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could succeed if I tried. And I did! Thank you, Miz Manetti.”
    “Okay, you’re gonna make me cry now.” Mia laughed. “Like I said, it’s your doing. But if I helped, I’m glad.”
    Serina beamed as she took back the framed document and admired it a bit longer.
    “I hope you’ve got a special place on your wall for that,” Mia remarked, surreptitiously wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.
    “Oh, you bet. And I’m gonna show it to Jacob and say, ‘See, your mommy’s a graduate. The first one in our family. But not the last. You’re gonna be one too.’ Oh! I almost forgot!” Serina took a foil-wrapped item from her bag and placed it on top of the files cramming Mia’s desk.
    “What?” Mia found a dozen brownies when she opened the foil. “Oh, Serina. How nice.”
    The girl lifted her shoulder, trying to make light of it. “I made them myself. Hope they didn’t get too squashed in my purse.”
    Mia broke off a corner from one of the brownies and popped it into her mouth. “Mmm. Delicious. Thank you.”
    “I wanted to, you know, just say thanks. No, that’s okay,” Serina replied when Mia offered her one of the treats. When she pulled the strap of the purse over her shoulder, Mia wondered that she didn’t list sideways. Serina stood, hesitating.
    “Um…I was just wondering…” She shifted from one foot to the other. “I mean, are you okay?”
    The question startled Mia. “Of course. I…” A nervous laugh escaped her. “Why? Do I seem like I’m not okay?”
    “Well, kinda.” Serina’s mouth twisted in discomfort, but her forthright nature would not let her hold back. “You’ve been sorta droopy the past couple times I’ve been here.”
    Droopy . Oh boy.
    “I mean, you’re not sick or something, are you?”
    Mia’s face warmed with embarrassment. “No, I’m not sick. I’m all right. But thanks for asking.”
    “Okay, sure. I gotta get going,” Serina said, stepping back, her own cheeks flushed. “Gary’s supposed to be picking up Jacob today. He was supposed to come yesterday, but he’s such an ass—oops, ’scuse me, I mean jerk—that he never showed.”
    “Has everything been all right with Gary lately?” Serina’s relationship with her ex-boyfriend and baby daddy was contentious to say the least.
    “Oh yeah.” Serina blew off the question like it was no big deal.
    “Because if you don’t feel safe—”
    “Aw, it’s nothing like that. Gary just likes to flex his muscles, show off. He’s just a bas—I mean, a creep, sometimes.”
    Serina said good-bye and left, leaving Mia with her thoughts and her brownies. A few minutes later, someone peeked in the opening of Mia’s cubicle.
    “Are those brownies you have there?” Ronni Washington batted her big brown eyes, clearly hoping for an invitation to share.
    Mia motioned her in. “Yes, they are and how did you know?”
    “You know how word travels around here—especially when food is concerned.”
    “I better have one now, then,” Mia replied, offering one to her coworker as well.
    Ronni lowered herself to the seat that Serina had vacated and rubbed her very large baby bump. “Thanks. I’ve been craving sweets a lot more with this pregnancy than with any of my others. I wonder if that means I’m finally going to get my little girl.” Ronni and her husband already had three sons.
    “If it’s another boy, are you going to go again?”
    Ronni’s eyes widened as though Mia had flipped her lid. “Bite your tongue, woman.”
    They chewed their treats with a few murmurs of appreciation. “Serina brought you these?”
    Mia nodded. “She wanted to show me her GED. And thank me. It was sweet.”
    Ronni sighed. “It’s nice to have a happy outcome once in a while, isn’t it? I swear it’s like swimming upstream some days, fighting the current all the way.”
    “I hear you.” Mia frowned. “I’m concerned that ex of Serina’s is giving her a hard time.”
    “Listen, what have I told you? You