Once Piper and Joel"s eyes adjusted to the dimmer light of the bookstore, Piper looked around and saw Hazel in the far corner. The woman looked their way and waved in greeting. Putting the book she held in her hand down on the shelf, Hazel walked toward her customers.
"Good morning, Piper. What a pleasant surprise to see you again so quickly. Browsing, or is there something I can help you with?"
"It"s good to see you too, Hazel. I just love your shop, so I think I"m going to be a pretty consistent customer." The two women exchanged smiles and then Piper turned to include Joel into the conversation.
"This is my friend, Joel," she said, being deliberately vague and not offering Joel"s last name." We just realize we have a mutual friend. And he was also bragging about what a great store th
