Tessa found a pair of rainbow flip-flops in the bag. “Oh, that’s sweet. Thank you. For this and…for supporting me. And believing in me.”

“Gosh, Tessa, they’re just flip flops,” she said, hugging her back. “I love you, you know that. She pulled back and shook her phone. “Now for what’s really important.” She began to read, “Venus and Mars are conjugating in your ninth house of adventure, and Mars is in your sultry eighth house of intimacy—”

“Lilac! I have to go. What’s the bottom line?”

“Knock ’em dead! The cosmos says you’re ready for this!” She gave her a big hug. “And I do too!”

Tessa hugged her best friend. “What I’m really lucky about is having a great friend like you.”

…

The flip-flops did wonders for Tessa’s feet but nothing for the gaggle of geese fluttering in her stomach. By the time she’d walked the three blocks downtown, she couldn’t believe what she saw.

A line of people stretched from the restaurant, around the bakery, and clear up the “little” side street that Lilac mentioned, which wasn’t little at all. And wait a minute…when Tessa examined the line closer, she realized that people were splitting off from the restaurant line to form a line to Bonjour! Breads as well.

People were checking out the bakery while they were in line for the restaurant.

The bakery was getting business, too. That brought tears of joy to her eyes.

Oh, hurray.

There was no way into the restaurant unless she walked through the crowd, so she plunged straight into the noisy tangle of people.

As she got closer, someone yelled and waved, “Contessa! Yoo-hoo! Hi!”

Contessa? Who in the world…

It was a red-haired, middle-aged woman she’d never seen around town before. “I’m Beverly,” the woman said. “You know, Beverly Roseberry from your channel. You’re even cuter in person! I came from South Bend to meet you.”

“Beverly? From my YouTube channel? Hi!” Of course. BeverlyRoseB commented all the time. And had a yellow tabby cat named Charlie. “How’s Charlie doing?”

“Oh, getting into mischief as always.” She pointed to the two women on either side of her. “These are my best friends.”

“I’m Charlotte,” one said.

“And I’m Daisy.”

Tessa immediately recognized them as people who followed her channel and commented often on her videos. It was amazing that her little channel with a few hundred subscribers could bring a handful of nice people out here to support her.

“We have a reservation,” Beverly said. “Good thing, too, or we’d never have gotten in. It’s going to be packed.”

Tessa greeted them and gave them all hugs. “How did you find out about this?” Because she certainly didn’t post about it. In fact, in the past few weeks, she’d barely posted any videos at all.