Free The Cherry Cola Book Club by Ashton Lee Page B

cells.”
    â€œYou’re too much. But thanks for the vote of confidence on my idea.”
    Next up was Miss Voncille, who seemed to be in an unusually prickly mood. “Do we have to dress up in costume?” she inquired after Maura Beth had explained everything. “What I mean is, if I decide I’m a Scarlett, do I have to rent one of those antebellum dresses complete with hoopskirts? Actually, I suppose I’d have to do the same if I were a Melanie. And my hair isn’t long enough to be done up in ringlets the way they did back then. So that would mean I’d have to buy a wig. I can tell a woman wearing a wig a mile away. And men in bad toupees no matter what the distance.”
    â€œThis isn’t a costume ball, Miss Voncille.”
    â€œThank goodness!”
    â€œSo what’s your verdict?” Maura Beth continued.
    â€œFine with me,” came the reply, though with little enthusiasm. But a sudden infusion of warmth soon followed. “What I’m more excited about is my friendship with Locke Linwood. We’re starting to go out on dinner dates and such. Of course, it’s all very innocent at the moment, you understand, and I’m trying very hard to soften my image on these occasions.”
    â€œThat’s lovely to hear, Miss Voncille. You keep at it. We’ll expect both you and Mr. Linwood at the meeting in your regular clothes and hair.”
    Then it was time to speak with Becca. Seemingly not to be outdone by her unpredictable friends, she offered an off-the-wall proposal once Maura Beth had given her all the facts.
    â€œI think it’s a really cute idea,” she began, “but why don’t we make it even more of a theme than that? Everyone could make up a recipe that they think Scarlett or Melanie might have preferred to make or eat, and we could all compare notes.”
    Maura Beth took a deep breath and tried her best to smile through the phone.
    â€œI’m pretty sure neither Scarlett nor Melanie did much cooking in flush times. And after the Yankees came through and burned up all the crops, recipes were a fond memory for a while. Getting anything at all to eat was the goal. I appreciate your creativity, Becca, but let’s just stick with the personality angle this time around.”
    After they’d hung up, Maura Beth sat frowning at her desk for a few moments. Tricky stuff, this book club business. It was a delicate balancing act once people were in the fold, but it had to be worth the trouble. A kaput library was simply unacceptable.
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    The next day, Maura Beth decided she would keep Councilman Sparks in the loop, too. Of course, he hardly qualified as either a Scarlett or a Melanie. However, she could easily picture him wandering into the library smelling great, looking spiffy, and smiling from ear to ear to perform his irritating kibitzing act with aplomb to throw her off her game. Well, even though there had been no course at LSU in Dealing with Politicians 101, the truth was that she was living it now, like it or not, and there was no better way to learn her lessons than to face the politician in question without fear. Perhaps she could even throw him off his game.
    â€œWe’ll be reading and commenting on Gone with the Wind from a particular perspective,” she began, sitting across from him in his inner office one afternoon. “All our members are women so far, as you know very well from the organizational meeting.” Then she explained the Scarlett versus Melanie theme to him and waited for his response.
    Councilman Sparks took an awkward amount of time before answering while staring her down, but Maura Beth made a concerted effort not to fidget in her seat or otherwise indulge nervous body language. “Are you going to go feminist with this club, Miz Mayhew?”
    â€œI wouldn’t put it that way, no.”
    â€œBecause I was going to say that you might just be ruling out fifty percent of the