Leading Lady

CHAPTER 9

"Darling what's wrong?" Jackson stood from his chair. Clarice was gasping and coughing, fanning herself with her shaky hands.

"Water, water," she said, gasping for air. Jackson quickly grabbed one of the glasses of water and helped his wife take several sips.

"What on earth happened?" he asked again. Clarice's eyes were watery, and she looked over at the waitress angrily.

"There was alcohol in my drink," she stood from her chair, still shaking. "They gave me alcohol..."

"What," Jackson said with surprise, his eyes then burned with anger. "Wait here."

"I need to get home... Jackson I want to get out of here, quick," Clarice choked out, fighting back tears.

"We must be going now," Jackson said to his friends at the table as he put an arm around his wife and helped her towards the exit. Lucille and Stanley turned back to see what was going on. Lucille quickly made her way to Jackson and Clarice.

"Hey is everything ok?" Lucille asked with false concern.

"No, everything is not ok," Jackson answered icily, stopping to turn to Lucille. "That one waitress, with the red hair brought over the wrong order."

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry to hear that, I will go and talk to her," Lucille said with a bright smile, pretending to be totally clueless, "But surely that shouldn't be a reason to leave so early."

"Lucile that girl gave my wife an alcoholic beverage," Jackson said through clenched teeth.

"Is that so bad? We all need to have a little fun sometimes," Lucille laughed, catching a quick glance at Clarice's distraught face – she was really looking bad.

Jackson leaned in close to Lucille, "Lucille my wife has had issues with alcohol in the past, if you understand what I mean."

Lucille dropped the smile and looked at his wife, who was pulling on Jackson's arm, now in tears.

"Oh my God how terrible of me," Lucille feigned a gasp and went to Clarice. "I will ask that girl to leave immediately. This was all a horrible mistake but please stay.

"No, I can't," Clarice muttered wiping at her eyes and pulling Jackson again.

"I'll see you tomorrow, we must get going," Jackson said to Lucille and disappeared with his wife. Lucille turned away and her eyes met with Stanley's across the room. She grinned and winked at him.

"Hey beautiful," a voice said from behind. Lucille turned and saw Cliff smiling at her. She sighed with a grin and snuggled herself in his arms. "Is everything ok?"

"One of the girls served alcohol to Clarice."

"Oh no, that's horrible."

Lucille looked up at him, "You know about her little problem?"

"Who doesn't? It's pretty well known in the business that Clarice has had a very rough past getting over her addiction."

"Well the girl that brought her the drink certainly didn't know," Lucille said with a calm and casual tone before she smiled at him. "Anyway, let us dance. Maybe you'll be able to tell me a little more about the Baez's. Things like Clarice's alcohol addiction. Stuff like that; after all, these are things I should know for future reference."

"What do you mean? You didn't know?"

"I just found out tonight when Jackson told me. I need to know these things. That way I won't make a fool of myself in the future. You know how gullible I can be."