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understand.’
    â€˜Good.’ Lily settled back in her chair. ‘I’m glad. Especially since your book is so much about teaching women courage and confidence, it’d be a little unfair if you didn’t live like that yourself. And I wouldn’t want to be the only one of us who believes in you.’
    â€˜Really?’ May’s eyes widened. ‘You do? Yes, well, and I, um, I do too.’
    May maintained an earnest gaze until Lily winked and they both burst into simultaneous giggles. May relaxed after that and they talked until long after The Tea Cup had officially closed, and Alice had retired to the kitchen to clean. They discovered they shared many similarities: personally, emotionally, historically… But underneath all the words lay an unspoken sense of connection, there since the moment they’d met and that only deepened the longer they sat together. Lily was delighted the young author was every bit as lovely as her prose. And May felt, for the first time in fourteen years, that she’d met someone who had the same spirit as her mother.
    â€˜We should go,’ Lily said finally. ‘I think we might have outstayed our welcome.’
    â€˜Yes,’ May said, feeling as though she was on a date she didn’t want to end. ‘I suppose we should.’
    After thanking their host, they stepped outside into darkness, onto a street lined with trees and fairy lights. They stood for a little while outside the café, chatting under the glow of a bright full moon that hung low in the sky. When they both started to shiver in the autumn breeze, they at last hugged goodbye. Lily crossed the road to her car and May turned to walk the thirty blocks home, waving at Alice through the window and giving her the thumbs up with both hands.
    They’d decided to meet the next day at Lily’s offices, where they’d sign the contract. The book would be published in six months. Lily would advance May a few thousand dollars and apply to extend her visa under the employment programme. She had it all covered. And in six short months Men, Money and Chocolate would be in bookshops all over America, or at least parts of it. Now thousands of women would have the chance to read May’s story, to hopefully find inspiration and comfort in its twists and turns. May might lift their hearts and bring a little joy into their lives. Just the thought of it made her giddy.
    As she meandered home, gazing up at the moon through the shifting clouds May felt as though she was looking at the floor of heaven: luminous cracked marble scattered with bright pinpricks of light. And she hoped her mother was gazing down at her, grinning from ear to ear to witness the happiest day of her daughter’s life.

W ISDOM
    â€˜ W e’ll have the book launch here,’ Ben said, ‘won’t we?’
    â€˜Of course we will,’ May replied, laughing. ‘Where else could it be? This is the only place in the world I’d have it, even if they offered me the Empire State Building.’
    Ben smiled. ‘I’m not sure they hold book launches there, but I’m touched you want it here. I’ll invite every customer I’ve ever had and every single person I’ve ever met. You bake five hundred cupcakes and we’ll be set.’
    â€˜I still can’t believe it.’ May beamed. ‘I still can’t quite believe it.’
    It was two months until Publication Day, and May could hardly think about anything else. Conversations about book covers, manuscript edits, reading dates, tours and publicity left little room for other topics.
    Ben was wonderful throughout it all. He listened to every concern she had, read through all the edits she wanted to make, helped to plan events, even called magazine and newspaper editors when May was too shy. For her part May continued to work in the bookshop, although she often came late and left early to do something or other connected with her