For a moment neither of them said anything.
Then Denise asked, “How much time until five?”
Lauren checked the clock.
“Three hours and forty-three minutes.”
“Then come home, baby. Let’s beat that man with a money order.”
Lauren laughed so hard she cried harder.
They did beat him.
Not with the full month, not that day.
But with enough.
The signing bonus arrived late afternoon, faster than Lauren thought anything good could move.
Ethan’s office manager must have pushed it through.
Lauren didn’t ask.
She just used it.
By 4:37 p.m. she was standing at a grocery store customer service counter buying a money order while Denise sat in the car borrowed from a neighbor and kept dabbing her eyes with tissue.
At 4:56, Mr. Talbot opened his door in his socks and stared at Lauren like she had risen from the dead.
She handed him the envelope.
