Free The Night's Legacy by P.T. Dilloway Page A

size.  She picked up the old pink telephone and dialed the number.  Melanie picked up on the second ring.  “Oh my God, Lois!  How are you?”
    “I’m all right.  Can I ask you for a favor?”
    “Of course!  What are friends for?”
    “I need to borrow a dress.  I’ve got a date at this club—”
    “A date?  I thought you got here yesterday?”
    “Well, yeah.  I met him at this bar last night.  He called earlier and he wants me to meet him at this club, but I don’t really have anything to wear, you know?”
    “I get it.  What’s his name?”
    “Sam,” she said, thinking of the first name to pop in her head other than Tony. 
    “Is he cute?”
    “Totally.”
    Melanie squealed so loud Lois had to hold the receiver away from her ear.  “I think I’ve got a dress that would look totally hot on you.  I’ll bring it over.”
    “Great.  I’ll be on the front porch.  My mom’s sleeping, so we need to keep this on the down low, you know?”
    “I’ll be totally ninja about it.”
    “Thanks.”
    Lois sat on the front porch with a book while she waited for Melanie.  She only had to wait twenty minutes before Melanie came galloping up the front steps, her face red and a garment bag slung over her shoulder.  “This is so exciting!” Melanie whispered.  “I was going to bring some shoes, but then I figured none of my shoes would fit, you know?  My feet are kind of small compared to yours.  Not that yours are huge or anything—”
    “They are pretty big,” Lois said.  She had inherited her mother’s big feet as well as Mom’s red hair and blue eyes.  The rest of her came from someone else, the father whose name she didn’t know.  “Thank you so much for this.”
    “Anything for a friend, you know?”
    Lois gave Melanie a hug and then said, “I’ll give this back to you tomorrow at work, all right?”
    “Sure thing.  Good luck on your date.”  Melanie squealed, but managed to keep the volume down.  “Whatever happens, you totally have to tell me tomorrow, all right?”
    “You’ll be the first to know.”
    She opened the garment bag upstairs.  The dress was bright red and cut so that most of her back was visible.  It was big enough that the skirt went down to her ankles.  A little more modest than she intended, but it would work.  She did what she could with her hair and put on a little makeup.  She didn’t want to put on too much lipstick for when she kissed Tony.
    She stopped in the kitchen to write a note in case Mom woke up during the night.  The note said she had gone out for a drink and would be back in a couple of hours.  That way Mom might not call the cops to have them start looking for her.  With a sigh she left the note on the table and then hurried out the door.
    * * *
    Her cab dropped her off in front of a warehouse with a rusty roof that looked ready to cave in.  The only sign was the faded one for Bernstein & Sons, who had previously owned the warehouse.  This was probably one of the many illicit nightspots in the city that operated without a license and long after legitimate clubs closed. 
    She found Tony sitting on an old crate, smoking a cigarette.  He was dressed similarly to the night before, only with a dark purple shirt, black pants, and no sport coat.  He grinned at her and said, “Someone better tell Mount Olympus there’s a goddess missing.”
    “Nice line.  Where’d you get it from?”
    “Here and there.”
    She did a turn for him.  “You think it’s all right?  I had to borrow it from Melanie.”
    “ Melanie?  You didn’t tell her—?”
    “No, I didn’t tell her it was you.  You take Mom’s no fraternizing policy seriously?”
    “I just don’t want Melanie getting jealous.”
    Lois rubbed up against him, sticking a hand inside his shirt.  “You afraid she’s going to go all Fatal Attraction on you?”
    “I wouldn’t put it past her.  She’s a little messed up in the head.”
    “Seems pretty harmless to