“Sitting here and staring at the building is not going to make this go any faster.”

  Tara slowly turned her head to look at her friend. She pursed her lips as she narrowed her eyes. “I know where you sleep, and I also know you sleep like the dead.”

  Shelly waved her off as she climbed out of the car. “I’m not worried. Punishing me would require you to think about something other than Elias.”

  “I’m going to kill you and dump your body in a landfill so you’re eternally surrounded by other women’s sanitary products,” Tara said as she opened the door and forced herself to get out of the vehicle.

  “Okay, now you’re just being cruel. Although, I have to give you props for creativity.”

  They walked into the mall, and the small exterior belied the spaciousness before them. The vaulted ceilings caused an echo from the voices of the shoppers which made the interior feel even larger.

  “The only store that’s going to have the kind of dresses we are looking for is Visions,” Shelly said as she pointed left.

  “It sounds like a place you’d get glasses,” Tara said.

  “Their commercials end with ‘Let us make you a vision for him.’ Hence, Visions.”

  “Clever.”

  “Let’s discuss colors.”

  “Black,” Tara said with a grin her friend didn’t see because she was walking a half step behind.

  “Seriously?” Shelly asked, sounding shocked. “I thought you’d go with something bright and cheerful. I totally did not see black in your color palette.”

  “Cute, Shelly.” Tara had known her color choice would get a rise out of Shelly. Getting a rise out of her friend was pretty much her mission for the day. What can I say? I’m evil.

  “Can we compromise and do a dark navy?” Shelly asked.

  When they reached the store, Tara’s eyes widened at the mannequins lined up in front of the tall, glass front windows. They were all in sequined dresses. They looked like they’d been rolled in glitter. “No sequins,” Tara quickly sputtered.

  “Spoilsport,” Shelly muttered under her breath as she grabbed Tara’s wrist as if she’d known Tara had been about to bolt.

  When Shelly finally let go of Tara’s arm because she couldn’t sufficiently rifle through dress racks with one hand, Tara began to explore. She found the sale section at the very back of the store and began browsing the wares. Unfortunately, the majority of the dresses on sale were not black.

  “I’ve got the perfect dress for you,” Shelly called out from across the store.

  Tara turned to look at her best friend and then promptly turned away. “Not if it was the last piece of clothing on earth. I’d rather walk around naked,” Tara said as she continued to flick through the sale dresses. It wasn’t until the third rack that she came across something she could actually see herself in. It was a black sheath dress with diamond rhinestones that started at the top and then gradually spread farther apart as they traveled down the fabric. It reminded Tara of the night sky.

  She checked the size and grinned when she saw it was exactly right for her. Tara glanced over her shoulder and, when she saw that Shelly was distracted, she snatched the dress and quickly headed for a dressing room. Thankfully, they were already unlocked so she wouldn’t have to walk around the store looking for an employee to help her.

  She undressed and then took a deep breath as she took the dress off the hanger. It had no zippers. It just slipped over the head. The material was a little stretchy. It had cap sleeves and a high neck. Tara bunched up the bottom until she had it gathered to the neck and then put it over her head. She pushed each arm through the arm holes and then tugged the sheath down her body. She had her back to the mirror, and it took her at least a minute to get the nerve to turn around and look at herself.

  She raised her eyes and took in the dress. The dress hugged her curves and made her feel beautiful without making her feel exposed. It was perfect. Now, as long as the price was perfect so she’d still have some left over for shoes.

  Tara took the dress off and then looked at the tag. Apparently, this dress had been waiting for her. At fifty dollars, that would leave her another fifty for shoes and earrings. She jumped when someone banged on the door.

  “You can’t hide from me,” Shelly said from the other side. “Let me see what you’ve got. Or are you just sitting in there playing a game on your phone?”

  She laughed. “I wish I could claim I was doing just that. But alas, I actually tried on a dress.” Tara quickly dressed and then pulled the door open. She held up the dress for her friend to see and felt a little smug when Shelly grinned stupidly big.

