you never mind, honey. So are you going to take my bet or not, Annie?”
Annie eyed her old friend warily. She tried to read something in Myra’s expression but saw nothing to ease her fear that Myra had some kind of secret power that would make fools out of all of them. She had no choice but to take her old friend up on the wager. She tried to work some excitement and jubilation into her voice when she said, “You’re on, Myra!”
Myra laughed, to Annie’s discomfort. “Maybe we’ll be able to take our show on the road. After the recital, of course.”
“Drink your hot chocolate and shut up, Myra, while I try to figure out if you are snookering me somehow to get my great-grandmother’s pearls, which are just as lovely as yours. You just want a matched set,” Annie sniped.
Myra smiled.
The Sisters shivered.
“Let’s talk about something else, ladies,” Nikki, ever the diplomat, said. “Has anyone heard from Lizzie? I wonder how her first four days at the White House are going. We should have heard something by now.”
The others said they hadn’t heard a word from the Silver Fox.
“Maybe Lizzie can’t make personal calls from the White House, or maybe she’s afraid the walls have ears,” Yoko said.
“She’s nine to five. Her nights are her own. She could have called us last night or the night before. But there is Cosmo, so maybe she wants her free time to be with him. The last time I spoke to her, she said he would be here for a week, while, as he put it, she got her feet wet at Sixteen Hundred Pennsylvania Avenue,” Alexis said.
“The New Year started off with a bang in D.C. There is all kinds of stuff going on that the president has to deal with. I guess that means Lizzie has to deal with it, too. Like, for instance, yesterday I saw in the paper online that one of the Supreme Court justices is going to retire when the court goes into recess. Then today the paper said that rumor was false. That’s a whole big megillah for the president. I hope they pick another woman this time if it turns out to be true in the end,” Isabelle said.
“Yesterday I read that President Connor is cleaning house. She’s giving staffers a chance to resign and waiting to see how that offer flies. Wonder what that’s all about,” Nikki said.
“Maggie said when President Connor took office, she listened to the wrong people, and staffers and positions were hired under pressure. She’s going to correct that situation, and Maggie thinks Connor waited until Lizzie was installed as chief White House counsel to do anything. Makes sense to me,” Annie said.
“Well, I’m off to the hot tub,” Nikki said as she got painfully to her feet.
The others quickly rose and, at the last minute, looked at Annie and asked whose turn it was to clean up.
“Myra and I will do it,” said Annie. “Run along, girls, so I can pick Myra’s brain about that wonderful honeymoon she just returned from five days early.”
Myra watched as the Sisters stumbled their way to the door. “What’s wrong with them, Annie?”
Annie sighed. “I might as well tell you, Myra, so you can laugh your head off. We have all been practicing on that…on that damn pole, and none of us have actually mastered it, so you are probably going to win my great-grandmother’s pearls. All of us, me included, are black and blue, and muscles we didn’t even know we had are protesting. That pole seemed like such a wonderful, fun thing. It looked so easy. Trust me when I tell you it was not easy. I have no idea how the women in those clubs do it hour after hour. I’m not kidding you when I tell you it’s killing us. I was wrong, Myra.”
“Then why didn’t you tell the girls you were wrong? Have Charles call…what’s his name…oh, yes, Reggie, to take it out and toss it over the mountain.”
“And admit I was wrong! Is that what you’re saying?”
“Well, yes, Annie, that’s what I’m saying.”
“I was never a quitter,” Annie sniffed. “I’ll do the recital on my own, with or without an audience. If I embarrass myself, it will teach me a lesson when I get another harebrained idea. Can you really work the pole, Myra?”
“I think so. I took that tutorial you gave me and put it inside a book I was reading. Charles didn’t have a clue what I was reading. I memorized it, and every chance I got, I tried it on a tree in the backyard of that house we were staying in. I realize a tree is different from a stripper pole, but I have the…moves down pretty pat. I might be making a fool of myself, too, but you did say we should cut loose and try all these new things. You better not be telling me you were wrong, Annie.”
“You want another brownie, Myra?” Annie said as she shoved a whole square into her own mouth.
“Why not?” Myra said as she reached for the sugary treat. When she finished the brownie, she looked up at Annie and asked, “You want to try the pole this evening or wait for tomorrow?”
“Oh, God, Myra, I don’t have it in me to go at it tonight. Tomorrow will work just fine. Don’t you want to join your new husband?”
“Why? He’s sound asleep in a real bed. Did I ever tell you he sleeps sideways? He does. I have to go to bed first in order to claim my space. I’m probably going to sleep on the couch.”
“No, you never told me that, and again, what’s with all this sharing you’re doing all of a sudden?” Annie grumbled. “I don’t have anything to share, if that’s what you’re hoping.”
“Oh, go to bed, Annie. I’ll finish cleaning up. I want to sit here and think a bit. Something is niggling at me, and I want to try and figure out what it is. It’s good to be home, my friend.”
“Glad to have you back, Myra. Good night. Give Barbara my regards.”
Myra smiled.
Chapter 3
It was twenty minutes past the lunch hour when the bailiff informed Assistant District Attorney Jack Emery that the presiding judge was canceling the afternoon court session. Jack waited a full minute to see if a reason would be given for the cancellation, but none was forthcoming. “What about court tomorrow?” he asked.
“Your office will be notified first thing in the morning.”
Jack shrugged and started to pack up his briefcase, just as the defense attorney from the Prizzi law firm was doing.
“I heard at lunch that the judge’s denture broke, and he hightailed it to the dentist. Don’t count on tomorrow, either,” the other attorney said gleefully.
Jack shrugged again, and since the courtroom was now empty except for him and opposing counsel, Jack turned his cell phone on. It rang almost immediately. He listened to Harry Wong’s excited voice. “You making this up, Harry?” He held the phone away from his ear and said, “Okay, I’m on the way. What? How hard is it snowing? Oh. How many times do I have to tell you there are no windows in the courtrooms here in the courthouse? I’ll pick you up in twenty minutes.”
Outside, it was snowing lightly, the wind gusty as it blew Jack along to the courthouse parking lot, where he spent ten minutes clearing off his windshield
