1520 Main

18

"They've seen him at Kresge's, haven't they?" Marina asked as they headed toward the front doors.

She shrugged. "We both have beaus and our problems didn't get solved."

Marina looked for Trey at the bottom of the long flight of stairs from the front doors of Paseo High School, but he wasn't there. She heaved a sigh.

"Did he get tired of you, Marina?" Ruthie sing-songed in her ear.

"He has a job, Ruthie," Dot sniped. "More than I can say for the dewdroppers in your family."

"You're such a ritz," Ruthie snarled.

"And you're a ritzy burg," Dot returned sweetly.

"Marina!"

Marina's heart stopped and she looked up the street to see Trey waving at her. "Trey!" she yelled back. "Oh, hey, Dot, look!"

But she'd already seen. "Gene!" Dot yelled and waved.

Both men looked like the cat that ate the canary and leaned back against Trey's car, folding their arms over their chests.

Dot stopped cold and looked at Ruthie. "That," she said, "is my beau."

Ruthie sniffed. "He looks Sicilian."

"A very handsome Sicilian. If he were. But he's not. So I guess he's just plain ol' handsome."

Marina snickered.

"C'mon, Marina. We have men waiting for us."

Marina clipped down the stairs with Dot, happy as a lark now that Trey was here. He made everything so much better, and now she was getting impatient with high school and the catty girls and the fawning boys.

"Hellooooo, ladies," Trey said with a wide smile after she and Dot had squeezed their way through the mass of bodies.

"Hi, Trey," Marina chirped.

He took her hand and kissed the back of it with a wink and a sly smile, then leaned down and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Aw, that's cute," Dot gushed. "Hi, Gene."

"You want one too?" he asked with dry amusement.

"Of course!"

"Gene," Marina said, once Gene had planted a kiss on Dot's forehead, too. "Dot has a dance at her church Friday night."

"Marina!" Dot cried.

"That was for his information. Nobody asked him to go. Nope."

Trey started to laugh and Dot lightly slapped her arm. "Augh! You awful girl!"

"I guess I know where you'll be Friday night," Trey drawled.

"I guess you do," Gene returned with a grin. "Good morning, Dot."

"Good morning, Gene," she returned sassily.

"All right, ladies, hop in," Trey said as he went around to open the front door for Marina, and Gene, the back door for Dot. "Time for Kresge's and then it's church for all of us."

• • •

"Would you be allowed to wear a dress Friday if I asked?" Trey asked quietly underneath Dot chattering at an enthralled Gene. "I want to take you to Correggio's for supper and they don't allow women in trousers."

"Perhaps," Marina murmured. "Father likes you, but Mother is more ... She's not— Augh! What am I trying to say? She doesn't like my walking out with you, but it's not you. I don't think. I have never had a beau before and I have tried to explain that I would like to enjoy having one for a while—"