Page 35 of Here's to Yesterday

I automatically glance around the shop, my mom’s words about not embarrassing her fresh in my mind, making me onedge.

“Hey, Maurie,” Jane says from behind the counter. “Got a few fun new blazers in. I think you’d likethem.”

“Thanks, Jane,” I tell her as I steer myself toward where they’relocated.

She’s right, of course. Jane managed to snag two beautifully crafted jackets. One is white and lined with chunky dark pink Chevrons, while the other is navy with tiny teal sparrows on it. I grab them both and take them up front to start my pile, not bothering to try themon.

Jane shoots me a wink as I set them down. “Toldya.”

“You know me toowell.”

“Ugh! Dude, come help me! I suck at this shit!” Rae shouts from behind the dressing roomcurtain.

Jane shakes her head. “You think that’s bad? She’s been here for ten minutes already. I’ve had to put back ten tops and three dresses. She’s a tough onetoday.”

“It’s a good thing we love her,” I mockwhisper.

“Aw. I love you too. Now come help me,” Raedemands.

I walk over and squeeze into the area with her. She’s trying to zip a pink and purple sundress and failing miserably at it. Plus, the dress isugly.

“No, no, no. Take it off. It’s all wrong. You need a brighter color but less chaotic. This won’t match your eyes at all,” I tell her, pulling the zipper back down. “Let me go grab you a differentdress.”

She’s terrible,I mouth to Jane, who nods at me inreturn.

I scour through the racks until I find two options that will work for her. I thrust them at her through the side of the curtain. “Try these. But first tell me how it went withPerry.”

She huffs loudly. “It went. He won’t be back to Clyde’s for a while. Now go away,please.”

I laugh and move back out into the shop, continuing to throw things in my pile—which is stacking up because I’m clearly making up for all the crappy days I’ve been having lately—while I wait forher.

Setting a new pair of flats on the counter, Jane catches myeye.

“How’s it going?” she asks. I frown at her. “That good, huh? Parents orTanner?”

My frown deepens. “Both.”

“Yikes. That sounds like a bundle offun.”

“You know it,” Ideadpan.

“Care toshare?”

“Same shit, different day with my parents. Dad still ignores me but continues to fill up my bank account, not paying attention to the fact that I haven’t touched a dime he’s ever deposited. And my mother is still a totalbitch.”

“How does he not realize that you don’t spend his money? For a CEO, he’s pretty damn dense,” Jane sayshonestly.

Here’s the thing, my parents haveno ideaI work at Clyde’s, because Doughers women do not work. Our sole purpose is to attend charity functions and sit on community boards. That’s it. We marry rich or we marry for status. That’sit.

I have a useless business degree that my parents paid for and it’s entirely for show. All the women in our family—excluding my aunt—have one and were not ever supposed to use it. I want to. But my father has serious pull in the business world, and I know I’d never get past the application stage. Not with my lastname.

My father, John, runs a Fortune 500 company and makes about half a million dollars a month between that and all the other companies he has his hands in. He rubs elbows all day with other rich people and B-list celebrities while he makes a living off everyone else. It’s all suchbullshit.

My mother, on the other hand, isabsolutely swampedwith running her charities—something that would be commendable if she believed in the work she did. But it’s all for show. The real Norah Doughers—the one who gave birth to her daughter and only talks to her to put her down or correct her—is a royal bitch. She’s mean andvindictive.

And unfortunately, that shitty demeanor runs in ourfamily.

If I were to ever tell them I worked at Clyde’s, I’d be disowned instantly. Which doesn’t sound like a horrible idea, but I’m sick enough to yearn for theirapproval.

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