  “Okay, so the black isn’t soooo bad,” Shelly said.

  “Thanks.” Tara noticed Shelly was holding something behind her back. “What did you find?”

  “Um,” Shelly said as her face turned a shade of red that Tara rarely saw on her friend. “It’s just simple, nothing fancy.”

  “Let me see.”

  Shelly sighed and pulled the dress around. It was also black.

  “Seriously? And you gave me crap?”

  “It’s an Audrey Hepburn remake,” Shelly said, her face suddenly getting animated. “The classic black sheath with the high neck and the gloves. I’ve always loved that dress.” There was a vulnerability in Shelly’s eyes that made Tara decide not to give her a hard time about it.

  Tara remembered Shelly had talked about getting something like it for prom but adding a cape to dress it up even more. “It will look amazing on your tall, slim figure,” Tara said.

  “Now we just need shoes and I need a pair of gloves, both of which they have here.” Shelly pointed to the farthest right-hand corner of the room and made a beeline for it.

  Tara grabbed her purse and the dress and followed. To her surprise, she was a little excited about wearing the dress. But then she remembered it wouldn’t be Elias who would be seeing her in it, which irritated her.

  By the time they’d both found the shoes they wanted, earrings, and gloves for Shelly, Tara was shopped out. She was hungry and tired of the salesclerk following them around like a vulture, attempting to upsell them. Two hours from the time they’d entered the store, they checked out and climbed back into the car.

  “I’m starving,” Shelly said.

  “It’s a good thing because I was about to start gnawing on your arm.”

  They drove through a fast food place and then were back on the road and headed for home. Just as Tara finished her lunch, her phone chimed, letting her know she’d received a text message.

  She pulled the phone from her purse and felt the familiar storm of butterflies in her stomach that now seemed to erupt every time she received a text.

  “That your boo?” Shelly asked as she popped a fry in her mouth.

  “If you’re not talking about a ghost then I have no idea what you’re saying,” Tara said as she looked at the screen of her phone.

  It was from Elias. The butterflies picked up the pace as she clicked on the text and watched it open.

  * * *

  Good afternoon, luv. Checking in to see how your day has been. I miss you.

  * * *

  Tara wanted to ask why he hadn’t called her if he missed her so much. He said he missed her in every text he sent. She also wanted to know why he only sent her one text a day. And she was curious as to why his texts sounded like something a girl would receive from her boyfriend, when he clearly was not her boyfriend. But instead of demanding answers, because she was not going to look like an obsessed girlfriend, especially since she was not his girlfriend, she responded as she always did.

  * * *

  It’s been a good day. Shelly and I went dress shopping. The prom is coming up in a couple of weeks.

  * * *

  Tara hit the send button before she could delete what she’d typed.

  “Why do you have an evil grin on your face?” Shelly asked.

  “Why don’t you have your eyes on the road?”

  “Because I noticed the evil grin on your face and want to make sure you’re not about to shank me.”

  “Why on earth would I shank you while you’re driving? I don’t have a death wish,” Tara replied.

  “Good point,” Shelly nodded. “All right, then what’s got you all pleased with yourself?”

  “I told Elias we went dress shopping for the prom.”

  Shelly’s lips turned up into a big smile. “Did you mention that you have a date?”

  “We’re going as friends.”

  “A friend date is still a date.”

  “No. He probably won’t even read it. He never responds to my texts,” Tara said with a sigh.

  Shelly looked as if she was about to speak when Tara’s phone chimed again. Shelly’s smile got even bigger, if that were even possible. “Apparently, he does.”

  Tara read the text and decided to throw Shelly a bone and read it out loud.

  * * *

  Are you and Shelly going together?

  * * *

  “Oh man, you better offer him a pole because he’s fishing and you’re the lure,” Shelly said as she cackled.

  “Clever,” Tara said as she texted him back.

  * * *

  Yes, we are. Tucker asked me to be his date, and I agreed but only as friends and only if Shelly came along.

