"I'm sure it's fine," Eleanor assured her further. "That's not even all that embarrassing. One time I came here, I pretty much just knocked on the door and cried at Miss Vess the whole time. I'd take blurting out compliments on the air over that any day."

Sure, the crying thing had had a lot of other things going on at the time, too, but that was beside the point.

"And now you're past it," she added, "and you can just hang out with your friend sand eat all the really good food and admire everyone's nice outfits."