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It’s that pale, sickly navy color that we wore in grade school, but out she goes to work in it every day like she’s mushing the dogs to her office. Kay loves that down coat. You have to admire her loyalty.
    â€œWhat did you do last night?” I ask while stretching and feeling every one of my thirty-one years.
    â€œBesides answering Miss Popularity’s phone, you mean?” Kay dusts off a pilgrim salt-and-pepper set.
    â€œDo you want me to get my own line? I keep asking, and you keep saying it’s a waste.”
    â€œNo, I’m just giving you a hard time because I know it bugs you. Arin’s back in town, by the way. She wanted to know how things were going, and to say thank you for leading her old beau to the Lord.”
    â€œArin’s back?” Panic. Arin, the size-2 diva/missionary that Seth once had a crush on. Somehow I sense that he could be in danger of falling for her all over again, if given the slightest opportunity.
    â€œYep. Arin’s back.”
    â€œDoes Seth know she’s back?”
    â€œHow would I know that?”
    â€œWell, what did Arin say exactly?”
    â€œThat she was back in town. That she’d talked to Kevin, or Dr. Novak, as I like to call him,” Kay announces in a soap-opera tone. “And that she wants to get together with you.”
    â€œDid you tell her about Seth and me?”
    â€œWhat’s to tell?”
    What indeed? “Is she still so thin?”
    â€œI couldn’t see her on the phone, Ashley. I imagine she’s still thin, she was telling me about all the kayaking she did up the river in Costa Rica, and that she learned to balance a jug of water on her head.”
    â€œIsn’t that in Africa where they do that?”
    â€œI’m just telling you what she said.”
    â€œIs she coming to Bible study this week?”
    â€œShe said she’d try to make it, and that she missed us all while she was down there, but she was very anxious to speak to you.”
    â€œThat’s what my dream meant!” I exhale and place my hand to my forehead.
    â€œWhat dream?”
    â€œThe missing Marc Jacobs pump. It’s Arin, and she’s come back to claim Seth. The striped heel belongs to her. It fits her, not me and my big fat size-9 foot! I’m the ugly stepsister!”
    â€œWhat on earth are you talking about?” Kay puts down a rust-colored leaf and stares at me. “No, wait. I don’t want to know.” She holds up her palms in surrender. “I’m starting to understand you, and this makes me nervous because no one should really understand you unless they need mental help. It’s Brea’s job to understand you. I just have to live with you.”
    â€œI gotta go!” I rush off the couch and into the bathroom. Turning on the shower head, I wait until the warm steam fills the room and step into the sweltering tile cubicle. Okay, Lord. I know this is about Your timing and all, but do you really mean for me to live here forever? I’ve been so patient. Nine months, Lord? Three years, really. You couldn’t wait ten more years to bring back Arin? What if Seth looks at her and all his old feelings come back? Remember? That sad little crush he had, making him even older and balder than his years? I know the crush was short, but it was intense, Lord. So what is this about?
    God answers with the steaming shot of water out of the shower . Ah, the silent treatment. I should be used to it by now.
    There’s a pounding on the bathroom door. “Ashley, telephone!” Kay shouts.
    I towel dry and find the cordless phone on the just-waxed hard-wood hallway. “Hello.”
    â€œIt’s Seth, Ashley.” My towel-wrapped self slinks to the floor.
    â€œHi, Seth.” His voice calms me and reminds me that I have dated him longer than any other woman. Seth and I were meant to be. The shoe dream was just a little nightmare, a little case of preengagement