“It does please me. Don’t you tell anyone.”
“Your secret is safe with me. As long as I get to join in.”
“Any time, dear. You slept in late. I guess the box project with Tucker really was an all-nighter.”
Sheila just let the comment ride. “I can’t believe it’s already Christmas Eve.”
“I know. There’s always such a whirlwind of activities that it goes by faster than I’d like it to as well.” Orene got up. “Get your coffee. Let’s sit in the living room and enjoy the Christmas tree.”
“I’ll follow you.”
“Are you going to tell me about your date with Tucker?” Orene asked as they walked to the other room.
“I wondered how long it would take you,” Sheila teased.
“I was wondering the same thing. What are you not saying?”
Sheila looked away. “You know, I’m kind of struggling with how last night went. I’m a little upset, and I know I don’t have a right to be.”
“What in goodness’ sake does that mean?” Orene sat forward, balancing her teacup on her knee.
“It started out great. All the time I’ve spent with him has been… well, it’s been fun. We both know I’m going back to Richmond, so I shouldn’t have expected anything. It’s silly.”
“What happened?”
“They had a call while we were putting the boxes together last night.”
“Right. I heard the siren.”
“Yeah, well, I was there for hours. The trucks came back, I still waited, and finally I had to ask someone to find out he’d been hurt.”
“Tucker? Is he okay?”
“They said it wasn’t critical. I don’t know what the bell curve is on firefighter injuries, but he could have called. I was there waiting all that time.”
“I see.”
“I finally just came back here. Mad, frustrated. Worried.”
“Because you care about him.”
“Yes and it was selfish. He knew I was there. He left me working on his project. How could he not at least update me?”
“I don’t know.”
“Me either. Does it even matter? I’m leaving anyway. It was fun for a while.”
“Sheila. That is ridiculous. If you didn’t have some sort of feelings for him, you wouldn’t have yourself all twisted up like this. Have you considered perhaps he thought he was keeping you from being worried?”
“He wasn’t doing a good job of it if that was the case.”
“He’s a man.” Orene took a sip of her tea. “Do I need to say anything more?”
Sheila wasn’t giving him a pass just for being a man. It was Good Manners 101 to let someone know if you were going to be late, and not coming back was later than late. “Maybe that he should know better?”
Orene laughed. “Honey, their idea of knowing better and ours, well they aren’t always the same thing.”
Natalie called out from the front door. “Knock, knock. Merry Christmas Eve.”
