Deadly Dosage (21 page)

“I remember this Halloween. I
was Moe with my stupid pageboy haircut, Sunny, you were Shemp with the greasy
hair. We used Vaseline, right?”

“Took a week to wash out,” I
said.

“And Autumn, you were Larry
with the red Shirley Temple curls.”

“Remember what Dad used to say
when he saw us coming,” I said. “That Three Stooges quote.”

     Spring read the caption below the picture: “
The
Stooges have landed and have the situation well in hand!
” She laughed.
“Yeah, I remember that.”

     “We just don’t want you to forget us,” I said.

     “Not going to happen. Ever.” She said and hugged
me. She stood and reached over to hug Autumn.

     “Well, we should head out. Our reservation is for
7:30.”

     “I’ll drive.”

     “No, Sunny. We are taking your sister in style.
Grab your coats and follow me.”

     We took the elevator down and my mom escorted us
to the front lobby. A black limo waited for us.

     “Mom!” Spring shouted.

     We left her building and climbed into the limo.
It was a short drive to the restaurant, but we were told there would be a tour
of the lakefront on our return trip.

     Once at the restaurant, we waited only two
minutes before our table was ready. The restaurant was packed, being a Saturday
night. Just about every table held a well-dressed couple making goo-goo eyes at
each other.

     I knew this outing would be pricey, so I brought
extra cash and my credit card. I was the least successful of my sisters but I
didn’t want to flaunt it.

     Mom ordered her favorite, baked orange roughy
with wild rice. Spring ventured into a lobster salad. Autumn experimented with
a vegetarian stir-fry with almonds and I settled on fried perch with waffle
fries. Looked like I’d be first in line for a stroke.

     For drinks, Mom, after much debate and a little
reassuring from our waiter, selected a chocolate martini. Spring and Autumn
gambled on the house special, Sex on a Beach, and I chose a plain margarita on
the rocks.

     We drank and talked until our meals arrived.

     “Spring, have you decided on when you want to get
married?” asked Autumn.

     She played with her salad and forked a hunk of
lobster. “Soon.” She placed the lobster in her mouth and chewed.

     “You’re not pregnant, are you?”

     Spring choked and swallowed. “No, Mom. Christ. I
just meant there’s no point to a long engagement. I kind of thought it would be
nice if we got married in Las Vegas around your birthday.”

     “Spring! That’s a wonderful idea. Now you’re not
doing this just so I can go to Vegas for my birthday. This should be your
celebration, not mine.”

     “No reason we can’t do both, Mom.”

     “Are dates allowed?” asked Autumn.

     “Duh? It’s a wedding. Bring Alan and Sunny can
bring Sam.”

     Autumn and I exchanged glances.

Spring continued on, “Mom, you
can bring someone if you want, so can Dad. Let me know who else to invite. God
knows Nino’s whole family will show up.”

     She finished her cocktail and signaled to the
waiter, who stopped by on the fly. “Another round of drinks,” she said
decisively.

“Mom, we need to get together
to arrange the travel and hotel accommodations. I thought we could leave early
for your birthday, and have the guys meet up with us the next day.”

“We can do that. Most of the
hotels offer wedding services these days. I’ll just need to know the dates and
the price range.”

     “Sunny, I was hoping you’d be my maid of honor.”

     “Love to. Who’s going to be Nino’s best man?”

     “Aggy. And Autumn, you’ll be standing up with
Leo.”

     “Aggy?” I said in horrid disbelief. I lost my
appetite.

     “You know how close he is to Nino.”

     “Do you hate me? Aggy, Spring? He’s beyond
gross.”

     “You don’t have to kiss him, Sunny,” she said
with irritation. “Just stand next to the guy for the ceremony.”

     “If his fat doesn’t push you out of the way,”
commented Autumn with amusement.

     “Girls. Settle down. This is Spring’s wedding,
Sunny. When you get married, you can have Spring stand up with someone gross.”

     She said it so seriously, that we all laughed.

     “Yeah, okay,” I said. “Autumn, come to the
restroom with me.”

     Autumn got up and left with me. When we were out
of earshot I said, “Can you believe it?”

     “Sorry, Sunny, but I’m not changing places with
you. Aggy is all yours.”

     “Mom doesn’t understand. Aggy’s going to consider
it a date.”

     “Alan and I will protect you,” she smiled.

When we returned, I stopped short of our table,
digging my fingernails into Autumn’s arm.

     “Yaow! What did you do that for?” hollered
Autumn.

     “Sorry. Look who’s heading for our table.”

     “Who?” she questioned.

     “Sam, that’s who! What, does the guy have GPS on
me, or are my phones bugged?”

     “Oh who cares. Calm down.”

     “I swear I’ve seen him more in the last week than
I did when we were dating.”

     We slowly walked back to the table. Sam was
standing near my mom, dressed in his preppy attire of jeans, light sweater, and
blazer. He was charming the hell out of my mother with his dazzling smile and
small talk.

     “Sunny, look who showed up? My, doesn’t he look
handsome, always reminds me of that British actor, Jude Law,” my mom said
beaming. “I was just telling him about the wedding. He said he wouldn’t miss it
for the world.”

     Sam turned his attention to me. He drank me in
from head to foot and I felt my face flush.

“Is that so, Sam,” I said
firmly. “But—”

     “See, Sunny, you were all worried about getting
stuck with Aggy,” Spring interrupted. “Now you can save all your dances for
Sam.”

     “Yes, but Sam might not be able to get off of
work,” I said severely.

