Deb and Carla talk seriously about the future of the store. (Photo by Nick Medina, Flickr)

By seven o’clock, Carla was exhausted and ready to go home. Once she had put aside the painful thoughts that plagued her and gotten down to business, she accomplished a lot. She’d paid the company’s outstanding invoices, placed orders to restock their inventory, and made appointments with vendors to examine new merchandise samples over the next few weeks. Finally, she turned off the computer monitor, stretched, and walked out into the store with her purse slung over her shoulder, only to find Deb perched on one of the stools at the cafe counter, sipping tea. “Where’s Sonia?”

“She left already to drop off the night deposit at the bank and get home to that sweet little baby of hers,” Deb said. She and Sonia had already said goodbye to the last of their customers an…