  * * *

  She stared at the screen, expecting there to be an immediate writing bubble pop up … but there was nothing.

  Shelly bounced up and down in her seat, literally. “What’d you say?”

  “I told him that we are going together and that Tucker asked me to be his date, and I said I would be but only as friends.”

  “Oh dear, we are in trouble,” she said in her best Filch voice. The bouncing continued as she asked, “What’d he say? It’s good, isn’t it? It’s got to be good.” The words were spoken more to herself than to Tara.

  Tara stared down at her phone, waiting.

  “Tara,” Shelly said, and Tara could see from the corner of her eye that her friend had stopped bouncing. “What did he say?”

  “Nothing,” she finally answered. “He didn’t respond.”

  “Yet. He didn’t respond yet,” Shelly said. “Because he will. Maybe he had to set his phone down and get back to work with their dirt emergency or whatever it is they do. I’m still not clear on it.”

  “Dirt emergency?” Tara asked, as she tilted her head and eyed Shelly.

  “You’re deflecting.”

  Tara shrugged. She totally was deflecting and trying to distract herself from the fact that Elias still hadn’t responded to her news about Tucker asking her to go to the prom. What had I hoped for? Had she secretly been hoping he would lose his mind and beg her not to go? Maybe.

  By the time Shelly pulled into Carol’s driveway Tara was thinking of all the ways she could distract herself to keep from looking at her phone every five minutes, as she had done the entire drive.

  “Hey,” Shelly said before Tara could climb out of the car.

  “Yeah?”

  “How’s the whole superhero thing? Is your hymen still impenetrable?”

  Tara rolled her eyes. “If something that major had changed—and I don’t mean related to my freaking hymen-—I mean if my body were suddenly capable of being injured, don’t you think I would have mentioned it to you?”

  “Maybe,” Shelly said. “But it took you five years to even tell me that you had a superpower. The trust is fragile, Tara-bear. It has to be rebuilt, you know?”

  “Oh, absolutely,” Tara said, nodding vigorously. “The trust is definitely fragile. We should probably spend some time apart in contemplative, personal, reflective meditation. We need to be looking inward at what we can do to build the trust. In fact, we should plan to be apart for the next couple of weeks so the healing can begin.”

  Shelly was staring at her as if she’d grown a nipple on her forehead. “Are you done?”

  Tara tapped her chin. “For now. I’ll text you if I have any more thoughts on how we can heal.”

  “Fantastic,” Shelly said. “But more importantly, you will let me know when yo’ man texts you back and what he has to say.”

  “That’s more important than healing our trust issues?” Tara asked as she opened her door and climbed out. Tara closed the passenger door and then opened the back door to get her purchases. By the time she’d walked around the front of the car and was headed to the front door, Shelly had rolled down her window and had her arms hanging out of it.

  “Do you want my answer or what?” her friend asked.

  “If I said, ‘or what,’ would it hurt your feelings?”

  “You killed my feelings a long time ago. I’m just a body going through the motions of life.”

  Tara laughed as she headed up the stairs of the porch. “I think you’re going to be just fine.”

  “Don’t be surprised if I wind up with a circuit board for a heart,” Shelly called out through the window as she backed out of the driveway.

  Once in the house, Tara glanced at the clock and saw that Carol would be home in an hour. She wanted to have dinner ready when her foster mom got home so she was going to have to hurry. She took the dress to her room, hung it up in the closet, and set her purse and the bag containing her shoes and earrings on her bed. Her phone was burning a hole in her back pocket with its continued silence.

  She washed her face and hands before heading back to the kitchen and rummaging through the pantry to see what she had to work with. It didn’t take long to realize it had been a while since she or Carol had been to the grocery store. “Okay, grilled cheese and tomato soup it is then.”

  Her timing turned out to be impeccable. As she took the pot of tomato soup off the stove, Tara heard Carol come in the front door.

