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“I didn’t s I’d forgotten to mention at lunch so I came back I was outside your door, heard my name, and did exactly what I shouldn’t have done Eavesdropped”

Faith took a deep breath, hating that she hiccupped, hating that when she opened the stall door there was no way could she hide how pitifully she’d been crying “I’ument with Vale”

“Why? You onderful”

Faith blinked, sure she’d h the tear-induced fog of her glasses at Vale’s cousin “I was?”

“Absolutely,” Sharon replied Reaching for a tissue and Faith’s glasses, she took it upon herself to blot away Faith’s tears “I’ve never heard anyone put Vale in his place that way Never Even most of the family are a little scared of him” Sharon stepped back, surveyed her clean-up job of Faith’s face, and sreat friends”

Faith’s head was spinning “But—”

“No buts” Sharon opened her purse, dug around until she pulled out a zippered pouch Re liquid concealer, she squirted a pearl-size drop on her fingertip “Look up,” she ordered, dabbing beneath Faith’s eyes, then s out the make-up to her satisfaction “Any woman who can stand up to my cousin and leave him speechless has my complete admiration”

The reality of what she’d done sank in “Oh, God, I just quit my job”

“But you said you were going to a different clinic,” Sharon pointed out, confusionher flawless complexion as she handed Faith a new tube of lipstick “That’s my favorite color, by the way I always carry extras, just in case I lose one”

Vale’s cousin carried extra tubes of the sa the lipstick, she read the label Pouty Pink Passion

“I lied,” she ad the plastic seal away and

opening the tube to stare at the color Not bad

“Oh,” Sharon said, herher forehead “But you’re still a brain doctor, right?”

Sether to sist Just an unemployed one”

So asn’t she freaking out? Why was she standing next to a bathroo with Sharon Wakefield Woodard as if they were discussing the weather?