Secrets of a Shoe Addict (32 page)

“Um,” Abbey faltered. “Right. Me, too . . . I think I left my phone in my car—could you guys excuse me for a minute?” She didn’t wait for an answer, but just hurried out, calling over her shoulder, “I’ll be right back.”

She flew out into the hot midday sun, looking for Damon, ready to kill him with her bare hands if necessary. She’d had enough of this waiting and wondering, enough worrying; at this point, she’d take an assault charge over the artfully silent stalking he was doing.

“Damon!” she yelled viciously. “Where are you? I saw you. I know you’re here!”

Her words fell dully in the silent, sunny block.

“Da
mon
!”

Nothing.

Then she noticed a mark on the side of the car:
10K
.

Again.

She had to end this, once and for all.

Somehow.

She went back inside and was relieved to find everyone right
where she’d left them. Apparently they hadn’t heard or witnessed her momentary lapse in judgment.

“Did you get it?” Tiffany asked.

“What?”

“The phone. Because I thought I heard your purse ringing while you were outside, but I’m not sure.”

“Oh. That would explain why I didn’t find it.” Abbey gave a false laugh and rummaged through her purse until she produced the phone. “There it is. Go figure.” She glanced at the caller ID. “Just the dentist’s office. So what did I miss?”

“Actually,” Loreen said with a smile, “I was just about to say that this month we made enough money to pay off nearly three quarters of the debt. Can you believe it?”

Sandra clapped her hands. “Wow, you girls have been busy. I’m so proud of you!”

“It’s thanks to you,” Abbey said. She wondered how long it would take her to earn enough money to pay Damon off if she kept working at it. “If you hadn’t come up with the idea and told us how to do it, I don’t know
what
we would have done.”

“I suspect I’d be in jail right now.” Loreen’s face grew serious. “I can’t thank you enough.” As she spoke, her eyes grew bright with tears. “
Any
of you.”

“It hasn’t really been as bad as I expected,” Tiffany said. “And this”—she gestured at all of them—“us getting together every week has been great.”

“What are we going to do when we’ve paid everything off?” Loreen asked. “We’ll need to find a new excuse to meet.”

“Hm.” Sandra looked thoughtful. “How do you all feel about shoes? . . .”

The money was rolling in. Loreen checked the number two and three times because she just couldn’t believe how profitable this business was. And it wasn’t just Loreen, Abbey, and Tiffany who were benefiting from the success of the Happy Housewives venture. They’d decided from the beginning that they were also going to take a percentage of their earnings and use it for PTA programs.

They were already making plans to pay for Nick Nicholas, a nationally renowned kids’ educator known as the Math Magician, to come and do a workshop for the Tuckerman kids.

Normally that kind of special program was the sole domain of the wealthier private schools, but the Tuckerman Elementary PTA was suddenly feeling pretty optimistic about its finances.

Not everyone shared that optimism, however. Deb Leventer and her group of friends were beginning to question the motives and means of the current PTA heads. Deb was bitter that she’d lost the vote for president, so every time there was an opportunity for her to cast doubt on Tiffany’s competence, Deb was right there doing it.

“Where is the money coming from?”

“Wouldn’t it be more prudent to save it, in case of an emergency?” What PTA emergency Deb thought they needed to save for was a mystery. It was hard to imagine Deb envisioning something like, say, one of the officers using the school funds to pay for a male prostitute.

And there was no way on earth Deb had any inkling of what was going on, because if she did, she would have blown Loreen, and her reputation, sky high a long time ago.

“We’ve got a little more than a thousand to go,” Loreen told Tiffany over beer and pizza that evening, after balancing the books.

They were just at Bambinos Pizza, a few blocks from the school, where the kids had stayed late to rehearse for their fifth-grade graduation ceremony.

“A thousand?” Tiffany set her Heineken down and looked at Loreen with amazement. “That’s
it
?”

“Yup. Can you believe it?”

