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Koko opens her mouth to answer, but Perstephanie beats her to it. “Good old Sally’s Boutique with the rest of us fashion school graduates.”

Koko inclines her head toward Perstephanie. “Yep. What she said.”

Everything inside me deflates. “Anywhere else before that?”

Koko shakes her head. “Not really. I was at Sally’s for almost six years. Part-time while I was in school and then full-time until I opened this place.”

If Koko didn’t work there, then the vision was wrong.

Or maybe it never happened at all.

Koko hops up on the counter and crosses her legs. “Now that we’ve settled that, what time are you coming by tonight?”

I have no idea what she is talking about. “What’s tonight?”

She holds up her hands. “My party, dude. You promised.”

Shit. I did.

“Listen, Koko, today has not been a good day. I will catch the next one.”

“Lise,” she whines. “You’re leaving tomorrow night. There isn’t going to be a next time. You have to come. It’s basically your going-away party.”

I don’t want a going-away party, and I don’t want to think about going away, but I find myself nodding my head. “Okay. What time does it start?”

31

At ten o’clock the music begins to thump up through my floorboards. A few moments later, my phone lights up with a message.

Koko:

Don’t make me come up there and get you. I am motivated and freakishly strong.

I sigh, knowing there is nowhere to escape. I grab my jacket, shove my phone in my pocket, and head down toward the party sounds.

I have always been in awe of how much clothing Koko can pack into her tiny store, but I am even more impressed at the number of people pressed into every nook and cranny of Thrift Me Baby.

“You’re here!”

I hear her voice but fail to spot Koko before two bony arms wrap around my waist. Her hair is a bright electric blue, as if she has just dyed it again, and her sparkly silver dress catches like a disco ball in the light.

“I’m so happy you came,” she says, lifting my arm to twirl underneath it. Then she cups a hand around her mouth and calls to a tall guy with braids sitting next to her cash register.

“Yo, Precious. Get my girl Lise here a Diet Coke.”

Precious leans backward and when he straightens up, he has a can of Diet Coke in his hand, which gets passed through the crowd of bodies until it finds its way to me.

“This is quite a party.” I check out the DJ with a turntable set up in the changing room, the pink velvet curtain swept to the side, and the area in front of the big mirror that has become a makeshift dance floor. Although the bodies aren’t quite dancing, they are talking in tiny, tight circles and bobbing their heads to the music.

Koko leans in close so I can hear her over the noise. “Where’s Mac?”

I instinctively reach for my back pocket to check if I still have my phone. “Playing the Rivoli tonight. They were opening for someone else. He should be here in a bit.”

“So you’re all mine until then.” She swivels around and faces me. “I am going to miss you so much. We need a regular phone date in our calendars, and you need to let me know your schedule as soon as you get it so I can plan my visit for the summer.”

I am equally surprised at both parts of that last sentence.

“You’re coming to visit me?”