Love vs The Ooze Monster! (Frightful Loves) by Cassandra Gannon

Author:Cassandra Gannon [Gannon, Cassandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Star Turtle Publishing
Published: 2023-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Stuck with a real alarm clock: (1920s slang) Unable to shake the annoying chaperone ruining your fun

It had been a mistake to invite such an alarm clock to the picture show.

When Dave failed to show up for their date, Frances had been mad enough to make the rash choice of inviting Mrs. Patten along in his place. She’d wanted to see the new Rudolph Valentino film again and she wasn’t going to let some louse standing her up get in the way. About ten minutes after she made that impetuous decision, she’d regretted it.

Mrs. Patten was about as much fun as a dripping wet blanket suffocating your face.

The landlady didn’t like the “rowdy” crowd at the theater. Didn’t like “risking her life and good name” by being out after six pm. Didn’t like Rudolph Valentino, because he was “obviously foreign.” Didn’t like how “arctic cold” it was with her sweater off or how “stifling hot” it was, once she put it on. And she especially didn’t like Frances flirting with the “hooligan” at the ticket counter. Her dramatic sighs and disapproving tsks had put a real damper on Frances efforts to replace Dave with someone more reliable.

All in all, the old lady was a real pill.

They left the theater early, just so Frances could end the outing as quickly as possible. The sooner she escaped Mrs. Patten, and the rigid boardinghouse, and this whole crappy town the better. She was meant for things much bigger than Volstead. Hollywood called her. Frances could be a star. She would be a star. She knew it.

Unfortunately, she was also broke.

Frances had her eyes set on the future, though. It was why she’d snuck into Norris’ room the moment she learned he’d been killed by some gun-wielding vampire in the mortuary. She was no dummy. She knew what was really happening around the boardinghouse.

Frances knew Norris was bootlegging subpar moonshine, in between his crossword puzzles. He’d always wanted to be notorious and exciting, but even as a criminal he was dull. He couldn’t even do anything interesting with his money! He just rolled it up and stuck it in a drawer.

She knew Mabel was secretly fucking her handsome boss. She had to be. Who could really blame her, though? The man was gorgeous and had a wicked smile any smart girl would fall for. Frances had no idea why Boyd Cassiday was wasting his time with some prissy old maid, when a soon-to-be-movie star was right there in front of him. Men could be so dumb.

And she knew everything about Mrs. Patten. Sneaking around was one of Frances’ particular skills. She was a born audience, always watching and listening to the stories playing out around her. Mrs. Patten wasn’t nearly as clever as she thought she was.

That was the other reason Frances had invited the old lady to the movies. Because, even Norris’ ill-gotten savings weren’t going to be enough to establish her in Hollywood. She needed more. Lots more. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to grab for it.

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