. You mean met a lady?”

Marge waggled her brows and nodded. “Yep. My first lady.”

“Wait. So, you really do think you’re a...” Doris leaned in and whispered, “lesbian?”

“Quit whispering it, Doris! It’s not taboo. It’s lesbian. Lesbian. Lesbian! LESBIAN!” I shouted and grabbed the attention of our entire section of the casino.