three

Was she ready to live on her own? She didn't know. But she also didn't think it was a particularly pertinent question, since Gigi hadn't asked her to move in and so far she didn't have to. She mentioned it casually to Ida and Rose, and both of them were scandalized that she'd even think it.

"Men will get the wrong idea!" Rose insisted.

"You'll have to cook for yourself," Ida added. She had adjusted remarkably quickly to having someone else make all her meals, and after years of helping her mother and her sisters in the kitchen, she was more than happy to let someone else do it.

( But neither of those things really bothered Sadie. )

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total words: 5841
note: the pepper pot was a real place. i found a menu from 1929.

four

Sadie took her advice and ordered the ham, even though it felt wrong to her to let another girl buy her dinner, and not even an inexpensive dinner at that. She wasn't even sure she'd let a man buy her dinner if they were on a date.

The shrimp cocktail, when it arrived, was a dozen pink and white boiled shrimp, peeled and de-tailed, surrounding a small cup of red sauce that tasted like tomato ketchup and horseradish. Gigi swept a shrimp through the sauce, bit it in half, chewed, swallowed, and sighed.

"I love shrimp," she said. "Boiled is the best way to eat them. They taste much fresher than if you fry them." She speared one with her fork, dipped it in the sauce, and held it out to Sadie. "I'm not going to eat them all myself. I can, but that would be rude."

( Sadie took Gigi's fork and pushed the shrimp off it onto her plate. )

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total words: 7362