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I have to work on expressing myself better.” Tisha slipped the dress off and hung it back up. The outfit was ruined now, thanks to Nance’s comment. If she didn’t find something soon, she was going to be forced to go out in what she had on, and that wasn’t much. “Pick something out of the pit of despair while I finish getting ready.”
    “It’s about damn time.” Nance rose from the bed with a smile and rushed over to the closet.
    “You’ve been waiting all day to do this, haven’t you?”
    “Girl, I’ve been waiting since your first date in high school.” Nance let out a heavy sigh. “I miss high school. Don’t you?”
    “Hell to the no.” Tisha shuddered at the very thought. She definitely wasn’t one of the shiny, happy people who flourished in school. She had been more like a mirage, attending just enough days to pass and not a second more. “Besides, that was so long ago, I’m surprised you remember it.”
    “Bite your tongue,” Nance growled.
    “Biting.” Tisha laughed as she walked into the bathroom. The spitfire could take a charging bull head-on, but one small crack about her age had her near tears. Someone was not dealing well with turning thirty.
    “So where are you guys going?”
    “I don’t know.” She hadn’t asked and he hadn’t told. For some strange reason that worked for her. Jonah was taking charge of the date, as, in her opinion, all men should, leaving her to worry only about how good she was going to look and how soon she was going to be able to get rid of Nance.
    She was still quite surprised Jonah had asked her out. The only bad part was that if this didn’t work out one of them was going to have to move, and her credit report couldn’t handle another big-ticket item purchase. Still, he was cute, and he loved the dickens out of his niece.
    Glancing at her watch, she realized she’d wasted precious time daydreaming. Tisha fixed her hair and makeup in record time, considering the deadline she was under. She stared at herself in the mirror and assessed her efforts, pretty pleased with the results. She had her hair done yesterday, and thanks to the fresh flat iron, it only took a few minutes to flip the back. Her makeup was more dramatic than she usually wore, but still elegant and understated. She sighed, knowing it was time to stop admiring herself and to face the Clothes Queen to find out what she’d be wearing this evening.
    Tisha felt as if she’d walked into the Twilight Zone when she crossed the threshold from her bathroom into the bedroom. Her bed was covered with what seemed to be almost every outfit from her closet. Nance stood, humming to herself, a skirt in one hand and a top in the other. The other woman shook her head and then, with a gleam in her eye, pounced on a blouse she must have missed in her earlier decimation of Tisha’s closet.
    “Aha, this is it.” Turning around, Nance held it up for Tisha’s inspection. As much as it pained her to do so, Tisha had to admit the woman had skills.
    The knee-length white A-line skirt with black floral embroidery at the bottom would look great with the black tie-neck halter shirt and black wedge heeled shoes. Of course, just because she liked the choice was no reason to let Nance know. “It’ll do.”
    Then again, this was a woman she’d known for years. Nance wasn’t fooled at all. “Girl, please, you know it looks good.”
    “Of course it does. I bought it.” Tisha made a face at her laughing friend as she took the outfit out of her hand and walked over to the full-length mirror on her closet door. She held the outfit up against her body, once more giving it a critical eye.
    It was cute and flirty, showed a bit of skin without showing the whole package. It said, “I’m single and free to mingle, but I’m not a ho, so don’t get it twisted.” It was perfect.
    “Are you going to get dressed or stare at yourself all day?”
    “You know wha—” Before she could get her sentence out the doorbell