“Gotcha. Now roll with it, roll with it, babe,” Alyssa encouraged.

I focused on her. “The stoneware from Williams-Sonoma. A mixture of the orange, blue and green with the matching swirling pieces in here and there.”

“Loved that shit, keep goin’,” Alyssa urged.

I looked to Josie. “Those lamps from that lighting warehouse. Terrible displays but that standing one and the matching table one, in iron, looking like they’re made out of loops. The standing one in the sunken area, the one on a table up top. Bringing the two areas together.”

“Those were beautiful, Amelia,” Josie said softly as I felt a hand again at the small of my back, gently pushing me.

“The daybed at your interior designer’s showroom,” I kept at it as Josie backed up and Alyssa pushed me toward the front door. “In fact, that whole area. That cream painted iron side table that looked like tiered flowers. The rug that was all pebbly. The fantastic lamp that had that pearly base that looked like it was made from the inside of shells. I want that in my bedroom on the other side of the fireplace. Oh, and those rugs. The memory foam ones. Three of them for the kitchen, sink, work area, stove.”

“How much time we got?” Alyssa muttered.

“Some of the specialty shops will be closed, but we can still get to the mall,” Josie replied, backing out my front door that she’d opened.

“Toss pillows,” I mumbled. “Pottery Barn. Those huge downy ones with those covers in those deep colors.”

“Beep the locks, bitch, we’re outta here,” Alyssa ordered.

I heard the locks on Josie’s Cayenne beep.

Alyssa shoved me in the front seat and Josie got behind the wheel while Alyssa hauled herself into the back.

And away we went.

It took another four hours and we closed down the mall, but we got my stoneware, the kitchen rugs, the toss pillows and new towels for all the bathrooms. We also got new bed linens that would match the seating area. Further, we found a new set of bed linens for Olympia’s room, a paisley of bright pinks and oranges, her favorite colors.

In fact, the Cayenne was not small, but it was stuffed full by the time we made it home.

And Josie had called her designer, reserved the items I wanted, all I had to do was go in with my credit card and arrange delivery.

The next day, I went out to do that and get the rest (what I could fit in my car, which was a single lamp and the wineglasses) and I ordered what needed to be delivered and set up, including a new TV, DVD player, receiver, Xbox, printer, laptop and desktop PC. I’d even found a table that worked with the chair for the landing, highly distressed wood planks at top and bottom, positioned and cut round, held together by swirling bands of wrought iron.

It was amazing.

The rest of the day I ran load after load in the dishwasher, cleaned and put away the wine glasses, laundered and put away the towels, the same with the linens, making the beds.