How To Be the Perfect Girlfriend

“Well, it’s no wonder—you were making out with him in a public place!” Missy lowered her voice. “A bar. He thought you were one of those kind of women and didn’t take you seriously.”

“I’ve found that men take that sort of thing very seriously,” Hayden said.

“So why did he pretend not to know her? My mama always said, men won’t buy the cow if they can get the milk for free.”

Hayden rolled her eyes. “They’ll just get the milk from another cow.”

“I didn’t give him any milk,” Sara pointed out.

“Maybe that was the problem.”

Missy glared at Hayden. “Well, maybe if all the cows got together and agreed to stop giving milk—”

“They’d end up as hamburger.”

“Not if they chose their herd carefully,” Missy snapped.

“Who cares about the herd? Pay attention to the bull.”

“That is just so typical of you.”

Hayden blinked. “Moo.”

“This is not helping,” Sara said.

“What did you expect?” Missy speared a tomato wedge in her salad so hard she broke a tine on her plastic fork.

“I was hoping for help in attracting men from Hayden and figuring out which ones to attract and how to keep them from you.”

Missy got all huffy. “I can attract men! But I’m engaged, so I choose not to.”

“Right,” Hayden said.

“I can!” Missy glanced around, then peeled off her sweater revealing a tight black sleeveless shell. Then she turned her diamond engagement ring around to hide the stone.

Sara had no idea how big the diamond was, only that when the light caught the stone and it flashed, the reflection left a blue-green dot in her vision.

After fluffing her blond hair and throwing back her shoulders, Missy waited a couple of beats, then picked up the broken fork and gasped. “Oh, no! My fork broke!”

Oh, please. Sara rolled her eyes so hard she felt the muscles twinge.

And yet, there was an instant response. “Here, take mine,” said a man from the next table at the same moment another passing by handed her one from his tray.

“Here you go.” Then he just stood there.

Smiling widely, Missy took the fork. “Why, aren’t you both so sweet,” she gushed as only a Texas belle could.

“I need a fork, too,” Sara said. No one even blinked. But then, she hadn’t expected them to.

Missy held the attention of the men with her smile long enough to make her point, then released them by turning back to her salad. The man with the tray looked as if he wanted to linger, so Missy tucked her hair behind her ear, the flashing diamond visible once more.

Very neatly done. Disappointment crossed the man’s face and he left. Missy shrugged back into her sweater.

“Not bad,” admitted Hayden. “Just don’t try going one on one with me.”

“I doubt that’ll happen.” Missy’s voice was lethally sweet. “We don’t move in the same social circles.”

“I’m not moving in any social circles!” Sara dropped her head to the table. “I give up.”

“But you haven’t started yet,” Missy said.

“What’s the point? I’ll never be able to stop men in their tracks the way you and Hayden do.”

“But do you truly want to?” Hayden asked.

Sara raised her head just high enough to prop it on her fist. “Maybe not stop so much as slow them down.”

“And then what?” Missy asked.

“What do you mean ‘and then what’?”

“What are you going to do with them when you’ve got them?”

“Well, I don’t know. I was hoping we could talk about that after I found somebody.”

“I think that’s been your problem. We should be talking about afterward before.”

“Huh?”

Missy reached into her wedding tote, withdrew a Palm Pilot and unfolded a keyboard for it. “You need a goal and a plan to reach it.” She looked at Hayden. “Am I right?”

“Yes.” Hayden crossed her arms over her chest and watched the parade of men coming down the escalator. “Much as I hate to admit it.”

Missy’s fingers were poised over the keyboard. “So, what do you want, Sara?”

Well, this was it and she’d better pay attention. “I want a man who’s interested in making a life with me.”

Missy started typing. “Marriage.”

Hayden snorted.

“Or at least long-term devotion. Long-term enough for me to decide if I want it to lead to marriage,” Sara added because she didn’t want to completely alienate Hayden with marriage talk. “Certainly a better caliber of man.”

“What kind of man do you want?” Hayden asked, as though it were that simple.

“The perfect man, of course,” Sara said flippantly.

“Then you’ll have to become the perfect woman.” Missy was serious.