“Young lady!” the man said, astonished. “Were you invited to this?”
“Oooh yes,” she squealed. “I am zee wife of a very powerful man.”
“Who?” the man bellowed. He was trying to get her off his lap.
“Zere he is.”
J.T. had been watching this with amusement, having no idea who the woman was.
“Oh my God,” he said when he realized it was Aria. He bounded across the room and pulled her off the lieutenant commander’s lap.
“I’m very sorry for this, sir,” J.T. said. “I had no idea she…I mean, sir…”
“You seem to like women in red,” Aria said so only he could hear, “so I wore red. Maybe this red is dyed with the same dye she uses on her hair.” She turned to the crowd. “He ees so forceful, no? So…” She rolled her eyes then stuck her rear end out, baring one leg to her hip, and moved her bottom down J.T.’s leg. “Ooooh,” she squealed.
“Lieutenant Montgomery!” an admiral shouted.
“Yes sir,” J.T. said weakly.
“Oh, but I want so bad to meet hees mother,” Aria said petulantly. She broke away from J.T. and undulated over to a captain. “Men can be so cruel, do you not think?”
“I am Jarl’s mother,” said someone behind her.
Aria turned and her face fell. It was the woman from the rest room. “Oh my God,” she said, for the first time in her life using the Lord’s name in vain. “I…I…” she sputtered. I want to die, she thought. Please, God, strike me dead now.
Mrs. Montgomery leaned forward to kiss Aria’s cheek. ?
?Don’t give up now,” she whispered. She turned to the others. “My daughter-in-law and I are going to sing you a song. Jarl, loan me your pocket knife.”
“Mother, I’m going to take the two of you home.”
“Yes, Lieutenant, I think that would be wise, and tomorrow morning I want you in my office,” said an admiral.
“Yes sir.” J.T. saluted smartly and took Aria’s arm firmly.
“Coward!” said Mrs. Montgomery to Aria as she was pulled past.
Aria jerked away from J.T. “He is a tyrant, no?” she said loudly. “He makes me to clean the dishes, to scrub the floors, to wash his back, but he never lets me to sing.”
Several people laughed.
“Let her sing,” called someone from the back.
“Yes, do let her sing,” said the admiral’s wife.
“Your knife, Jarl,” said Mrs. Montgomery. She took his knife and slit the skirt of that divinely beautiful and very expensive dress to above her knee, exposing a shapely leg. She took three huge red hibiscus from a table decoration and tucked them in her hair.
“Tell the band to play ‘Tico-Tico,’ ” she told J.T.
Aria and her mother-in-law put on an extraordinarily good performance in spite of the fact that they had never rehearsed. They played well off one another because neither was afraid of an audience. Aria had a repertoire of sexy moves she had seen Carmen Miranda do, but Mrs. Montgomery had the lifelong experience of being a sexy woman. They began to play a game of who-can-top-this? If Aria moved one way, Mrs. Montgomery moved another. They passed the song back and forth, moving their shapely bodies to the music. The band began to participate with drum rolls and long instrumental sections. All Aria’s years of dancing lessons paid off.
When at last the song ended with the two women with their arms around each other, the applause was thunderous and many flashbulbs went off. After many bows they made their way to the rest room.
“Can you ever forgive me?” Aria said to Mrs. Montgomery as soon as the door closed. Dolly was waiting for them. “I had no idea you were…Lieutenant Montgomery said you were…Oh, I am so sorry.”
“I haven’t had so much fun in years.”
“You’ll come home with us now?”