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And work occupied her time.

She had a chunk of money from the settlement after the car crash, but she didn’t want to touch it unless it was an emergency. The money only reminded her of what she’d lost.

She had no interest in dredging up that loss over and over again.

Not that she’d managed to escape it much.

“That’s it.” Reiko took half a step away and before Mari knew what was going on, she was dragging her into the hallway toward the bedrooms. “Let’s go.”

It wasn’t until Reiko slid open her closet door that Mari started to panic.

“What… what are you doing?”

Reiko let go of her arm and used her toes to shut the bedroom door. “This is not about what I’m doing. This is what we are going to do. We are going to go to your room and pick out something fun for you to wear and then we’re going out.”

Mari pulled in a breath through her nose, ready to argue, but Reiko gave her a look.

“Please don’t say you’re not going to come out with me. I haven’t been out for fun in weeks, and I know you haven’t been out either.”

Mari opened her mouth to protest, and Reiko cut her off with a shake of her head. “The cat,” she emphasized the word, “can take care of herself for a few measly hours.” Reiko reached in and pulled out a black dress that hadn’t seen the light of day or night since she’d moved in when her mother needed care.

“Uh… I would say no.”

Reiko shook her head. “That’s why I would say… yes.”

“Hey,” Mari pushed the hanger away, “I used to baby sit you.”

“So… it’s time for you to listen to me now.” Reiko kept hold of the hanger and took a step away from the closet. “Now, you have a choice to make.”

Mari felt like snarling at her friend. “What choice do I have?”

Reiko wiggled her toes at the three pairs of shoes on the floor of the closet. “Which pair are you bringing or do you want to go with the slippers you had on when you came home?”

Mari didn’t like being strong armed into doing anything, but she knew that her friend wasn’t going to take no for an answer on the night out.

So either she had to pick a decent pair of shoes or go with her slippers from Longs Drug Store.

That… was not going to happen!

She looked down and picked out the only pair of shoes that looked like they belonged with a dress.

Picking them up, she followed behind Reiko.

Ebi barely lifted her head from one of her many beds around the living room.

Mari made it as far as the kitchen door, but then she dug her heels in.

“I… I can’t.”

Reiko narrowed her eyes and gave her a hard look as if she was looking over blueprints for any kind of flaw.

She was a top-notch architect who spent incredible amounts of time working and hardly any on herself. Her awards and plaques lined the walls of her office and overflowed into her home. Where Mari spent too much time at home, Reiko was almost always at the office or on a job site.

Mari felt horrible turning her friend down, but she needed some time to think and going out would mean people and noise and… no. Not tonight.

With a soft, almost melancholy sigh, Reiko let go of her arm and took a step down on the stairs. “Look, I want to take you out to have some fun, but if not today… what about next week?”

Even though they were both full grown, with Mari more full grown than Reiko, her younger friend knew just the right pouty expression to make it impossible to say anything other than, “Okay. Next week.”