Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
“It’s not because he’s a man, it’s because he’s used to doing whatever he wants and getting away with it,” I explained. “He’s rich and handsome. Born with a silver spoon and all that.”
“Oh, honey. You can’t fall for those guys.” The lady with the dangly earrings patted the leg of a burly man with a bald head next to her. “You gotta stick with guys like my Bubba here. Good men, maybe a six or seven or even an eight out of ten, but definitely not a nine or above.”
“Thanks, Willene,” Bubba said, then paused. “I think.”
“Those nines and tens don’t have to work for anything,” Willene went on. “You want the kind of guy who works hard for everything he’s got. That way it means more when they treat you. And they know how to treat you.” She leaned over and kissed Bubba’s cheek.
“Believe me, I see my mistake now,” I said after a long suck on the straw of my shake. “My god, this is delicious. I haven’t enjoyed food in months.”
“Why not?” Bubba looked horrified.
“I was afraid my dress wouldn’t fit,” I said. “I kept having this nightmare that it was my wedding day, and I’d go to get dressed, but my gown wouldn’t fit. I just couldn’t get it on, no matter what I did.”
“It was a sign.” Willene rapped the counter with her knuckles. “The universe is always sending signs.”
“I should have seen this one sooner, I was just . . .” For a second, my mom’s face popped into my mind. “I was confused.”
“I dated a ten once,” said the irascible Larry, as if he were still mad about it. “And that’s how I felt all the time. Confused. All she had to do was smile at me, and I couldn’t even think. I was bewitched, bothered, and bewildered, as the song goes.”
I smiled at him sympathetically. “I hear you. I haven’t done much good thinking over the last year myself. And now the problem is, everything I have, he gave me. My apartment, my car, my credit cards, my job. Even my phone. I don’t have a thing to my name.”
“Maybe he’ll be generous,” said Ari. “Since he was the one who cheated and all.”
I took another long drink of my shake. “I doubt it, not since I dumped him at the altar with everyone watching.”
“You went all the way to the altar?” Steve cocked his head. “Even after you knew?”
“I didn’t want to, but Neil—that’s his name—wasn’t taking no for an answer. I told him ten times I wasn’t going to marry him, but he just kept telling me I was being silly and insisting that I do as I was told.”
“So how’d you finally convince him?” Gus asked.
“I kicked him in the face—but not until he insulted me in front of everyone.”
“You kicked him in the face?” Ari was impressed. “How’d you get your leg up that high?”
“I used to be a Rockette,” I said, sitting up a little taller.
“Wow, a Rockette.” Gus was impressed. “I’ve seen the Christmas Spectacular three times. It’s my favorite play. You girls are fantastic.”
I laughed. “Thank you.”
“So what will you do now?” asked Ari.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I guess I need to make a fresh start.”
“Here in Cherry Tree Harbor?” Gus seemed kind of excited about that, like maybe more Rockettes would follow.
“If I could find a job.” I glanced out the window. “It’s not like I have anywhere else to go.”
“Where’s your family?” Willene asked.
“I don’t have any.”
“Could you get your old job back?” Gus wondered.
“I think so. But I missed auditions, so not this season.”
“So you need more of a temporary gig,” Ari said, one finger tapping her lips. “Hmm.”
“Is there a dance studio around?” I wondered. “Maybe I could teach lessons.”
“There used to be Miss Edna’s, just outside town,” said Gus, “but she closed up shop and moved to Florida. I once took salsa dancing there. I wasn’t much good at it, or so the wife said.”
“Hey, you know what?” Ari hurried over to a bulletin board by the entrance and pulled off a sheet of paper. Returning to the counter, she placed it in front of me. “My best friend Mabel was in here yesterday, and she put this up.”
“What is it?” Larry asked, frowning as he pulled a pair of readers from his shirt pocket.
Willene leaned closer to me so she could read it too. “It’s a flyer advertising a live-in nanny position.”
“It’s for Mabel’s older brother, Austin,” said Ari. “He’s a single dad with seven-year-old twins.”
“Boys or girls?”
“One of each.”
“Are they nice?” I was thinking of The Sound of Music, where those kids terrorized poor Maria. Hadn’t they put a frog in her bed?
“Yeah.” Ari shrugged. “Austin is a little intense, but the kids are cool. They come in here sometimes, and they actually behave.”