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love men now’days, they start acting a fool. So I’m just not gonna be as liberal with my love. When the right man comes, I wanna have something left for him, emotionally.”
    â€œI know how you feel.” As the words passed, for a moment each woman reflected on all of the Evanders who had walked in and out of their lives. “I see a lot I like in him. I really do. But you know how that can be when you first start dating. I don’t want to get in too deep too fast. You know how I was raised. But,” Betty said, and released a puff of air, “I’m glad you finally met Vander. How long since he left there anyway?”
    â€œAbout a half hour or so, I guess. Why?”
    â€œGet this,” Betty said, and politely waved on a gentleman who had slowed his car to get her attention. “Jack Murphy, Mr. Jack Murphy himself, invited Evander and me to his house for dinner tonight. And you know what? He remembered Vander’s name from that office function a couple of weeks ago. I mean, I always noticed he remembered everybody’s spouse’s name, but Vander and I are just dating.”
    â€œDamn, really?”
    â€œYeah. Jack’s all right. He was in the courtroom most days during the trial, you know. He’s helped me a lot.”
    â€œUmm. Well, I’m happy you won. Can you imagine if you had won that case in private practice?”
    â€œDon’t start again. I’m just trying to play the game,” Betty replied as she tried to wave off the guy who was beginning to be a pest. “Jack has been watching me closely, and the executive board may be getting ready to make an offer. Rumor has it they’re going to offer a partnership within thenext sixty to ninety days. I noticed on a memorandum for the partners that my billable hours were about thirty percent higher then the next associate on the list. With this verdict and my record, I look good, so we’ll see. But in regards to going solo, if I wasn’t with this firm, I may have never seen a case like this, so there are two sides to it.”
    â€œMaybe you wouldn’t, maybe you would. But four hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a lot of money to ‘maybe’ about. You understand me?” Jacqui said in a parental tone. “I mean, one case like that and, girl, you set. Let’s say they put you on the letterhead. You’ll still have that idiot Renfro as managing partner. He’ll still be calling the shots around there. If you hang a shingle, you can pick and choose which cases make you happy. Just think. Four hundred and fifty—”
    â€œI know, I know, I know,” Betty said, and gave the guy in the other car a sneer that prompted him to give up and drive away. “But sometimes it has to be more than just the money. Hey, I gotta call Evander to see if he’s free tonight. Are you going to be around later on?”
    â€œMore than likely. I’m short a waitress since Kathleen is off again. She went to visit that fool in prison, so I’m filling in where they need me.”
    â€œOkay. Well, if I don’t call back, I’ll just drop by later, okay?”
    â€œSo if you have time to drop by here, you must be all moved in, huh?”
    â€œYeah. I got a few boxes to open still, but everything is at least in the right room now. Thanks for the help last night. I just never thought buying a house would be this involved.”
    â€œTell me about it. Well, I will be here when you get here. Oh yeah,” Jacqui said before Betty hung up, “again, girl, congratulations. I know those MFs over there thought you couldn’t do it, but you did.”
    â€œThanks. I appreciate that,” Betty replied as she said good-bye, heard the dial tone and laid the phone to rest on the passenger seat.

Chapter 2

 
    Betty used the speed dial to call Evander. She had known him for some time, but they had only started dating recently. While she’d noticed he