He sighed. “Call me in three.” The treadmill started up again. “Hey, in the meantime, do you need money? I heard all your assets were frozen.”

I wasn’t expecting that, but Bradley was a very frank person, so maybe I should have. “What I need from you is to figure out how millions of dollars that Bill rightfully invested just disappeared.” I obviously did need money, and Bradley had so much of it that he wouldn’t even sneeze. But I would never.

Bradley made a dubious sound. “Sounds innocent to me.”

“Bradley!” I scolded.

“I hate Bill Sitterly, but I’ve always liked you. I’ll think about it, and I’ll help you if I can. But, for now, you’re killing my mile time.”

I smiled. Some things never changed. He’d been working on that mile time the whole time I’d known him.

“Okay. Hope you beat your record. Thank you!”

He hung up. And I couldn’t help but smile at myself in the mirror. So, no, nothing was fixed. I hadn’t gotten a job. But someone—anyone—had called me back. Someone would give me a job, even if it was in four months—no, three. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a start.

I made my way down the stairs and took a deep breath, trying to calm my nerves. I closed my eyes, thinking that, if Bill were here, he would tell me I was smart and confident and beautiful, and he would defy anyone to tell Charlotte Sitterly no! I smiled just thinking of it. It helped a little.

I was just turning toward the side door when someone knocked on it. When I opened it, the FedEx driver’s scanner made a little beeping noise, and he handed me a package. “Here you go, ma’am.”

“Thank you!” I said as he jogged down the steps.

To my surprise, the package was addressed to me. I knew I needed to leave for my interviews, but I couldn’t resist grabbing the scissors from the kitchen drawer and tearing into the box. As I unwrapped the packaging, I laughed: Serendipity Frrrozen Hot Chocolate Mix. I didn’t need to read the card to know it was from Bill. Or, well, Oliver, since Bill had no money and no internet ordering access. But still. What an amazingly thoughtful gesture. The card inside read: I love you more than iced hot chocolate—and you’re going to knock ’em dead today. Thanks for believing in me. It was a somewhat awkwardly phrased one-hundred-twenty-characters-or-less typed enclosure card. But it was from Bill. And I couldn’t have loved it more.

I was holding the card to my chest as if it could hug me back when Grace walked in. She smiled. “Oh, hot chocolate!”

“Definitely not vegan,” I said.