Almost an entire day home in her real world, and she was holding up just fine. Michelle, Angie, and Corrie sat nestled in a back booth at The Pancake House just outside the city limits. Pam offered to break her date with Bernie Crawford to join them, but Michelle insisted it wasn’t necessary. After ten days of nonstop gourmet meals, even though it was suppertime, all she craved was a tall order of blueberry whole wheat pancakes with low calorie syrup. Besides, she wasn’t ready to face a world with her best friend and fiancé married to each other. Not yet, and anyplace in town she was bound to run into someone who wanted to gab about the newlyweds. Or worse, bump into the newlyweds themselves. The Pancake House was just far enough away to assure her a peaceful dinner in a Steven-and-Beth-free zone. “Did I miss anything important while I was gone?” Angie developed a sudden interest in the silverware, and Corrie focused much too intently on sipping her soda.
