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voice assured her everything would be okay, and it would be, wouldn’t it? Women did this all the time and they survived.
    â€œYes, we had a cancellation for Wednesday. You’re in luck,” the voice said. “Is one-thirty all right?”
    â€œYes.” Nina whispered the word, feeling another bout of nausea. She gave the woman her information. Was told what to not eat, how much the procedure would be.
    â€œHow will you be paying for this?” the woman asked.
    Nina had no idea. Rent was due on Monday and her bank account was down to her last five hundred dollars. “Cash,” she said, having no idea where she would get it, especially with rent due. “Yes. Cash.”
    She’d hope for the best.
    A lot can happen between now and then, right?
    She grabbed her wallet off the coffee table, shoved it in her purse, and left for work. There was no way she could take a shower, and she’d spent last night rolling around in bed, covered in the slick perspiration of dread. Well, knowing Manny, he’d overbooked the dining room and she’d be hoofing it anyway. No amount of deodorant could keep that kind of sweating at bay.
    Pumping her feet along the cracked sidewalk, she called Pieter.
    â€œI got the test results.”
    â€œYeah?” He sounded hopeful.
    â€œPositive.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œYeah, so . . .”
    â€œI was careful.”
    â€œMe too, Pieter.”
    Silence. “It’s getting busy here, Nina. You should be at work.”
    She smashed the phone more tightly against her ear. “So, yeah. So I thought you’d want to know.”
    â€œAre you going to get it taken care of ?”
    â€œMe? Just me?”
    â€œYou know what I mean, Nina.”
    â€œI don’t have that much money.”
    â€œI’ll go halvsies with you on it,” he said.
    â€œHalvsies? Halvsies, Pieter? This isn’t appetizers at Chili’s.”
    â€œMan, Nina. This isn’t easy for me either.”
    Oh brother. She could picture him with his slicked-back, faux European hair and attitude. Such a phony. Pieter. He’d grown up plain old Peter in Paramus, New Jersey. The rest of the staff thought he added the i to make himself seem French and up his chances of opening a restaurant of his own one day. “Look, I gotta go. We’ll talk about the money after work, okay?”
    â€œI’ll write you a check for my half when you get here.”
    â€œYou do that, Pieter. Sure.”
    â€œBut you’d better hurry. Manny—”
    She hung up, surprised at herself. She didn’t think Pieter was the perfect guy, but she thought maybe he’d say something like, “Gee, Nina. I’m sorry. This must be so hard for you. I helped get you into this mess. I’ll help you whatever way you think you need to go here.” Nope. Nothing like that.
    And I’m having his child. Oh man.
    She felt like the idiot of the century.
    How come this never happened to the Sex in the City girls? They did a lot more than she ever did.
    Manny entered the kitchen, walking right up to José’s station where he stood chopping peppers. José knew that look on his brother’s face. So the day’s troubles were already beginning.
    â€œJosé, what’s up with Nina? She was late yesterday, and today she is forty-five minutes late. That’s two days in a row, plus calling in sick last week at the last minute makes three, and you know what happens at three.”
    Everybody knew what happened at three. José swore Manny would fire himself if he was late three times. “She’ll be here.”
    Manny looked around the busy kitchen and said softly, “I can’t run my business like this. I just can’t.”
    Carlos, a Cuban with eyebrows like caterpillars and an open gaze, held out a saucepan toward José. “Try this, José.”
    José dipped the tip of his knife into the sauce. Not bad. Better than the