Page 18 of Ticket Out

Or maybe she didn’t spend enough.

chapternine

There wasa small crowd gathered near the entrance to Dance-A-Go-Go, but they were smoking, not waiting in line.

Liz stood to one side, sucking on a cigarette, and she gave Gabriella a wave as she approached. “You look smashing.”

“So do you.” Gabriella took in the short blue satin dress and white knee-high boots Liz was wearing. She felt a pale shadow in comparison, in her dark green drop-waisted dress with its prim white collar.

“Come on, then.” Liz hooked her arm through Gabriella’s and pulled her toward the door.

Once they were through, Gabriella saw a counter where people could leave their coats, although on such a warm evening, she hadn’t needed one.

Two bouncers stood near the door, and one turned to her as they entered.

She recognized him immediately as one of Solomon’s friends from the Calypso Club. Melvin.

He was wearing a maroon suit with the arms and chest stretched tight over his muscles—by far the most formal she had ever seen him dressed. He gave her a nod, and she nodded back.

His partner—who looked like a former boxer, complete with crooked nose and scarring on his cheeks—noticed the exchange. He bent closer to Melvin, and they exchanged a quick word. The boxer ran a hand over his dirty blond hair, which lay slick against his skull, flicked her a quick look, and then turned to the next person who came in.

She and Liz reached the edge of the dance floor. There was a crowd, all dancing, and Gabriella had to admit the sight of it cheered her up.

“I love this song!” Oblivious to the little exchange between the bouncers, Liz dragged her deeper into the room, where the buzz of conversation was drowned out by the sound of Lesley Gore singing she would cry if she wanted to.

Liz went straight to the dance floor and flung herself into dancing.

Gabriella followed after her, taking the time to get the lay of the land. It was her first time in the club, but Liz was a regular.

A few people called a hello to her friend, and she gave a cheerful greeting in return. Her blond hair was in a jaunty pony tail on top of her head, and she made it swing from side to side as she did the twist.

With a laugh, Gabriella hitched her handbag a little higher on her shoulder and joined in. A few men wandered over, and Liz clearly knew them, making room for them to dance.

Later, the two of them settled in to a small table near the bar, both sipping their shandies.

“Some of the fellas are all right, aren’t they?” Liz said. “I like Luke, he’s the one in the white trousers.”

Luke had danced with them a few times through the evening, but Gabriella thought he was less interested in Liz than she was in him.

“Ooh. I like that girl’s dress.” Liz nodded over to the bar, and Gabriella turned in her chair to look.

It was the shop girl from The Cat’s Meow. Patty, the gallery owner had called her. She was wearing one of the gorgeous dresses that Gabriella had admired in the window—a white sleeveless dress with a black stripe down the front and another across the hips.

“It’s from a boutique on my rounds,” Gabriella said. “I’ve admired it a few times on my way past.” She watched Patty order a drink and then sip it while she stood near the bar, facing the dance floor.

She looked as if she was waiting for someone, or looking for them in the crowd, brushing off a few men who sidled up to her, asking her to dance.

Her strawberry blonde hair was cut short and curled up around her ears, and her earrings dangled almost to her shoulders, balls of alternating black and white.

She turned suddenly, and Gabriella saw a man had come up behind her. It was hard to get a good look at him in the dodgy lighting of the club, but she thought he looked like the driver who’d been parked in the gallery loading zone, delivering paintings.

They disappeared off together.

Gabriella finished her shandy and allowed Liz to persuade her to dance some more, but as the night had gone on, she had the sense some of the dancers around her were less and less inhibited. The mood had turned strange. Not violent, but frenetic.

She realized she was done.

The club was stuffy, the music over-loud, and the crowd had swelled considerably, making it hard to dance.

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