Trouble Down The Road. Bettye Griffin

out of place in that sequined dress.

      As Micheline walked away she hoped Brad got a good look at the smooth skin of her back. Her backless dress took a dip in the center, exposing the skin of her hips just above the split of her buttocks. She chose this dress carefully, wanting the view from the rear to be just as appealing as that from the front. Errol had whistled when she modeled it for him.

      If only he knew.

      Chapter 6

      Flo watched as Ernie danced with a friend of Suzanne’s, a petite brown-skinned woman with a Caribbean accent and a weird name whom she remembered from an earlier party. He really shouldn’t be making those suggestive gyrations with his pelvis, she thought. That would be out of place at such an elegant party, even if he was dancing with her, his wife, instead of a woman he barely knew.

      The party was lovely, but not as much fun as she thought it would be. She noticed people staring at her dress and felt she’d made a terrible mistake in choosing an outfit. Most of the women wore fabrics like chiffon or silk. She remembered shaking her head at a woman at a Valentine’s dance she and Ernie had gone to. The woman clearly thought she was the cutest thing in shoe leather as she strutted her stuff on the dance floor in a red halter dress that made her stomach look like she was expecting a baby—unlikely, given that she was well into middle age. As someone remarked, there was one of them at every affair. Now she was the one being gawked at for a fashion faux pas, and she hated the way it made her feel. She would have gone home and changed clothes, but that would be admitting that she’d made a mistake. That would probably cause more attention than her dress.

      Ernie was no help. Why did he always act like such a flirt whenever he was around the Betancourts’ friends? She suspected he was making a pest of himself.

      Until just a few minutes ago she’d been having a nice conversation with a well-dressed, cultured woman about a decade her senior who said her name was Jean Nelson. Jean seemed to sense Flo’s discomfort and made a point out of trying to put her at ease, something Flo appreciated. Things had been going quite well, but then one of the other women asked if Flo had heard about a mutual acquaintance, some doctor who’d apparently run off with a lab technician much younger than his wife. A funny look crossed Jean’s face, and she quickly excused herself and disappeared. Flo figured the people being gossiped about were friends of Jean’s and she didn’t want to play a role in spreading any further rumors. So now she was alone again.

      Flo tightened her knit shawl around her shoulders. It wasn’t really cool on this May evening, but if her torso was covered, maybe her dress wouldn’t stand out so much.

      Flo knew she wasn’t beautiful. Truth be told, she wasn’t even pretty. Her eyes drooped at the outer corners and her nose was too long. She’d learned to play up her good feature, her skin. Smooth and dark, it had a natural glow that required no foundation to cover imperfections, just a touch of rouge for extra color in her cheeks. People complimented her about it all the time. Ernie had even tried to get her featured on a commercial, but Flo doubted that would happen because her face wouldn’t look attractive enough in ads.

      She had other problems, too. Her legs were more clunky than shapely, and she usually wore Capri pants rather than shorts, and longer skirts than minis, to hide them. Her hair had always been thin and was starting to get thinner. As soon as Ernie got hired to run the hospital’s human resources department, she made an appointment to get a weave, not so much for length, but for fullness. Her bob bounced when she walked, and she’d deliberately had it styled so that it was easy for strands in front to fall into her face. Flo wanted people to focus on her skin and hair rather than her nose and eyes. She liked the idea of hiding behind her hair. If it really got in the way, she just casually brushed it away with her hand, a gesture that made her feel beautiful.

      The one thing that would truly make her feel beautiful would be to have her husband at her side. Flo knew Ernie could come on a bit strong at times, but she loved him tremendously. She was forty-six years old and had been married to Ernie for nearly twenty-five years, more than half her life. He was the man of her dreams, and together they had built a wonderful life, in spite of the hard times of recent years.

      Flo broke out into a broad grin as Gregory approached her. Her son was such a good boy, and handsome, too. She and Ernie weren’t exactly beautiful people, but Mother Nature had been especially kind to Gregory. He’d just graduated from the University of North Florida, majoring in chemical engineering. Gregory would do well in life, much better than she and Ernie. Not that they’d done badly. They were the first in either of the families to own a home. Originally from Boston, they settled here in Jacksonville after Ernie got out of the Navy because they liked the setting and mild climate.

      Flo had been a little upset with her son when he started seeing Paige Betancourt a few weeks ago. Paige was Suzanne’s stepdaughter, and Flo knew that Suzanne hated the living reminder of her husband’s earlier marriage. It looked like history was going to repeat itself, for just as Lisa, Paige’s mother, was better educated and more worldly than Suzanne, Paige had just completed her junior year at the University of North Florida while Kenya was merely a high school graduate, working as a cashier at Winn-Dixie. Of course Paige would be a better choice for Gregory, being a doctor’s daughter and all, but Lisa Canfield had never invited Flo and Ernie to her home and barely showed them any civility. Flo sensed that even if Gregory married Paige, nothing would change.

      Of course, it was way too early to think about marriage. Gregory was only twenty-two and had just graduated from college a few weeks before. The company he’d interned for last summer had hired him as a junior engineer at an excellent salary, quite a coup in this tough economic time. Even if Kenya’s mother, Arlene, only worked for the post office and was a heavy drinker, Kenya claimed a leading radiologist in the area as her brother-in-law, and of course Brad was Paige’s father, so no matter which girl Gregory chose, Flo would have a connection to Brad and Suzanne. Forget about Arlene, and forget about Lisa, too. Brad probably had more money and social connections than Lisa and her stockbroker husband combined. Besides, Flo and Suzanne Betancourt had once been good friends. Maybe they could be again….

      “Hi, Mama,” Gregory said, bending to kiss her cheek.

      “Oh, is this your son?” the woman sitting next to Flo said.

      “Yes. Isn’t he handsome?” she replied proudly.

      “Mama,” Gregory protested.

      The woman laughed before turning her attentions to the person on her other side.

      “Are you having a good time?” Gregory asked.

      “Oh, yes,” she lied. “Suzanne and Brad give such nice parties.”

      “Where’s Daddy?”

      “Oh, he’s circulating,” she said lightly. “You know how your father enjoys being the social butterfly.”

      “Well, since he’s flitting around, how about dancing with your son?”

      “I’d love to.”

      After Flo enjoyed her dance with Gregory, he walked her over to Ernie, who was fixing himself a plate at the beautifully arranged buffet table. “Hey, Daddy, you didn’t forget about Mama, did you? She’s sitting all by herself.”

      “Of course not,” Ernie said defensively. “I just wanted to fix a plate, to help coat my stomach. You should always eat when you’re drinking alcohol.”

      “Well, I’d better get back to Paige.”

      His mother suddenly appeared behind him. “Thanks for the dance, my son,” Flo said warmly, giving his hand an affectionate squeeze.

      “Anytime, Mama.” Gregory raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Uh…Mama, you could probably do with less rings. One on every finger is a bit much, I think.”

      She laughed. “My son, the fashion expert. Run along, now, and don’t worry about me. I know how to accessorize. I’ve been doing it since before you were born.”

      “Flo, you’ve got to taste