A couple of hours later, she parked her car in the mall parking lot and turned off the engine. She looked at the time on her watch, then tapped her fingertips on her thigh. Her nervous breaths started to fog up the driver’s side window. She glanced at her watch again, only forty seconds later. With one more deep inhale, she opened the door and headed inside. The butterflies that had overcome her gut had her wondering if she was even going to be able to eat.
The mall was a lot busier than she was used to, although still skimpy for December. There were only two weeks left until Christmas and the last-minute shoppers were just getting started. She entered through a different entrance than normal, trying to avoid the store that caused her agony five days a week. Rarely did she see the rest of
