Charm School After Dark: Lesson 1 by Lynn Carmer

I might have gotten mixed up,” Dacey said on a laugh, all the while dodging the peanuts Caelen started beaning at her head.
    “You know I like to have the correct ensemble for every occasion. I’m sticking out like a prostitute in church.”
    All four sisters cracked up because it was one of the only crude things they’d ever heard Ms. Belle say. So, of course, they’d used the expression at every opportunity since the eighth grade.
    Brynn intervened by taking the bowl out of Caelen’s hands. “You look gorgeous, no matter what you wear.”
    “So true, so true. I suppose, it’s my inner beauty that shines through no matter the occasion.” She almost pulled off the haughty air until she snorted and covered her mouth with her hand. Damn snort!
    “What are we drinking?” Athena asked, and Caelen cast her a surprised glance.
    “Since when did you start drinking?” Caelen asked.
    “About a month ago,” Athena said as she raised her hand toward the bartender. The place was starting to fill up, quick.
    “What happened a month ago?”
    “We’ll talk about that as soon as you spill about what happened with your job,” her sister answered as she popped a peanut in her mouth.
    Touché. “All righty, then. I will have a white wine, please.” Guess she wasn’t the only one with secrets. Caelen glanced at her sisters with a worried frown. Come to think of it, Athena hadn’t said a word about her husband, Jake, since she’d seen her. But that was crazy. Athena and Jake had been joined at the hip since high school. Hopefully, she wasn’t projecting her own issues onto her sister.
    Brynn and Dacey started looking at all the fruity specials while the bartender waited impatiently.
    “You guys are taking too long. Four beers. Whatever’s on tap,” Athena stated with a wave of her hand.
    All three sisters groaned. Athena was a notorious cheapskate, and she had absolutely no patience.
    “I, literally, just asked for a glass of wine.”
    “Athena,” Dacey complained.
    Athena shrugged, unconcerned. Caelen plopped down onto the closest barstools. “I’m surprised she even asked what we wanted. You know how she is.” She gave the stool an experimental twirl. “I can’t remember the last time I chugged a brewsky.”
    The bartender passed around four giant mugs of beer while Caelen said, “All right. Time to talk turkey. Are we really going through with this?”
    Brynn looked hesitant, Athena acted annoyed, and Dacey remained distracted. Par for the course with this group.
    “Maybe we should sell. It’s not as if any of us are in serious relationships right now. How are we going to pull this off?” Dacey asked.
    “Well, none of us except Athena. Maybe she should teach first, and that would buy us some time before we decided if we wanted to keep the school or not,” Brynn said. She took a sip of her drink.
    Athena choked on the latest handful of peanuts, and all three sisters waited as she chugged down some beer, clearing her throat. “I am not going first. I’m ready to sell. Ms. Belle couldn’t have really expected us to pull this off.”
    “You’re ready to welsh on Ms. Belle’s dying request? You, Baby A, have some big balls if you want to mess with karma like that,” Dacey said as she pushed the mass of blond-brown curls out of her face. “Biga, spicey meat-a ball-sized baaalls,” Dacey said in her best – which was the worst – Italian accent.
    Dacey had Athena by the spicy meatballs on that one. One thing they all knew how to do with each other was push buttons. They were all aware of how spiritual Athena was. She believed in karma big time .
    “All right, all right. We don’t sell. But can we at least have someone else run the classes? I mean, some of those categories…”
    “I have them right here.” Dacey rooted around in her purse and pulled out the old-fashioned, tin box, perfect for holding index cards—or in Ms. Belle’s case, sexually explicit and graphic index cards.
    “Want