Speak Low by Melanie Harlow

town—he’s the one who told me it could be too dangerous for you to stay.” That was true, at least.
    Molly narrowed her eyes. “Men will say anything they have to in order to get what they want, and they usually just want one thing. S-E-X.”
    “Jesus, Molly. Where do you hear this stuff?”
    She rolled her eyes—now that I was used to. “I’m nearly sixteen, I don’t have to hear it from anyone. It’s obvious.”
    “Well, good. Then that’s one lesson I don’t need to teach you. But as for me, I’m old enough and smart enough to handle myself, thank you very much.” I drew myself up to my full height, but I was still shorter than she was by two inches. “Now. I’ve got a proposition for you. If you help me find something to wear and agree to watch Mary Grace tonight, I’ll give you two extra dollars this week and let you go to the movies tomorrow night without her.”
    She considered it. “And an hour later for my curfew.”
    “Half hour. I already extended it to ten thirty, remember?”
    “You also already agreed to give me two more dollars for helping with laundry and cooking, which I’ve been doing this week.”
    That was true. I hadn’t eaten much this week, but Molly had made four suppers that looked and tasted much better than my usual underdone scrambled eggs and overdone bacon. “Three dollars, then.”
    “Deal.” She grinned. “Now let’s go upstairs and look at our closets, I might even have something you could borrow for tonight—I saved some money this spring and bought a dress I never told you about.”
    “Why?” I followed her up the stairs.
    “Because it’s short. And satin. And Rosie told me not to show it to you because you’d never let me wear it.”
    I stopped halfway up the staircase. Rosie was Evelyn’s twin sister, although they looked nothing alike and had opposite personalities. When angel-faced Rosie wasn’t breaking hearts or gossiping, she worked at J.L. Hudson’s department store. “You went shopping downtown by yourself?”
    Molly looked at me over her shoulder. “For heaven’s sake, Tiny. A girl’s gotta live a little, you know? And I’m not a kid anymore.”
    I blinked in surprise, and then nodded. “I’m counting on that.”
    #
    At nine on the dot, Ted opened the door to the back seat of his car, and I climbed in next to a young man I’d never seen before. I was about to introduce myself when Evelyn let out a wolf whistle from the front.
    “Jezebel!” she cried. “Look at you in that dress, Tiny!”
    Settling in, I tried to arrange the ivory satin skirt so that it covered more of my legs. “It’s Molly’s. I borrowed it.”
    “Molly’s? Your father lets her wear that? It almost looks like a nightgown!” Evelyn couldn’t keep the shock from her voice.
    “I doubt he’s seen her in it. He’s not around much.” Her comments in front of the men annoyed me a bit, but I could see why she was stunned. The dress did look a bit like lingerie, with thin straps over my shoulders and a low square neck. It probably didn’t show as much of Molly’s chest as it did mine since she was taller and bigger than I was, but Evelyn’s eyes were glued to the lace-trimmed bodice of the dress.
    “And where did you get that?” she squeaked, pointing at the choker I wore around my neck. She looked at my hair, which I’d curled and styled, the black and silver headband Molly had lent me—also purchased on the sly—and my red lips. “Gee whiz, Tiny, you look like another person! I’d hardly recognize you as the girl I once knew.” She laughed, but I couldn’t help thinking she was right.
    “It’s 1923, Evvy.” I took a cigarette from my little mesh evening bag. “And I’ve discovered I like living dangerously.”
    The young man next to me quickly offered to light my smoke.
    On the way downtown Evelyn introduced me to Ted’s friend Walter Lewis, my companion in the back seat. He was friendly and attractive in an Ivy League sort of way, with his