Barbara Levenson - Mary Magruder Katz 03 - Outrageous October Read Online Free Page A

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    I sped up again still wondering why my parents had sold the old place when Dad and Uncle Max sold Katz Kosher Super Market that my grandfather started.. Now they lived seventy miles away in a gated community with a golf course and clubhouse, amid a sea of cloned houses lacking even a modicum of the character of our old place that met its demise with a few scoops of a bulldozer.
    Lucy’s house is one of the old Spanish style original Miami Beach homes. It is warm and inviting, like stepping back in time; especially since Lucy has a few pieces of furniture that were her mother’s.
    Lucy was waiting for her neighbor’s daughter to arrive to babysit. She had poured two glasses of wine. We sat in the family room while the two older boys watched TV and Lucy’s ten month old daughter slept in her playpen.
    “Where do you want to go for dinner?” I asked. I really felt hungry.
    “I made a reservation for seven-thirty at Tony’s Fish House. It’s sort of new and it has a water view. It’s in the Majestic Condo building.
    “I know that building. Carlos built it right before I met him.”
    We finished our wine just as the babysitter arrived. Lucy said she was fifteen, but she looked more like twenty-five, wearing a figure revealing dress that appeared to be made out of spandex.
    We piled into the Explorer and pulled into the condo building in a matter of minutes. Valet parking was jammed, cars lined up two deep. I waited in line and finally inched up to the attendant. “Look at that parking attendant who just jumped into that Corvette. He’s driving off like he’s at the Homestead Speedway,” Lucy said pointing out the window.
    “That’s a car just like Carlos’s. He’d kill someone that drove his car like that,” I said.
    We went up the elevator to the seventh floor and made our way to the restaurant. It smelled delicious. Lucy gave the hostess her name and we waited to be seated. The hostess was dressed in a spandex dress much like the babysitter’s. I felt out of style in my staid courtroom attire.
    The hostess returned to her podium after checking out the available tables. “This way, please,” she said as she led us through the aisles of tables.
    “Right here please,” she said as she pointed to a small empty table adjoining several other tables.
    “We’ll never be able to have a conversation here,” I said “The noise level is awful.”
    I glanced around and spotted a booth across the aisle. The banquettes had high backs. Why can’t we have that booth? I’m sure it’s less noisy.”
    “That booth is occupied. This is the only table available right now,” the hostess answered.
    “No, it’s not occupied. I moved to the side of the booth and that’s when my heart stopped beating. I clutched Lucy’s arm to steady myself. The noisy room spun for a minute.
    “What’s wrong, Mary? Are you ill?” Lucy put her hand on my shoulder. Then she saw what I saw and her only comment was, “Oh no.”
    “We won’t be staying.” I said as I moved back through the maze of tables to the entrance, to the elevator, and away from the moment I felt my heart break.

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    CHAPTER
    EIGHT
    Outside the breeze from the ocean swept away the sticky feeling from my face, but the picture of the occupants of that booth couldn’t be moved by the breeze. The picture of Carlos and his ex-wife, Margarita, half hidden in that cozy booth was indelibly painted in my brain. My eyes were filled with that image even as the first of many tears rained down from it.
    I moved at a run through the front portico of the building. Lucy raced behind me trying to keep up. My car was still in front. I threw a ten dollar bill at the attendant and jumped into the driver’s seat. Lucy barely had time to close the passenger door as I hit the gas and roared away from the building and the dinner that changed my life..
    I drove along the ocean instead of turning back toward Lucy’s house. I opened the windows and felt the wind filling the car,