Wild Child Read Online Free Page A

interrupting my thoughts.
    I giggle.  “Well, not all of it.”
    She looks at me from the corner of her narrowed eyes and I smile as angelically as someone like me can smile.
    A chime sounds as we walk through the door.  A short, olive-skinned, small-framed guy dressed in full drag—and I mean full drag— greets us from near the cash register.
    “Welcome, ladies,” he says with something similar to a lisp.
    His clothes are girly enough—pink sequined mini dress, black feather boa, black fishnets, pink polka dot platforms—and the silky, straight pink wig even matches.  But it’s the flat masculine nipples visible above the plunging neckline of the dress that gives the clerk’s gender away.  That and the bulge about six inches below his navel.
    “I’m Loretta.  Can I help you find something?”
    Loretta?
    What I’d thought was a female smoker’s voice over the phone was apparently…not.  Loretta is a man.
    “I’m Jenna. I called a few days ago about some coordinating costumes.”
    Loretta throws his hands in the air and his mouth forms an O of excitement.  “Oh, girl!  I’ve been waiting for you.  I can’t wait for you to see what I got in for the guys.”
    Platforms and all, Loretta races toward me and takes me by the hand to start towing me toward the back of the shop.  Quickly, I reach out and grab Cami’s wrist.  If I go, she goes.
    The back wall of the store is lined with rows and rows of rolling metal racks.  Loretta doesn’t stop until we are in the far right, rear corner facing a rack parked under a sign that reads Theopolis.  
    “I already pulled aside two or three different sizes in all the costumes you asked for.  I brought ‘em back here with the ladies’, just to keep ‘em straight.  It’s the only thing I like straight,” he says with a wink and an elbow to my ribs.  “They start at large and go through two X.  I know how big these corn-fed country boys can be.”  He waggles his eyebrows comically and delicately slaps my shoulder.  I laugh outright. 
    “Well you know your men,” I say, stating the obvious.  “Most of the ones coming in are pretty husky.”
    “Mmm, I love me some husky,” Loretta says with a wicked grin.  “Now which one of you gets what outfit?  Wait!  Don’t tell me.  Let me guess.”
    Like the expert that he obviously is, Loretta describes exactly what I had envisioned us wearing. 
    “Damn, Loretta, you’re good!” I say in awe.
    “Girl, I own a costume shop. I’ve got an eye for the inner beast,” he says confidently.
    “Well, two of the guys should be here in a few minutes. They’re the two that are giving us the most trouble about the costumes.  You know how pig-headed men can be…”
    Loretta rolls his eyes.  “Mmm mmm, don’t I know it?”
    “So we’ve decided to put on a little show for them so that maybe they’ll be a little more…agreeable.”
    Loretta’s eyes light up.  “Oh, a costume montage?  Sign me up!”
    “I was thinking something a little more…private.”
    Loretta smiles.  “Not that I don’t appreciate what you’re thinking, but this is a public business.”
    “Oh, not that private.  I was just thinking maybe put on a little show for the boys.  You know, get them a little more excited about dressing up.  And seeing us all dressed up.”
    “Ohhh, I see where you’re going.  Start the engines up.  Get the appetite going.  Girl, I like where you’re head’s at. And I think the dressing rooms in back will work just fine.”
    I hear the chime of the front door and my pulse skips.  That has to be them.
    Loretta yips in excitement.  “That must be them.  You girls go on back,” he says, pointing to a curtained door.  “There are two separate rooms you can use for fitting.  Ms. Theopolis, you go left.  Honey, you go right,” he says, speaking to Cami.  “I’ll roll the whole cart back there when I show your guests to you.”  His eyes are bright and sparkling.  It’s