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  Simone drank some of her water. “Oh, and by the way, it was very nice meeting your family yesterday. They all seemed so nice.”

  “They were glad to meet you as well, and yes, they’re the best and beyond supportive. My husband supports my writing career over and above anything I could ever ask for, and so do my parents and my sister. All four of them are my best friends in the world, and I can’t imagine having a life without them.”

  “That’s wonderful.”

  “What about your family? Are you close to your parents?”

  “Not really, but only because a few years ago they moved to California and I don’t get out there very often. I try to go at least once or twice a year, but sometimes I don’t get to.”

  “I’m really sorry to hear that.”

  “But don’t get me wrong,” she hurried to add, “I love my mom and grandmother with all my heart. I grew up with nothing and sometimes I went to bed hungry, but they did the best they could. They’re also both very strong, devout Christian women, so even with me growing up on welfare, they were still good role models. They were also very loving and caring.”

  “The way our parents treat us is the most important thing, anyway. Money and success are great, but our emotional well-being is what really counts. Being loved and cared for helps us to become the best we can be.”

  “I agree” was all Simone said, knowing that she’d just lied about almost everything. She had told the truth about growing up poor, but there was no way she was going to tell Traci that her mother and grandmother lived right there in the Midwest, that her mother was strung out on drugs and her grandmother cursed worse than ten sailors. She certainly wasn’t going to admit that she consistently went out of her way to avoid them and never saw them under any circumstances; not when she could already tell how close Traci was with her own family.

  “So what do you do at the insurance company you work for?” Traci asked.

  “I’m a claims manager,” Simone said. This wasn’t true, either, but having the title claims manager versus claims specialist sounded much better to her, and with all the training she sometimes did for incoming employees, she felt as though she had a staff of people reporting to her, anyway.

  “Do you like it?”

  “For the most part, but my goal is to become a full-time writer.”

  “I hear you. I remember feeling the same way when I was working my day job. I worked at a bank as a branch manager for years. I loved what I did, but in my heart I knew my passion was writing.”

  “It’s hard not being able to do what you love all the time. I struggle with that every day.”

  “I can imagine, but it won’t always be this way. You’ll find an agent and get published, and your book will do very well. And then you’ll write and sell your next book or maybe two or more of them at the same time. You just have to hang in there and keep your faith strong.”

  “I really hope you’re right.”

  “I am. You’ll see.”

  Simone loved how positive Traci was and how she genuinely wanted her to be successful. She had an amazing spirit and noticeable confidence, and she cared about more than just herself.

  They chatted until their meals arrived, and when they finished, their waitress brought their bill. Traci pulled out her credit card.

  But Simone stopped her. “How much is it?”

  “I’ve got it. My treat.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely. I’m just glad we could do this.”

  “Thank you so much, Traci.”

  “Anytime,” she said, looking at her watch. “Wow, it’s earlier than I thought, so I think I’ll head across the street to the mall. I need to pick up a couple of makeup items.”

  “I wouldn’t mind browsing around as well if that’s okay.”

  “Of course. Shopping is always a lot more fun when you can do it with a friend.”

  Simone smiled, but not because Traci was fine with her going to the mall with her. She was excited because Traci had finally said the word friend. Simone already considered them to be friends, but now Traci had confirmed that she felt the same way. So life was good.

  Actually, it couldn’t have been better.

  Chapter 10

  After Traci purchased the same brand of eyeliner and mascara she’d used for the last ten years, she and Simone moseyed over to the shoe department. They hadn’t browsed a full minute before Traci saw a pair of flat rhinestone sandals she loved.

  “Aren’t these cute?” she said to Simone. “And so unique.”

  “They really are.”

  Traci examined them, top, side, and bottom, and then looked at the price. “They’re not on sale, but I still think one of my Macy’s coupons will work on these.”

  Simone moved closer to the next table and picked up another pair.

  Traci walked toward the checkout counter, where a saleslady was standing. “Hi. Can you check to see if you have these in a ten?”

  “Sure,” the young woman told her. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Thank you.”

  Traci walked from table to table, checking out more shoes, but none struck her the way the first pair had. So she hoped the store had them in stock.

  A couple of minutes later, the salesgirl returned. “You’re in luck. We don’t get a lot of tens, and this is our last pair. And even though we just got this style in, they’re going pretty fast.”

  “I can see why,” Traci said, sitting down and taking one of the sandals from the box. She slipped it on, buckled it at the side, and did the same with the matching one. She already loved the way they felt, so she walked over to the full-length mirror to see how they looked. She had on a pair of jeans, and the sandals looked amazing. She also wanted to wear them with shorts or capris, so she rolled her pants legs up to her knees and glanced at the mirror again. “I really do love these.”

  The salesgirl nodded. “So do I.”

  Simone walked over and folded her arms. “They’re definitely cute and very different.”

  Traci sat down to take them off and told the salesgirl, “I’ll take them.”

  “Wonderful.”

