Free Secrets of a Shoe Addict by Beth Harbison Page B

sniffled. “I don’t know.”
    “I’m sorry,” Sandra said, meaning it sincerely. “If there was anything I could do, I’d—wait a minute. You just want work? For money? Fast?”
    “Yes.” The answer was more of a question, and Sandra could picture Tiffany sitting straighter on her square of linoleum, listening for the potential answer to her problems.
    And maybe Sandra had it. “There is
one
thing I can think of, one way to make good money fast. . . . If you’re really serious, that is.”
    “There is?” Hope was clearly rising fast. “What is it? Does it take some special skill or education or something?”
    “N-no. Not really. Just a willingness to . . . put yourself out there.”
    There was a pause. “Sandra, you’re starting to make me nervous. What is it?”
    “Keep an open mind.”
    “Sandra—”
    “I mean it. I don’t want you throwing this back in my face later. It’s a perfectly legit way to earn money, and I even did it myself for a while.”
    “Do
not
tell me you were a prostitute.”
    Funny how quickly she’d come to that conclusion. “No!”
    “Thank God.”
    Sandra took a short breath then continued. “Have you ever thought about the possibility of being a phone sex operator?”

Chapter

         6    
     
     
     
     
    P
hone sex?”
Loreen repeated. She couldn’t believe Tiffany was suggesting this! Apart from the irony of Loreen having to turn virtual tricks to pay for the trick
she’d
accidentally become, this was
not
the sort of thing Tiffany Dreyer ever even
talked
about, much less suggested as a PTA fund-raiser.
    They were sitting on Loreen Murphy’s sofa, trying to sort out the details of the nightmare that remained from their trip to Las Vegas
    “Look,” Tiffany said with a sigh. “It’s not
just
the PTA card that got racked up. I got into a little financial trouble in Vegas myself.”
    Loreen looked at her. “How little?”
    Tiffany swallowed. “Five thousand.”
    “So we’re up to ten thousand,” Loreen said, and almost laughed at how ludicrous it was. They needed ten thousand bucks in, like, a month. Fat chance.
    Abbey, who had been watching silently—and, Loreen thought, judgmentally—spoke then. “If we’re looking to come up with a quick fund-raiser, I could use some cash myself.”
    For the church, Loreen thought. If Abbey was going to help pay the cost of their sins, she was going to want them to tithe.
    Like they could afford
that
.
    Tiffany, however, didn’t make the same assumption. “Did you lose money
gambling
?” she asked Abbey in disbelief.
    Abbey shook her head. “No, it’s something else. I . . .”She shook her head. “I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
    “No, no,” Tiffany said. “We’re putting it all out there. We’re going to help each other out of this mess. So how much do you need?”
    “Ten thousand.”
    Tiffany and Loreen exchanged looks. This didn’t sound like tithing for the church. Abbey was in some serious trouble of some sort.
    “What happened?” Loreen asked.
    “It’s a long story. It has to do with a charitable donation I made that went wrong.” Abbey shook her head. “Not all that interesting.”
    So in a way Loreen had been right. But who was she to judge? If Abbey would help pay off her mistake, she’d help Abbey pay off hers.
    Tiffany took a sip of General Foods International Coffee. “Obviously a bake sale isn’t going to cut it.” If they were at Tiffany’s house, it would have been freshly ground and brewed coffee, but at Loreen’s if it wasn’t instant, it wasn’t happening. “Neither is a car wash.”
    New panic surged in Loreen’s breast. “Please, let’s not make the kids do anything to help with this. I just . . . I can’t bear the idea.”Good Lord, the
children
working to pay of her
prostitution debt
? It was worse than third-world sweatshops, by far. “I’ll sell my kidney first.”
    How much
did
kidneys get on the black market anyway?
    Andy toddled