“I almost can’t,” Tiffany admitted. “It seems too easy.”

“I’m not sure I’d say it was easy,” Loreen said.

“No?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know that I’ve had one successful call yet. I know I haven’t had any repeat business.”

“But you are the one who did the piles and piles of paperwork to get us into business for ourselves.”

Loreen shrugged.

“Then you advertised and got those part-timers working for us, just like Sandra used to do for Touch of Class. Putting the sign up in the drama department at Montgomery College? Brilliant move. That’s worth even more!”

“I hope you mean that.”

“I do.”

Loreen raised her beer to her lips, but the taste was repellent, and she put it down right away.

Tiffany noticed. “What’s wrong?”

Loreen rolled her eyes. “Just my stupid hormonal problem. I’ve got all these mock pregnancy symptoms.”

“Ugh. Really?”

“Yeah.” Loreen picked up a thin slice of pizza. “It’s like my body chemistry is changing, and suddenly my premenstrual symptoms are like early pregnancy.”

“Lucky you! All that
and
your period, too!”

Loreen took another bite and nodded. “It’s due any second now.” She hesitated. Seemed like she’d been thinking her period would start “any minute now” for a long time.

Oh, well, that’s how it was lately. Her cycle was less predictable. Suddenly it was like she was in seventh grade again, never knowing when Aunt Flo was going to show up unexpectedly and embarrass her to death with some public appearance.

“I tell you,” Tiffany was saying, “I’m thinking about taking my pills for three months at a time nonstop so I don’t get it so often. They say you can do that now, you know.” She sipped her beer. “I seem to get it at the worst time every single month. Last month it was while we were in Vegas, and this month it was over Memorial Day weekend when, of course, Kate wanted to spend the entire weekend at the pool.”

Last weekend was Memorial Day. So Tiffany had gotten a period
twice
since Vegas, and Loreen hadn’t had it since . . . when was it? Before Las Vegas. Like,
well
before Las Vegas. A couple of weeks.

“What’s wrong?” Tiffany asked.

Loreen put her pizza down. She was losing her appetite. “I think I missed a month.”

“What do you mean?”

“My period. I think I missed an entire month, and with everything that’s going on, I didn’t realize it.”

“Are you worried? I mean, it’s not like you’re pregnant or anything.”

Loreen didn’t answer.

She just sat there, feeling her skin prickle all over.

“Loreen.” Tiffany looked concerned now. “What’s the matter? You look like a ghost.”

“What if I
am
pregnant?”

“You said you hadn’t done anything since you and Robert split up.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “So how could you possibly be
pregnant
?”

“Oh, God.” Loreen pushed the plate of pizza away from her. Then she took her napkin and twisted it in her lap. “You don’t want to know. I don’t want to tell you.”

“What? Is it something to do with Robert?”

Robert. No. This was feeling worse by the second. She swallowed, but her mouth was as dry as cotton. “Yes. Well, we’ve been talking about getting back together, but nothing’s for sure.” If her hunch was right, he wasn’t going to be too eager to resume relations now.

“Loreen Murphy, I cannot believe you’ve been holding out on me!” Tiffany raised her beer bottle in a mock toast. “I had no idea you guys were getting back together. And had
been back together
. Wow, can you imagine if you
are
pregnant, after everything you two went through? It would be like kismet.”

“It would be something, all right.”

“So why don’t you look happier?” Tiffany’s smile was broad. “It’s fate!”

“I’ve got to get out of here,” Loreen said. She felt a surge of adrenaline run through her veins like ice water. “I’ve got to get a test. I have to know.”

“Okay, okay, calm down. Look, you go next door to CVS and get a test. I’ll pay up here and meet you at the car.”

Loreen nodded convulsively. She couldn’t speak.

Walking through the aisles of the drugstore was like something from a dream. Or, rather, a
bad
dream.

A hideous nightmare.

