Rushing out the door before the furniture truck even pulled away after they made their deliveries the next morning, I drove hell on wheels into Magdalene.

I parked on Cross Street.

I hoofed it to Weatherby’s Diner.

I immediately spied Josie and Alyssa sitting in a booth, ready for me. I knew this because they were seated on the same side and three glasses of ice water were in front of them.

And I ignored their looks of shock when they saw me walk in, makeup-less, hair pulled back in a ponytail and I knew looking pale and frantic.

I slid in across from them as Alyssa breathed, “Oh my God, honey, you look like—”

“I need a makeover,” I announced.

Alyssa clamped her mouth shut.

They stared at me.

Then I jumped when suddenly Josie went flying out the side of the booth.

This was because Alyssa shoved her out.

Josie righted herself and whirled, eyes narrow, face full of fury, tone frosty. “What on earth?”

Alyssa, who didn’t hesitate in exiting the booth she’d shoved Josie out of, waved in her face.

“No time,” she muttered then looked to the long counter. “Marjorie. Three patty melts. I’ll send someone from the salon to pick them up in twenty.”

“I don’t want a patty melt,” Josie snapped.

Alyssa didn’t look at her. “Two patty melts and a Reuben.”

Josie got close to her. “I don’t want a Reuben. I want a Cobb salad.”

“Oh for ef’s sake!” Alyssa clipped. “Two patty melts and a Cobb salad.”

Through this, I got out of the booth too and added tentatively, “I actually wanted a chicken Caesar.”

Alyssa threw up her hands but asked a waitress who was apparently named Marjorie. “Got that?”

“Got it, babe,” Marjorie replied.

“And three Diet Cokes,” Alyssa kept going, doing this grabbing my hand and beginning to drag me to the door.

We were out on the sidewalk and Alyssa was tugging me down it in the direction of her salon, Maude’s House of Beauty (Alyssa was a hairdresser who owned her own place, this, plus Josie having a career in the fashion world, why I enlisted their support) when Josie demanded, “Can you explain why you’re acting like a lunatic?”

Alyssa stopped abruptly, causing me to crash into her, but she didn’t notice me.

She had eyes only for Josie.

“’Cause our girl here is beautiful,” she declared.

I drew in an audible breath.

But she was not finished.

“But she’s broken.”

I stared at her profile and held that breath.

Alyssa went on, “I don’t know why. I just know that shit is real. And every girl knows a makeover is the start of pickin’ up the pieces. And I’m all over that.”

She turned to me and it was then I noticed my vision had gone misty.