The Hot Flash Club Read Online Free PDF

been Marilyn’s favorite, and Teddy had seemed very serious about their relationship, but after getting their doctorates, Candy had gone off to work for NASA while Teddy stayed on at MIT.
    After Candy, there hadn’t been anyone long-lasting until Lila. Even so, Teddy was not
repulsive
. He was not
obese
.
    Still, it was possible that Sharon had a point. Marilyn took off her horn-rimmed glasses and chewed on them as she thought. All Teddy’s former girlfriends had been, if not homely, exactly, then certainly dowdy. Marilyn was dowdy herself, as Sharon never failed to remind her, but she couldn’t get her mind to dwell on the mysteries of clothing, hair, and lipstick. Heaven knew that her beloved trilobites, dead in their rock coffins for 500 million years, didn’t know or care what Marilyn looked like as she bent over them, abrading away, with exquisite care, the dust of ages from their long, thin, cockroachlike bodies.
    Marilyn’s fingers twitched, longing to get back to work. She rose and walked through the museum, telling herself to stay on the subject for just a little longer.
    Now: Lila. What was different about her from Teddy’s other girlfriends?
    Most obvious: Lila was really beautiful. Even Marilyn had noticed that. Marilyn looked at the flamenco dancer in Sergeant’s painting and decided that Lila, though fair and petite, had the same flashing intensity. Yes, Lila was glamorous, but so what?
    True, Teddy hadn’t met Lila the same way he’d met his other girlfriends, in a science lab. Where had they met? Marilyn searched her memory. Hadn’t they—oh, yes. She remembered. Lila had tripped and fallen in the Bread & Circuses parking lot. She’d been wearing high heels. One of the heels had snapped off. For a moment she thought she’d broken her ankle. Teddy had been on his way to his car, and he’d seen her fall, and helped her up, and taken her for coffee. They’d liked each other at once and started dating, and now they were engaged.
    Could Lila have targeted Teddy and fallen on purpose?
    That was just ridiculous. She mustn’t let Sharon’s doubts turn her into a suspicious harpy.
    I mean, Marilyn asked herself, how would Lila even know that Teddy was wealthy?
    Well, she answered herself, there was that write-up in the
Boston Globe
.
    Marilyn paused in front of the tapestry hanging across from the steps to the second floor. Medieval, it depicted a rustic village scene, with peasants and farmers and cows and trees, and at the bottom, a pair of rabbits mating. A lusty scene, and lust was good. Certainly she had enjoyed it all those years ago, when she and Theodore had fallen in love. If they no longer felt lust for each other—and Marilyn couldn’t actually remember the last time they’d had intercourse—it could have been years— they always had so much reading piled next to their beds—if they no longer felt lust, they certainly did feel great affection for each other. Marilyn thought she and Theodore had a satisfactory marriage. She’d always assumed the same would be true for Teddy.
    Teddy might not be handsome, but he was brilliant, and kind, and good-natured, and sweet, and often funny. He was her darling son, even if he was twenty-nine years old.
    What if Sharon was right? What if Lila was after Teddy for his money? What if she was marrying him only to divorce him? Oh, what a dreadful thought. Marilyn knew she mustn’t let herself bury her head in the literal sand of her work. Somehow she had to find out about Lila and her family.
    But how?

4
    ALICE
    Alice used to be beautiful, even first thing in the morning, waking up with her cheek creased from the pillow and her hair standing out from her head like a child’s drawing of the rays of the sun. She used to be able to sit naked in the full exposure of sunlight, stretching, yawning, her breasts full and high, her tummy sleek as a silk evening bag, every pocket of her body as glistening and fresh as a spring morning.
    Knowing this had given