Scrumptious by Amanda Usen Page A

slid over her lap, letting him drag her up the steps and through the door her mom was holding open for them.
    Marlene unhooked Sam’s leash before she embraced her mother. As usual, her mom looked like she had just stepped out of a beauty salon. She probably had, of course; she often worked late at the beauty shop. Her mother practiced her art as assiduously on herself as she did on her clients, and it showed. Her fair skin glowed. Her fashionably straight blond hair, cut with careful layers to frame her delicate features, fell in a smooth sheet to the tops of her shoulders, and she was wearing fresh lip gloss in a peachy shade that complimented her skin tone perfectly. Her blue eyes were accented by a bold slash of metallic green.
    Marlene always felt a bit rough standing next to her, as if she could never quite remove the film of grease the restaurant left on her skin or repair the damage that working with her hands did to her nails. Automatically, she reached up to try to smooth her curls, which were even wilder than usual because of her recent soak in the bathtub. Her mother drew her into the kitchen for the meet and greet with the boyfriend, and Marly braced herself, preparing to be cordial but not too friendly to a man who didn’t know that he wouldn’t be around for very long.
    The sight that met her eyes disarmed her completely. Her mother’s new boyfriend was sitting on the kitchen floor, allowing Samson to lick his cheeks. “That’s a good boy. You’re a friendly little fellow, aren’t you?” He grinned at the dog, almost caught a tongue in the mouth, and then laughed, noticing them in the doorway. He gave Sam a final pat and stood.
    “I’m Richard Stone. You must be Marlene.” She took the hand he offered and returned his smile. He was a few inches taller than she was, so that put him over six feet, and he was handsome, as all her mother’s husbands had been. He was dressed in tan shorts and a sports shirt, and he looked smart and steady enough to hold down a job, which set him apart from her mother’s ex-husbands. Well, excluding her father, who was a food broker, but his desertion put him in the same deadbeat category as the rest of them.
    Richard slung an easy arm around her mother’s shoulders and leaned down to kiss her cheek. “I’m off then. I don’t need any highlights.” He fluffed his receding hairline. “It might make the rest of my hair fall out. Have a good time, girls. Nice to meet you, Marlene.” He gave her a friendly nod, her mother an even friendlier kiss, then left by the back door.
    “He’s…different,” Marlene ventured when she heard his car start.
    Her mom’s laugh was a happy trill. “Yes, he certainly is. You know, I think he just might be — ”
    “The one?” Marlene suggested with a sigh, as her weariness returned. They were all the one.
    “Don’t look at me in that tone of voice, Marlene. At least I try. You gotta be in it to win it, babe.”
    “I know, I know.” Her mom believed that happiness was a steady man, any steady man, and she was mercifully unaware of the ever-changing parade of men that circled her daughter. Occasionally, Marly would tell her about one random guy in order to pacify her. It was easier to recall exactly whom her mother thought she was dating than it was to tell her perpetually optimistic mother that she didn’t believe in love. Actually, they shared the same dating philosophy. There was always a next guy on the horizon for them, but Marlene wasn’t going to marry any of them.
    She pulled her hair down from its twist. “Speaking of which, I turned down a poker game to take you up on your offer tonight.”
    “What was the buy-in?” her mom asked with a sly smile.
    “Hundred bucks. We can probably still get in if you’re interested,” she offered. It would be fun to play with her mom, even if she lost her money. Her mother had taught her everything she knew about Texas hold ’em, the sole legacy of stepfather number two,