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She fell asleep again clutching her phone as she waited for a response that never came.
She didn’t hear from Caleb again until Monday afternoon.
When the call came through at three thirty-five, Penny dragged her attention away from the action outline she’d been typing up and stared at his photo on her phone screen as a flood of mixed feelings rushed through her.
She’d cried herself to sleep last night, her delayed breakdown triggered by the lavender-scented sachet in her lingerie drawer, of all things. This morning she’d woken feeling like a wound that had scabbed over, and she wasn’t eager to tear it open again.
She honestly didn’t know what she wanted to say to him at this point—or what she wanted him to say to her. She’d half convinced herself a clean break would be in both their best interests. Maybe they should even go ahead and call it quits now, when she’d started to build up a little armor. Letting Caleb back into her life for three days, only to lose him again, seemed like gratuitous self-flagellation.
It took her until the third ring to work up the courage to answer.
“Hey,” he said, sounding uncharacteristically cheerful. “I’m about an hour out.”
“Okay.” She chewed on her lower lip. “Are you coming over here?”
“I brought some stuff back with me. I’ve got to unload it at my place first.”
She twisted a strand of hair around her finger. “How was your visit with your parents?”
His voice turned hard. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Of course he didn’t. He never wanted to talk about anything.
“Listen,” he said more gently, “I was thinking maybe tonight we could go out. On a date.”
Seventy-two hours ago, Penny would have jumped at an offer like that. Part of her still wanted to. But she was trying to listen to her self-preservation instincts, and they were buzzing a furious warning right now.
She squeezed the phone. “We don’t do dates.”
“I thought we could try it for once.”
“I’ve got knitting tonight.”
“I thought maybe you could skip it.”
After he’d disappeared for three days with no notice and almost no communication? Now he expected her to drop her plans at the last minute for him?
The old Penny would have agreed in a heartbeat, without even thinking about it. But that wasn’t her anymore. She was through rearranging her life to suit men who weren’t willing to rearrange theirs for her. If he wanted to see her, it would have to be on her terms.
“I can’t do that,” she told him.
“You mean you won’t.” The hurt in his tone made her flinch. It took all her willpower not to change her mind.
“You can come over after.” It was a compromise. A fair one.
“Fine.” The word sounded like it had been dragged over broken glass. “I’ll see you after, then.” He hung up without another word.
They were going to break up tonight.
The certainty settled over her like a blanket of snow: icy cold, weighty, and numbing.
For possibly the first time ever, Penny was the first to arrive at knitting. Unfortunately, she was also empty-handed.
“I’m sorry I didn’t bake any treats today,” she said when the others joined her at the couch she’d been holding for them.
Vilma set her wineglass down and lowered herself into an armchair, casting a concerned look in Penny’s direction. “That’s all right, honey. You know you’re not obligated to bring us treats every week.”
“Yeah,” Jinny said as she bent over her knitting bag. “We like you even when you don’t bake us cookies.”
