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smiled nervously and zipped up her jacket to her neck. “Are you ready?”
    “I’ve been ready. I was ready before I even sat down.”
    “Let’s go then,” she said.
    “Wait a minute.” Vanessa leaned forward. “Where’s the paycheck?”
    “In my pocket.”
    “Well let’s see it.”
    She looked aside and rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m not pulling out my paycheck here.”
    Vanessa widened her eyes and visually roamed the shop. “You work here,” she told her.
    “I know that, but I don’t want Max seeing how much I make. It might intimidate him.”
    “Well, then, you go girl. Let’s go to the bank and cash it.”
    “Don’t you have to finish out your day at work?”
    “Now you suddenly care about my job when you were back there most likely being motor boated by your boss.”
    Nikki reached down for Vanessa’s arm and jerked her from the chair. They rushed out of the shop without Vanessa’s tea, which she wouldn’t realize for at least another few blocks. Nikki began walking a few steps ahead, trying to cover herself with her jacket as best as she could. She felt unclean and used, though she didn’t feel like that in the moment. In fact, she never felt like that until today, until she realized that her best friend might actually see her for who and what she believed she truly was, and discard her.
    “Nik,” Vanessa hollered after.
    “I just want to keep walking by myself,” she said as Vanessa caught up to her.
    “I don’t think so.” She nervously exhaled and looked to the ground. “It was just a stupid joke. Maybe you were getting your check, I don’t know. I don’t really care. As long as you’re happy, it’s whatever with me, you know that.” They walked in silence for a few seconds as she feigned checking her purse. “Are you two happy? Is this a thing with the two of you or is it just sex?”
    She groaned. “Vanessa!”
    “Look, I am drowning for information here and talking about you keeps my mind off of my own problems. Besides, I haven’t actively seen you with a guy since high school. You’ve always been more focused on your ‘craft’ than relationships. You could have casual sex every now and then with some guy you found attractive in the moment and be totally fine afterwards because you weren’t expecting anything more than he was. Meanwhile, I was trying to tie down every guy who looked decent in a tuxedo and had a worthy pedigree.”
    “That’s the difference between us,” she said. “I’m not like you. I never dreamed of a townhouse on the Upper East Side with a husband and four kids. The idea of all of that, and not being successful scares me.”
    “You can be successful as a wife and mother. You’d just have to make a few adjustments. But we’re women, we can do anything.”
    They smiled at one another.
    “I know that, but it’s not the same. I don’t want children. I don’t even know if I ever want to get married.”
    “Not even to Oscar?” Vanessa chimed in.
    Nikki stopped and frowned. She thought about it earlier, what her life could be like married to him, but would it ever happen if he remained married to his current wife?
    She shook the thoughts from her head and continued on.
    “We’re still getting to know each other, V.”
    “It’s been a year, Nik. I’d have booked the church by now.”
    “I like my life as it is,” she told her. “I really do. Granted, I could use more money and maybe a place of my own one day, but I’m such a free spirit, I always have been. I like the idea of going out there on my own, traveling to Bora Bora or sitting near a volcano and watching the lava spew from the top.”
    “Now you just sound completely crazy.”
    She laughed. “I’m serious.”
    “So am I.”
    “V, I’m just… I’m different from you, that’s all.”
    “I know that. When we first met in Mrs. Pritchett’s first grade class, you stole my pencil. I said that if you didn’t give it back, I’d send you flying over a moon and