From the fiction ms.:
“Y’know it’s funny, the ideas an outsider like me has about the South. I wouldn’t have expected downtown to have a café. A couple of colorful bars, maybe, but not a chichi coffeehouse,” Joan said, stirring cream into her cup.
“Oh, it has those,” Mary Lou said. She and Debbie exchanged a private-joke look. “But we wouldn’t have gone in anyway. I don’t drink.”
“But I do,” Debbie piped in. “She just has no consideration for the needs and comfort of others,” Debbie addressed Joan in a gossipy aside.
Joan tried to think of something witty to say, and failed. Mary Lou rescued her.
“Hey, I do the dishes,” she protested.
“But I do the cooking,” Debbie said, sitting up straighter and lifting her chin. “Food is more comforting than clean dishes, now everybody knows that.”
“Wouldn’t be so comforting if you served it on dirty dishes,” Mary Lou snorted.