Dreams Do Come True

Cassie Teague arrived home after a long day of answering phones and scheduling patients at the dentist’s office and found three things waiting in her mailbox. She tossed the phone bill in the basket on the small table in the hall, the ad for used cars went into the trash, and the familiar manila envelope addressed in her own handwriting went back out the front door with her. Checking the postmark as she walked to the small café on the corner, she discovered the envelope had come from a submission she’d sent six months earlier. She couldn’t help wondering why it took three days for mail to go fifteen miles from Cincinnati to Brighton. The thickness of the envelope didn’t tell her anything; it could be her synopsis, first chapter, and a rejection letter, or it could be her submission and a letter requesting her full novel manuscript.

As she stepped into the café, she noted her best friend behind the counter filling an old man’s coffee cup. Gayle glanced at the envelope in Cassie’s hand and nodded toward the vacant end of the counter. Cassie went to the last seat in the row and laid the envelope in front of her. She needed Gayle’s moral support when she opened this one. The publisher she’d submitted to was the perfect match for her book, and she’d spent nearly a month on the submission package to make sure it was perfect.

Gayle finally finished serving the elderly man and joined Cassie. “Be brave.”