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“Maybe it is,” Margery added, calmly. “But so is sitting around feeling bad, so why the heck not?”

“Now, now, ladies,” Sandra said. “Let’s cool our jets and let Maye decide.”

Maye thought through the scenarios as the Lunch Ladies excitedly chatted around her. She knew in her heart of hearts that, as ridiculous as the idea was, it was actually a pretty good way to keep her grief process on track. And she’d be watching them anyway.

“I don’t know about this,” Maye said, picking at her nail polish. “Maybe if I had one of Tay’s double chocolate brownies, I could think more clearly.”

“Oh, you little…” Laura whacked Maye on the shoulder with her sun hat as she made her way to the counter.

Another upside to this little idea was that it could score her some fun points with Tracy. She always said that Maye needed more fun in her life. This might be fun.

Laura returned to the table with one of Tay’s super-sized brownies.

“Oh, for me?” Maye acted surprised.

“So what do you think, Maye?” Chris said.

Maye took a bite of the two-inch thick brownie. It was perfectly under-baked and loaded with chocolate chips. “I think…this brownie is heavenly,” she said.

“Oh, come on!” Laura shouted. “You know what he means. We want to know if you’ll do the romance plots or not.”

Maye held up a finger while she chewed and soaked in the moment. “I can see how the attention can be slightly addictive,” she said to Chris. “Okay, here’s the deal. I will give it a try.”

Cheers erupted around Maye.

“But,” she said sternly. “I will choose the scenarios. You all don’t get to send me on some willy-nilly goose chase.”

The Lunch Ladies nodded amongst themselves while Chris offered a thumbs up.

“Ahem,” Jayce injected himself back into the conversation. “If I could just steer us back on course here for the last few minutes we have scheduled—”

“Oh, you know what?” Chris said. “Wardrobe’s ready for me so I gotta run. Let’s do this again! This was fun.”

“Oooh, are you on a film set?” Sandra asked.

“I am,” Chris said. “I’m just doing a quick day in a friend’s movie.”

“Break a leg!” Sandra added as Chris jumped off the call.

“Break a leg?” Margery chided. “What are we, standing in the wings at A Chorus Line?”

“A Life-changing musical,” Sandra said.

“In another life, I was a dancer,” Margery stared into the distance.

Maye and Sandra raised their eyebrows at her.

“What?” Margery said. “I have shattered dreams just like the rest of you.”

“Oh, we don’t doubt that,” Sandra said.

- 7 -

Intro to Kickboxing

“Come on in, hon!” the friendly instructor she met the previous day welcomed Maye into the kickboxing studio. “Get yourself warmed up! We’ll be starting in a few minutes.”

The energy was high inside the Roundhouse Kickboxing studio. Hip-hop thumped as half a dozen people stretched and sparred ahead of the group class. The middle of the room was open space, with a wall of mirrors on one side and a row of punching bags on the other. Maye found a quiet corner and began stretching. She scanned the room, performing a romantic opportunity assessment, of sorts. A handful of people looked to be around their thirties, like her, a couple were on the younger end, and the rest were white-haired, vibrant, and looked like they could run a marathon on a moment’s notice. She shot off a text to Tracy.