  Traci removed both sandals, placed them back in the box, and gave them to the young lady to ring up. Then, after she paid for them with her Macy’s card, she and Simone headed toward the jewelry section.

  Simone went around to the left side of the counter, and Traci stopped at the front of it and pulled a pair of sterling silver hoops from the display. She loved hoops for daily wear and large, bold earrings for dressier outfits, but these could be worn for any occasion. They were dressy and casual all in one, so she held on to them. She also looked at a few more earrings and bracelets, but when she didn’t see anything else she wanted, she gave the hoops to the fiftysomething woman behind the counter.

  “Will that be all?” the woman said.

  “I think so.”

  The woman scanned the bar code on the back of the plastic board the earrings were attached to and then set them on white tissue paper, preparing to wrap them. “If you’ll swipe your Macy’s card, any reward coupons you have will appear on-screen.”

  Traci slid her card through the machine, clicked on one of the coupons just as she had in the shoe department, and waited for her total. Then she signed her name and hit Enter.

  The saleslady packaged up the earrings. “Would you like your receipt with you or in the bag?”

  Traci reached her hand out. “I’ll take it.”

  “Here you are, and please enjoy.”

  “I will, and thank you.”

  Simone had been standing behind Traci, not saying anything, but now Traci realized she was waiting to pay for something.

  “What did you find?” Traci asked.

  “Just a pair of pearl earrings,” she said, showing them to Traci.

  “Those are pretty. I love pearls.”

  Simone passed the earrings to the saleslady. “I do, too.”

  When Simone had completed her transact
ion, Traci said, “You want to head upstairs to the clothing department?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Simone told her, and they went over to the escalator and got on.

  As they rode up to the second floor, Traci looked back across the first level. “The sales are never that great on a Monday, but I sort of like shopping when there’s hardly anyone in the store.”

  “Me too,” Simone said. “It’s a lot easier to look for what you want, and you don’t have to wait to try anything on or pay for it.”

  Traci stepped off the escalator. “Exactly.”

  Simone got off next. “I think I’ll head to the dress area.”

  “Okay. I’ll be over there,” Traci said, pointing to tops and blouses, but then she heard her phone ring. “Hey, sweetheart,” she said to her husband.

  “Hey, baby. Where are you?”

  “At the mall.”

  “How was dinner?”

  “We had a great time, and actually, Simone is here at the mall, too.”

  “Wow, you really do like her, don’t you?”

  “I do. She’s a good person.”

  “And she’s a writer,” he said.

  “Yep, and I need that. Because when you’re self-employed, it’s not like you have coworkers that you can see every day or do things with.”

  “I hear you, and I agree, but I just hope she doesn’t end up being like that last author you thought was your friend.”

  Traci pulled a sleeveless white knit top from the rack. “Don’t even remind me. Although Robin just talked about that very thing on Saturday.”

  “That’s because we all saw what a disaster it was. But I always told you that something wasn’t right with her, and that you needed to be careful.”

  “I know, but Denise has betrayed every author she’s ever come in contact with, and I don’t think Simone is like that.”

  “Maybe not, but it’s not like you really know her.”

  “No, but with the exception of Denise, I’ve always been a pretty good judge of character. I can tell when people genuinely don’t like me, and when they’re trying to hurt me in some way. Plus, I’m the one who asked Simone out to dinner.”

  “Yeah, but she emailed you the same day she met you, right? And then she showed up at church yesterday.”

  Traci couldn’t deny that this seemed like too much of a coincidence, but she didn’t think it was a big deal. “I agree, but at the same time, a lot of people visit our church just because of Pastor Black and how well-known he is.”

  “Okay, but I’m going to say what I always say: Please be careful.”

  “I will.”

  “So how much longer are you going to be?”

  “Not long,” she said, now picking up the same sleeveless top she was already holding, except this one was black. “I’m going to pay for a couple of items I just found, and then I’ll be home.”

  “Good, because you know I’m waiting for you, right?”

  “Yeah, I bet. That’s the real reason you called me in the first place.”

  “Yep, and I’m not ashamed of it, either,” he said, laughing.

  Traci laughed, too. “You crack me up.”

  “Okay, let me get back to my game. But I’ll see you soon.”

  “All right. Love you.”

  “Love you, too, baby.”

  Traci ended the call and dropped her phone in her purse. Fifteen years had passed, yet there were times when Traci felt like she and Tim were still on their honeymoon. They’d had arguments and problems like any other couple, but the one thing she knew for sure was that they were meant to be together. Tim was a kind, loving, supportive man who kept God first and her second, no matter what happened. He was good to her and good for her, and she loved him with everything inside of her. He also worried a lot about her well-being, and even more so when he thought she might be setting herself up for pain and disappointment. She knew he was right in all that he’d said, but she couldn’t help the way she felt; how she had this great desire to help and advise people.

