Dini caught her reflection in the fridge’s polished chrome and made a face. Maybe she just didn’t want to understand herself

Hey, Ayala,

Schwartz dinners for next two weeks taken care of.

What will you do with all your free time?

Dini added a smiley emoji to soften the sarcasm and pressed send. Was she a terrible person for enjoying the triumph of telling her friend that she’d organized two weeks of meals in less than an hour? Yes, Ayala, this is the way things work when we don’t insist on doing everything ourselves.

She stood up abruptly. Not nice. Especially when she’d been the one to flake out on Ayala last week.

And, worse, had given her salary away to someone else.

Dini walked into her kitchen and stuck her head in the freezer. Okaay. So she was making dinner for the Schwartzes tonight and had nothing decent to cook for them. Takeout, here we come?

She frowned, remembering Ayala’s ridiculous fit when she’d sent the Entrecote dinner to the Teichmans. Because it had, for whatever reason, offended Ayala’s delicate financial sensibilities, did Dini now need to schlep out to the butcher and spend her entire afternoon cooking?

Besides, maybe a fun restaurant meal would soften the blow when Dini broke the news to Leora Schwartz that, oops, so sorry, in the end we don’t have the funding to cover your leave of absence. Or should she be breaking the news to Ayala? Maybe she should send her family takeout dinner tonight?

Dini giggled at the thought, but, really, it was a dilemma that had kept her up last night. Who had the right to this money? She’d considered asking Shuki to ask their rav, but hadn’t yet been able to admit to him what she’d done. What had possessed her to offer Leora Schwartz the money before she’d absolutely confirmed Ayala didn’t want it? She still couldn’t understand herself.

She caught her reflection in the fridge’s polished chrome and made a face. Maybe she just didn’t want to understand herself.