“There’s Arnie Amundsen,” Muriel suggested. For Olivia, not her. Arnie was skinny and wore glasses but he was sweet. Olivia could do a lot worse.
“He’s got a crush on you,” Olivia said.
“Everybody’s got a crush on Muriel,” Pat added in mock disgust.
“That is a gross overstatement,” Muriel said.
Pat complained about being tall. She hated her auburn hair and lamented on a regular basis that she wasn’t blonde like Olivia or a brunette like Muriel. Still, she’d had her share of invitations to the senior prom, which had taken place the week before. Muriel had gone with Arnie. Just as friends, she’d reminded him.
She wished he’d asked Olivia. Olivia had ended up with Gerald Parker, who’d wanted her to go all the way. They’d come close but she’d chickened out at the last minute. Now she was regretting her decision because Gerald was ignoring her, making her last week of school miserable. He’d enlisted in the marines, though, and would soon be gone. Muriel was secretly relieved. Of course, she didn’t want anything bad to happen to Gerald, but it was best to remove temptation from Olivia.
“There’s Hank Carp,” said Pat.
Muriel frowned. “He’s a hood.”
“But he’s a cute hood,” Olivia said.
That was all Olivia needed, to get tangled up with Hank.
“I’d take him,” Olivia continued, “except he likes Stephie.”
“She’s fast,” Muriel said.
“That’s probably why he likes her,” Olivia muttered.
“Anyway,” Pat went on, “that man is going nowhere. You can do better.”
“I don’t think so,” Olivia said. “Nobody wants a fat girl.”
“You’re not fat,” Muriel insisted. “You’re—”
“Curvy,” Pat supplied. “And boys like curves.”
“No,” Olivia corrected her. “Boys like Muriel. I bet you’ll be married by the time you’re twenty.”
Muriel shook her head. “Not if my father has anything to say about it.” She sighed. “He’s got my whole life planned.”
“Yeah, well, it’s tough having a family chocolate factory,” Pat said. “Poor girl. You’ll have to work there, get rich and eat all the chocolate you want.” She and Olivia giggled.
“I don’t mind working there, doing fun things like helping with recipes or answering phones. I just don’t want to run the place. I want to get married and have a family.”
“And be a famous writer,” Olivia reminded her. “Did you hear back from Seventeen yet?”
The rejection letter for her article, “How to Have Fun in a Small Town,” had arrived the day before. Muriel hadn’t even wanted to tell her best friends. It was so humiliating to be a failure. She bit her lip.
“Oh, no,” said Pat. “They didn’t like your article?”
Muriel shook her head again.
“Well, they’re stupid,” Olivia said.
“Don’t worry,” Pat told her. “You’ll sell something. Maybe you’ll even write a bestseller like Jacqueline Susann.”
Muriel wrinkled her nose. “I wouldn’t want to write that kind of thing.”
“I would,” Pat said. “If I wanted to write, that is. I’d rather read.”
“I’d rather make out,” Olivia said with a grin. “You know, it’s going to be really hard to find men to marry once we all graduate. It seems like half the boys are leaving for college.” Her expression grew sad. “I sure hope God brings some new ones to town.”
Two weeks after graduation, God did. And Olivia and Pat dropped into the gift shop of Sweet Dreams Chocolate Company, where Muriel was on duty, to tell her about it.
“We were walking down the highway, and he stopped and asked us where there was a good place to eat,” Pat said.
“He’s gorgeous,” breathed Olivia. “He’s tall and he’s got muscles, and he looks like Mick Jagger. Even his hair. Well, except his hair is blond.”
Long hair. Muriel’s father wouldn’t approve. “He’s a hippie, then?”
“No,” Pat said. “He rides a motorcycle.”
“And he wears a leather jacket,” Olivia added. “We’re going to meet him at Herman’s Hamburgers.”
And with that they were off, leaving Muriel to run the candy shop. This was unfair. And wrong. Summer vacation had barely started and Daddy had her in here working! Pat and Olivia didn’t have to work.
“Pat and Olivia don’t have a family business,” her father pointed out when she complained to him a few minutes later.
“Well, I wish I didn’t.”
“Muriel, don’t ever let me hear you say that again,” he said sternly. “This is a wonderful business, and it all started from your grandmother’s vision. That’s something you, as a young woman, should be proud of.”
“I am,” she protested before he could, yet again, tell her the story of how Grandma Rose had literally dreamed up those first chocolate recipes that had become the foundation of Sweet Dreams. “But that doesn’t mean I want to work here.”
“This is your inheritance, and you have a responsibility to yourself and future generations to respect that.”
Muriel showed her respect by rolling her eyes.
“You may not like this now...”
She didn’t, especially making change. She hated making change. She couldn’t count backward no matter how hard she tried. Heck, she could barely count forward. Anyway, she didn’t want to be a career girl. She loved the idea of owning the company and enjoying an endless supply of chocolate, but she didn’t want to run it. Unlike her mother, who was always at the office helping Daddy, she wanted to stay home and concentrate on raising a family. Oh, and get articles published in prestigious magazines like Seventeen and Mademoiselle, or maybe even Woman’s Day.
“But,” her father continued, “down the road you’ll be glad I insisted you get involved. Women don’t stay home anymore, you know. I want you to be able to do something with your life.”
Yes, she wanted to do something with her life, and right now the something she wanted to do was have fun.
Her father chucked her under the chin. “Come
