“Oh, uh, that’s a nice idea, honey, but we’re pretty busy this evening.”
Diana blinked. “Oh. Oh, right, of course,” she stammered when she realized, a bit belatedly, that he wasn’t about to say more.
“Another time?” he said.
“Oh, yes, of course,” she said.
It was silly to feel surprised, she told herself. Life was busy. Her life got busy, and she wasn’t even a single parent! But there was something about his tone that struck her as… not quite right.
But she pushed those thoughts back. They were doubtless the product of a long day, in both parts, frankly. She’d had her own long day, and if Eloise’s impromptu debate on the legality of answering her father’s phone was any indication, Anthony’s long day was ongoing.
Besides, she reasoned to herself, already starting to feel better at this logical explanation, she saw them all the time. She would see them again soon enough.
“Right, I’ll let you go then,” she said, shaking off her strange mood.
“Have fun at book club,” Anthony said, a smile in his voice. He sounded more normal too, right?
“Love you, bye!” Diana said, then clicked the end button on her phone.
She’d just lifted her finger off the red icon when her words registered in her own mind.
She’d just… told Anthony that she loved him.
For the very first time.
And then she hadhung up on him.
She stared at her phone in horror, wondering if it was going to ring. She didn’t know whether it would be worse if he called her back anddidn’ttell her that he loved her in return, or if he didn’t call back at all.
Her screen dimmed and then went dark.
Well, that was… an answer. She wasn’t certain which answer it was, but it wasananswer.
Feeling lost somewhere between hope and panic, Diana slipped her phone back into her pocket and decided to skip stopping at home. This kind of moment was what friends were made for, and she knew that her book club would not let her down.
* * *
“Oh, you can’t trust men to express their feelings in a timely manner,” Miriam reassured Diana, waving a hand casually. “There was this one time, after Harold and I had been dating for a while, where he invited me to dinner. He was so somber and serious about it that I thought he was going to tell me he met someone else. Then, he proposed. I was so shocked! He’d never even told me that he loved me. He looked down at the ring in his hand and said, ‘Well, honey, what do you think the ring is saying?’”
Everyone laughed, even Diana, but Eleanor was a little lost in her own thoughts.
“So what you’re saying is ‘don’t freak out?’” Diana clarified.
“Don’t freak out,” Miriam confirmed.
“The first time I told Keith I loved him, I cried,” June confessed with a smile. “I mean, I was fifteen, so there was a lot of hormones involved, but it totally freaked him out. Hepanicked, then took me for ice cream, and then, like two hours later, said, ‘Oh, by the way, I love you too.’”
Another chorus of laughter.
Diana’s personal crisis had meant that they had given up on the book extremely quickly, but there were still snacks and wine and good company, so it was still a successful book club, all told.
“How about you, Ellie?” Cadence asked from Eleanor’s left. “Any disastrous?—”
“Oh my gosh, don’t say ‘disastrous’!” Diana interjected.
“—confessions of love?”
“Hm?” Eleanor turned at the sound of her name, then gave her friends a sheepish grin. “Sorry. I was woolgathering.”