     “Nonsense,” he said all smiles. He winked at my
mom. “If she plays her cards right, I might decide to make an honest woman of
her while we’re there.”

     “Wouldn’t that be lovely,” said my mom. Her eyes
cut to Autumn. “Then I just have my little Autumn to worry about.”

     Our mother did not approve of Autumn’s living
arrangement with Alan.

     I coughed. “Well, nice of you to stop by, Sam,
but we don’t want to keep you from your friends.”

     “I suppose that would be rude,” he said sweetly
to everyone.

     He bent down and kissed me deeply, followed by a
short peck on the lips. “Sunny,” he said squeezing my thigh. He stood.
“Ladies.” He gave a small bow and left the way he had come.

     Autumn locked eyes with me. “Bet Sunny could use
a drink to cool off,” she said. “Let’s jump in the limo and get drunk.”

     I knew what she meant. My mom and Spring did not.

     “Yeah, that was some kiss,” Spring said fanning
herself. “Makes me wish Nino was here.”

     “Such a nice young man. You’re lucky Summer.”

     I didn’t feel lucky. I felt ambushed.

During the limo ride, autumn and I knocked back a few
too many glasses of champagne. I soon forgot about Sam and just had fun being
silly. By the end of our joyride, we were all quite drunk and it was a sure
thing, none of us was leaving the condo.

Chapter
29

Sunday,
February 19
^th

Spring passed the bottle of aspirin to me. I took two
and passed it to Autumn. She was on the phone with Alan, explaining why she
hadn’t bothered to call or return home from the party. Mom was in bed sleeping
it off.

     I swallowed the aspirin with a swig of coffee. “I
feel like shit,” I said rubbing my temples.

     “Join the club,” said Spring. “I didn’t think we
drank that much.” She had dark circles under her eyes.

     Autumn clicked her cell phone closed and walked
over. “We did. My mouth feels like a wad of cotton.” She turned on the kitchen
faucet, filled a glass with water, and swallowed her pills. She drained the
remainder of the water, the same way she was chugging champagne the night
before.

     “Alan’s pissed at me.”

     “He’ll get over it,” said Spring.

     “Anyone care for some toast?” I said moving at
the speed of a snail into the kitchen to join Autumn.

     “Sure. Maybe it’ll soak up some of this alcohol,”
replied Spring. “Had to be that champagne.”

     Autumn pulled the bread out of a breadbox on the
counter. “Wheat.”

     “Ugh,” I said. “Better than nothing I suppose.”

     She placed a couple slices in the toaster and I
searched the cabinets for peanut butter and/or jelly. I found neither.

     The toast popped up and Autumn stuck in two more
slices.

     I opened the refrigerator and pulled out a tub of
margarine. “This will have to do.”

     I found a knife and started buttering the toast.
When we had six slices done, I distributed them evenly.

     “More coffee anyone?”

     Autumn and Spring both held out their cups and I
refilled them, along with mine.

     We munched in silence, slurping coffee between
bites.

     “Never again,” said Autumn.

     “At least not until my wedding,” said Spring.

     “Hey, Spring,” I said walking into the living
room with my coffee. I picked up several of the Las Vegas brochures from the
table. “Check these out,” I said walking back to where she was sitting on a
kitchen stool. I handed the brochures to her. “I think Mom has one on every
hotel on the strip.”

     “Thanks.” She browsed through them while she
nibbled on her second slice of toast.

     “Sam looked good last night,” Spring said eyeing
me. “You didn’t seem real happy to see him there.”

     “I wasn’t.” I stated honestly.

     “Why not?” She put down the first brochure and
selected another.

     I sipped more coffee. “If you must know, I broke
it off with him over a week ago.”

     She looked up and frowned. Autumn busied herself
by grabbing some of the brochures.

     “Does he know?” she said smiling.

     “I thought I stated it pretty clearly at the
time.”

     “Want some advice from your older sister,” she
said.

     “Not really.”

     “Boy aren’t you a grouch. We’ll I’m going to give
it to you anyway.”

     I got up and refilled my coffee, putting extra
sugar in it. “Well, go ahead,” I said grimly. I searched the cabinets for some
cookies. None.

“It took me a long time to
find Nino. He’s not perfect and can at times be bossy. Sometimes I think I hate
him but I don’t. It takes two people to make a relationship work. Real love
requires compromise on both ends.”

     “That’s great advice, Spring. And if I’m not
mistaking it, you’re suggesting I hook back up with Sam,” I spit out angrily.

     “Sunny, I’m—”

     I didn’t let her finish. “Sam is a manipulator.
He’s got you and Mom thinking he’s some wonderful prize. He isn’t. Spring, Sam
could charm the habit off a Catholic nun.”

     “Sunny,” she said, her stubborn voice rising.

“Hey,” said Autumn. “Keep it
down, Mom’s sleeping and my head it killing me.”

“Sorry,” we said in unison.

 Softly she finished, “If you
quit running off at the mouth and let me finish what I was saying, I was going
to say you have to follow your heart. Just because he wants you, or you want
him, doesn’t mean you’re right for each other.”

     I uncrossed my arms, walked over, and hugged her.
“You’re right. I’m sorry I jumped at you. I’ve just had a lot going on lately.”

     “Well, okay then,” she said smiling.

     “So let’s decide on a hotel,” I said taking a
brochure. “They all look fantastic.”

     “Nino likes to gamble. Poker. He’s good too.”

     “The Bellagio, Caesars, and Venetian are supposed
to have good poker rooms,” said Autumn.

     “Then again, I don’t want him off playing poker
on our wedding night. Do you think he’d do that?” questioned an anxious Spring.