  More than anything, she wanted to prevent others from making some of the past mistakes she’d made. So when she met young women who were in verbally or physically abusive relationships, she shared everything she could with them about her first marriage and tried to be there for them. Then, when she met aspiring writers who were talented and serious about making it in publishing, she tried to tell them all that she could when it came to what might work and what might not work for them. Mostly because when she’d finished writing her first book, she’d made a few blunders, which probably could have been avoided had she been able to find a knowledgeable mentor. The same went for relationships—as in, had she been close to a woman who’d gotten into and out of a terrible marriage, she wouldn’t have become so easily involved with her first husband. So now that Traci had overcome her obstacles—her first marriage and having her first book rejected multiple times—she felt an obligation to help others when she could. She wasn’t a pushover, not by any stretch of the imagination, but she did believe in giving most people a chance to prove themselves. Plus, there was something sad about Simone’s demeanor. She smiled enough, talked enough, and was nice enough, but in some ways, she seemed lonely and unhappy. Traci had specifically noticed it when she talked about how poor she’d been as a child, even though Simone had tried to keep a joyful face. It was just something about the look in her eyes, almost as if her childhood had been much worse than she’d mentioned to Traci, and that Simone needed validation for anything she said or did. It wasn’t a problem for Traci, but one of the things she had noticed was the way Simone had waited to order her food. Traci had even seen her looking at her as though she hadn’t wanted to make any selections until then. It may have seemed crazy for Traci to suspect this, but it was just a feeling she had. Lots of people only drank water when they went out to dinner, many ordered a side Caesar as their salad, and countless people loved eating salmon. However, it just seemed that Simone would’ve ordered anything that Traci had ordered, regardless of what it was.

  Still, Traci liked Simone, and she was going to help her with getting published. Then, once that happened, she would recommend Simone’s work to her own readers. She would do what she wished someone had been willing to do for her.

  Simone drove around the outskirts of the entire mall twice, until she was sure Traci had left the parking lot. Not long ago, they’d walked outside, said their good-byes, and prepared to head home, but Simone had come up with a different plan, which was the reason she reparked her car, walked back inside Macy’s, and headed straight to the shoe department.

  She went over to the first table that Traci had stopped at earlier and picked up the sandals that the two of them had loved so much.

  The same salesgirl walked up to her. “Can I get something for you?”

  “Yes, do you have these in a nine?”

  “I think I saw a couple of them when I went to look for your friend, but let me check.”

  Simone took a seat and hoped the woman was right. As it was, when she’d told Traci that she’d given her the last size ten, Simone had worried that they might not have her size at all. Although, if they didn’t, Simone would just order them online.

  She waited for a few minutes and smiled when the woman came out with a box in her hand.

  “Here you go, and interestingly enough, we didn’t have two nines like I’d thought. We only have this one, so I guess it was meant for you.”

  “I guess so,” Simone said, slipping off her kitten-heel ankle boots. Thankfully, she hadn’t worn any tights or knee-highs, which made it easy to try on the sandals.

  “Those look great on you,” the salesgirl said.

  “I really love these. I’ve seen a lot of rhinestone sandals, but these are in a category all by themselves.”

  “That they are. So I take it you want them?”

  “I do.”

  Simone pulled them off and handed them to the woman.

  “Will this be on your Macy’s card?�
� she asked.

  “Uh, I don’t have one, but I’ll still be using a credit card.”

  “You do know that if you open an account now, you’ll get a twenty percent discount.”

  Simone debated it, but because she already had an American Express card, two Visas, and two MasterCards, she’d made a pact a long time ago not to open very many department store cards. She did have one from Nordstrom, but that was a Nordstrom Visa. So, technically, she actually had three Visas and her only department store cards were from Victoria’s Secret and Target. But nonetheless, if Traci had a Macy’s card it was likely worth her getting one of those, too. So Simone debated her decision again and again. She did want one, but if there was one thing she was proud of it was the fact that she had excellent credit. This hadn’t always been the case, but since filing for bankruptcy ten years ago, she’d changed the way she handled using credit cards. Every now and then, she tended to buy things she didn’t need, but entering bankruptcy had taught her a very valuable and humiliating lesson, and she never wanted to live like that again. She also didn’t want to take a chance on struggling and living in poverty the way she had as a child. So once her bankruptcy had been wiped from her credit report three years ago, she’d slowly but surely begun building her credit back up and now she had six major credit cards to show for it.

  “No,” Simone said, “I think I’ll pass.”

  “Okay, but if you change your mind, you can apply at any time.”

  After Simone paid for her shoes, she left and went over to the jewelry counter. Before doing anything else, she grabbed the same pair of sterling silver hoops that Traci had purchased.

  “So you’re back,” the fiftysomething woman said.

  “Yes, I decided I don’t want the pearl earrings. I’d like to exchange them for these.”

  “No problem,” she said. “Actually, I hadn’t seen these until your friend picked them up to look at them.”

  Simone didn’t say anything, but for some reason she thought about Traci and how she’d said she loved pearls. So maybe she should keep them after all. Should she or shouldn’t she? Because it wasn’t like Simone wore pearls all that much. She also wasn’t sure she liked this particular pair as much as she’d thought she had.