Chapter 2

"Congratulations, honey" said Ted upon hearing his wife's good news.

Carolyn was pleased with herself, having sold the Melody Lane house with less than a month before she would lose the listing. That enabled her to be in consideration when another seller called the office looking for an agent.

"So, what's the commish on this one, sales-lady-of-the-year, is it?"

"Well, after all splits and fees, my account is credited just over four thousand."

"Wow, that's rough. They take their cut, don't they? Still, that's great news, it's nice to get something done with the clock winding down, isn't it?"

"It sure is. I gotta make some payments, maybe afterwards, we can have a little celebration dinner?"

"Ok, sounds good, we'll make it for later this week. Gotta go."

"O, Ted, bye bye. Don't forget you have that youth baseball meeting tonight at the Rec Center."

"Aw, no. I'm not gonna be able to make that. Can you call them and tell them I'm swamped tonight. I won't be home til 8 at the earliest."

"Ok, I'll let them know, See you."

"Bye hon."

Carolyn returned to her laptop on her kitchen counter. She was paying the bills. First one was to Toyota Motor Credit to pay her lease on her Lexus. "$417 ... pay now ... click"

Talbots "$297 ... pay now ... click." Available balance: $307. Next bill: Verizon: "$77 ... pay now ... click." She looked at her declining balance. The income from her recent sale wouldn't arrive before the next bill would have to be paid, so she decided that was enough to pay today and logged out of her bank account. She logged into her joint account that she kept with her husband. Available balance: $4783. Sigh. There's still more in that from his last paycheck than in mine in an account I can't touch for 60 days, she thought. She grabbed her purse and headed to her car. It was 3 hours before her kids had to be picked up from camp and she still needed to pick up something from the store for dinner. She pulled her hair back in a bun and checked her look in the hall mirror before she headed out. She looked at her face, her lips, her hair. All could use a freshening up, she decided. She stood up straight and turned to the side, checking her figure, turning all the way around to check out her backside. She smoothed her clothes and headed out. As she drove to town, she decided to drive past the Melody Lane house again. The sign had come down, and she slowed her car to see if there were any signs of the new owners. She didn't notice anything. Her eyes scanned the neighborhood, looking...