“I get that,” she said. “Change isn’t easy. Change is actually the toughest thing ever. But…” She paused meaningfully. “It’s worth it. It’s totally worth it.”
That dreamy smile was back on June’s face. “Yeah,” she said faintly. “I think you might be right about that, my friend.”
June took a happy sip of her coffee, and Diana tried to focus on her friend’s joy, she truly did. But her own concerns were hovering like a dark cloud.
Even with her own life so in flux, however, June noticed Diana’s feelings in only a few moments.
“You,” she said pointing her finger at Diana’s face, then tracing it in a circle as if to encompass Diana’s whole aura. “You are brooding about something. Spill.”
“I’m notbrooding,” Diana retorted. “I’m not like the duke in one of those novels that Miriam is always reading!”
“Okay, one, don’t pretend you haven’t read some historical romances in your day, Diana Madsen,” June said with mock sternness. “And two, don’t deflect. What’s going on?”
Diana sighed and rubbed the space between her eyebrows, which was sore from all the furrowing.
“It’s probably nothing,” she said.
June gestured to herself in a “give it here” sort of motion.
Diana sighed again.
“Okay, so before I tell you, please let me tell you that IknowI’m being dramatic. But recently, things with Anthony have been… different.”
June’s expression folded into a frown. “What do you mean?” she asked.
Diana explained the phone call the other evening, where she’d offered to meet up with Anthony and Eloise, but the offer had been declined.
“And obviously thatreallysounds like nothing,” she went on, “but the other day Eloise answered her dad’s phone again, even though she’s really not supposed to do that, and I asked her if she wanted to come by the store one day this week to see the new stock that I just got in.”
“I bet she loved that,” June said with a smile. Eloise, modeling herself after Diana, had decided to be very interestedin fashion lately. She and Diana had even done a few kid-friendly sewing projects.
“I thought she would,” Diana said. “But she told me she has homework. Just… all week, a lot of homework. She’s ten! What ten-year-old puts homework ahead of doing something fun?”
“My personal experience only extends to seven-year-olds,” June said ruefully, “but I admit, it doesn’t quite sound… usual to me.”
“Right?” Diana asked. “And, yes, life gets busy. I get that. I do. But, when I keep getting ‘no, I can’t spend time with you today,’ followed by no ‘but what about this day?’ I start to feel like maybe they’re avoiding me. And that feels… not great.”
“I get that,” June said. “By which I mean that it makes sense that you feel that way. I definitely don’t want to discredit your emotions around all this. But… I don’t buy it.”
“What don’t you buy?” Diana asked, hoping that her friend was about to drop some pearl of wisdom that would keep her increasing worries at bay.
“I just don’t buy that Anthony is trying to avoid you, or that he’s trying to let you down easily, or whatever other terrible thing is brewing in that clever little brain of yours. That guyadoresyou. His daughteradoresyou.”
“You think so?” Diana asked, hope clear in her tone.
“I do,” June said firmly. “And there is literally nothing that will change my mind.”
“Okay,” Diana said, nodding. Then she repeated herself, this time with a little more confidence. "Yeah. Okay.”
"You’re still going to worry, huh?” June asked sympathetically.
“I am very much still going to worry,” Diana agreed.
June patted her arm.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much how it goes,” she said. “But eat your muffin. You can’t do all that worrying on an empty stomach.”
So Diana ate her muffin. And even if her worries still lingered in the back of her mind, she found that, ultimately, June was right. Eating did make her feel that tiniest bit better.
