Got Your Number

with a Saks."
    She groaned.
    "Hey, you could use a few new duds yourself, kiddo. You look exactly the same as you did in college."
    Roxann craned to critically study her reflection in the rearview mirror. "I don't look exactly the same." Those little creases around her eyes, for instance. And five gray hairs that congregated in her side part.
    "Are you kidding? You're frozen in time." Angora tsk-tsked at Roxann's faded jeans. "And that's not always a good thing."
    Shopping—a grueling experience. Despite her stint in the dress shop in high school, she didn't have Angora's eye for color or style. "We should be in Jackson by noon, maybe we can find a Wal-Mart."
    "This is serious." Angora was gaining momentum. "You could have your eyebrows waxed."
    "I prefer having them singed by a roaring gas flame."
    "And have you ever thought about letting your hair grow out?"
    She rolled her eyes up to stare at the fringe of bangs tickling her brow. "No. In fact, it's time for a trim."
    "Long straight hair is back in. You'd be absolutely exotic." She snapped her fingers. "I've got it—hair extensions!"
    "You always were determined to make me over."
    "And you always were determined to shop at the campus Goodwill."
    It was what she could afford. Plus the vintage, boyish clothes boosted her image of rebellious coed. Indeed, she'd stuck out when most young women were going over the top with big, feminine hair and look-at-me clothing. Carl had admired her individuality, but maybe she was getting too old for jeans and T-shirts. Besides, since almost everyone was going out of the way to dress down these days, she was in danger of falling into a trend— argh .
    Angora yawned and laid her head back. "So, cuz, do you have a boyfriend?"
    Roxann watched the road signs in the dark and headed toward the interstate. "No. I don't date much." Even she and Richard hadn't really dated when she lived in Birmingham. If she was lonely, she'd drop by the bar or coffeehouse where he happened to be playing, and he'd go home with her. If he was lonely, he'd show up on her doorstep with Thai food.
    "What are the men like in Biloxi?"
    Capistrano's face came to her. "Like the weather—thick and predictable." He probably hated Thai food.
    "Don't you get lonely?"
    "I stay pretty busy." A definite meat-and-potatoes man.
    "Have you ever come close to getting married?"
    "Not that I know of." In fact, he probably wrestled his meat to the ground and killed it with his bare hands.
    Angora groaned. "Men are such pigs—why do we want one?"
    She scowled. "Who says I do?"
    "You don't want a family of your own?"
    "Maybe. Someday." The last two items on her life list came to mind, but that little part about the sperm contribution posed a bit of a problem.
    "Someday? Roxann, do you realize that at our age we're already considered high-risk for pregnancy?"
    Her own gynecologist had said the same thing on her last annual visit. Blah, blah, blah.
    "The way I see it, we have another good year left to find a husband, then one year of decent sex before getting pregnant. If we can get pregnant at our age. Our eggs are getting old, you know. With every month that passes, we're becoming more barren."
    "Stop."
    Angora sniffled. "Maybe it's not important to you, but I always pictured myself with a little boy and a little girl. I'd never want an only child because it's just too much..."
    "Pressure," Roxann supplied.
    "Right. But Uncle Walt never pressured you."
    "No." That would've required being attentive. "But I think most only children realize that the expectations of the family ride on their shoulders." If she didn't make her life matter for something, the Beadleman name would be remembered as a flirtatious mother who'd met an untimely end and a drunkard father who would probably meet his Maker while stretched out in his recliner.
    Angora sighed. "That kind of pressure can make you do crazy things, all right."
    "Like marrying a man just to make your mother happy?"
    She hadn't meant to hurt her, but Angora closed her eyes and pressed her lips together. "Or turning your back on men to become a martyr for abused women?"
    Roxann was so astounded at how closely Angora's assessment had matched her own, that she had no choice but to lie. "That's ridiculous."
    "Really? So you're open to having a man in your life? To getting married?"
    Suddenly she was reminded of the upside of traveling alone—you didn't have to answer irrelevant questions. "I, uh...suppose. I really don't think about