  “It smells delicious in here.” Carol’s voice carried into the kitchen. Tara heard the hall closet door creek open and knew Carol was hanging up her purse on the hook inside the door. Then she would take off her shoes and slip them into the closet. Knowing Carol was going through her evening routine was strangely comforting to Tara.

  “Grilled cheese and tomato soup,” Tara called out. “Because it’s freezing outside.” It totally wasn’t freezing outside. It was April for goodness sakes. “Or maybe because it was all we had.”

  “Sounds wonderful,” Carol said. “I’m going to change really quick and then I will join you.”

  Tara set the table and Carol entered a few minutes later.

  “Thank you, Lord, for this food and for Tara’s kind heart. And thank you, Tara, for making us dinner,” Carol said as she stirred her bowl of soup and took an appreciative sniff.

  “You might want to reserve thanking me until you’ve actually tasted it.”

  “I worked a twelve-hour shift and came home to a meal ready to eat that I didn’t have to think about or prepare. That makes it delicious no matter what it tastes like. And it’s a can of soup. How badly can you have messed that up?”

  Tara smiled. “How was work?” she asked and then took a bite of her own grilled cheese sandwich. Tara had to admit, she did make a mean grilled cheese.

  “It was one of those days where I wondered why I went into nursing in the first place,” Carol said. She scooped up a spoonful of soup and sipped it. She closed her eyes and smiled. “Hmm, so good. Every time I eat tomato soup, doesn’t matter what time of year, it always takes me back to when I was a kid and my grandmother would make it for me and my brother during the cold winter months.”

  Tara’s throat caught. She swallowed a spoonful of soup, and her own memories surfaced. Her mother had loved to make tomato soup and would add evaporated milk to it to make it creamy. Why was she only just now remembering that and not while she’d been preparing dinner? She wished it had been a memory that had resurfaced while she’d been alone and not while she was sitting with Carol who always saw too much.

  “It’s good to remember them,” her foster mom said. Her voice was gentle and her eyes full of understanding. Somehow, without fail, she knew Tara was thinking about her parents.

  “How do you always know?” Tara asked. It was a question she’d wanted to ask many times over the years but hadn’t been sure if she really wanted to know the answer. Now, she was simply looking for a distraction from her own pain and from her constant thoughts about Elias. Damn Elias and his lack of response.

  “Pain is a universal experience,” Carol said. She sat her spoon down, picked up her sandwich, and took a bite. Tara watched Carol chew slowly and purposefully as she seemed to gather her thoughts. After swallowing, she continued. “It’s universal in how we feel it and in how it is manifested. Our pain can be from a physical injury or it can be an emotional response to something. Regardless of what causes the pain or what type of pain it is, it is revealed in each of us the same way.”

  Tara found herself leaning toward her foster mom, her food forgotten as she waited to hear what it was that she had in common with the rest of the humans on the earth. What was it that made her not alone in her suffering? What made her not unique? “What is it?” She heard herself asking when Carol didn’t continue as fast as Tara wanted her to.

  “Our eyes,” Carol answered. “When we are in pain—emotional or physical—our pupils dilate. Always.”

  Okay. That wasn’t what Tara had been expecting. Although, she didn’t really know what she’d been expecting, though she didn’t think it was going to be a biological response. But then, Carol was a nurse. Naturally, she would know something like that. And it would be in the forefront of her mind when dealing with a person who’d had traumatic experiences in their past.

  “I think it was something God did so we couldn’t hide our pain,” Carol continued. “There are some who have an immense tolerance for pain. They can bury it so deep you’d never even know that having their leg cut off was excruciating. There are some who can take their emotions and shove them into steel boxes and then encase those in ice so that everyone around them never know they are suffering. But a single thought for a single second that they are in pain, and poof”—she made a popping motion with her hand—“the eyes dilate. It’s sometimes only for a fraction of a second and you have to be watching closely, but it’s there.” She reached across the table and placed her hand on top of Tara’s. Giving it a firm squeeze, she looked into her eyes. “I don’t believe God designed us to be alone. And I especially don’t believe He ever wanted us to suffer alone.”