The fluorescent lights overhead were a little too bright, lending a disturbing hypnotic quality to the five minutes she spent finding the pregnancy tests (next to the condoms, all of which she eyed with skepticism now), paying, and wandering into an oncoming car in the parking lot.

The car stopped before hitting her, and she was almost sorry.

Tiffany saw the whole thing and came running. “Look, Loreen, you’re scaring the bejeezus out of me. One minute we’re having a perfectly nice little meal—then, within the span of two minutes, all the blood leaves your face and you’re a walking zombie now, carrying a pregnancy test in a plastic bag.
Why
has this got you so freaked out?”

“Because something tells me I
am
pregnant.”

“Okay. But is that really so bad? You’ve been there before.” They stopped in front of Tiffany’s minivan. “You used to want this so bad, remember? And you
know
you won’t be on your own. You know you’d have Robert, and you’d have me, and Abbey, and Sandra.”

Loreen closed her eyes against the horror of it and said, “But . . . Robert wouldn’t be the dad.”

There was silence and Loreen opened her eyes to see Tiffany looking at her, stunned.

“Are you
serious
?”

Loreen nodded miserably. “Unfortunately.”

“Then who would?” Tiffany asked. It was clear she was trying not to look shocked, but she looked like she’d just swallowed a bug. “You didn’t tell me you’d met someone.”

“Oh, I met someone. Let’s get in.” Loreen opened the passenger door and got into the car.

Tiffany did the same. “Okay, who? And
where
? And how on earth did I miss all of this?”

Loreen took a long breath and said, “Suffice it to say that I’m afraid what happens in Vegas doesn’t necessarily
stay
in Vegas.”

“Huh?”

Loreen shook her head. “I don’t want to be mysterious about this, but can we just run back to your place so I can do the test before I go insane? I can’t concentrate until I know what’s going on.” She tried to keep her voice from wavering, but the fear was clutching her esophagus.

“Of course.” Tiffany turned the key in the ignition and left it at that.

Loreen knew the curiosity had to be killing Tiffany, but she just couldn’t tell her the whole ugly truth unless she knew she had to. If she didn’t, well, she’d just make something up.

They got to Tiffany’s house within about seven minutes, and as Loreen approached the front door, the smell of Bounce, coming from the dryer duct under the front window, nearly knocked her over.

Normally she
adored
the smell of Bounce.

This didn’t bode well.

“Why don’t you go on up to the bathroom in my room?” Tiffany suggested. “I’ll make some herbal tea. Does that sound good?”

“Do you have something like ginger ale?”

“Always.” Tiffany nodded. “You never know when someone’s going to puke. I’ll pour a glass.”

Loreen went upstairs into the large master bathroom and took the pregnancy test sticks out of their wrappers. Then she sat down on the toilet with them both and had the stray thought that she wished she had a separate soaking tub, too.

She also wished she had a stable marriage, and home, and her period.

But when she peed on the sticks—both of them—things didn’t really become more clear.

“What did it say?” Tiffany asked, taking the glass of ginger ale to Loreen. Her expression changed when she got closer. “Positive?”

Loreen shook her head.

Tiffany set the glass down and pulled Loreen into a strong, comforting hug. “Oh, honey. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Loreen sniffed. “Of course it is, but some part of me . . .” She shook her head. She couldn’t finish.

“I know,” Tiffany soothed. “There’s something really incredible about getting that positive result. Knowing, all in that moment, that there are two of you, not one. It’s a rush, even if you don’t know what to do next.” Tiffany guided her to a seat on the couch in the great room and sat down next to her, taking her hand. “Do you want to talk about what led up to this?”

Loreen looked at Tiffany, so earnest, so nonjudgmental, and the whole story spilled out of her. Meeting Rod, the way she’d felt when he’d paid special attention to her, how incredible it was to throw caution to the wind and have a one-night stand for the first time in her life, and how completely, utterly humiliating it was when he’d given her a bill at the end of it.