Page 48 of The Sound of Harmony

“Feelings?”

“So many feelings,” Emma said. “He talks to me. With me. Never at me. It’s two-sided, back and forth. He answers my questions, even the strange ones, with honest consideration.”

“I understand why you like that, but—”

“And Kendrick doesn’t just listen,” Emma interrupted. “He responds. He actually thinks about what I’ve said. Half the time he comes back with a joke, but it’s not at someone else’s expense. He makes fun of himself.”

“Are you sure he’s our age? Because he sounds way too well-adjusted.”

Emma laughed. “He has an ego. He’s a musician at the top of his field. Of course he has an ego. But it hasn’t turned toxic. Most of his friends are women. I think that helps.”

“He knows we’re people. What a concept.” Gwendolyn stacked their plates and folded up the empty pizza box.

“He sincerely likes women,” Emma said. “I get the feeling we’d be friends even if…”

“Even if what?”

“You know.” Emma gestured with her fingers.

Gwendolyn froze, plates in one hand, pizza box in the other, halfway out of her chair, mouth open, eyes like searchlights. “He’s in DC. You’re in Ohio. How did you…oh. Did you two on the…phone? Or was it FaceTime? Oh God, not Zoom.”

“Phone. Strictly voice. And I’m trying so hard not to freak out right now because he’s outrageously hot and I like him so much and I don’t know what I’m going to do when I see him tomorrow but I feel like I’m on the edge of something promising? Maybe? I don’t know if I’m ready for this.” Emma took the plates from her sister and put them in the kitchen. She discarded the liner of the pizza box and put the rest into the recycle bin. She sat down at the table.

“Okay, okay,” Gwendolyn said. “Let’s unpack this. Have you done anything like that before? On the phone?”

“Never.”

“But you decided to this time? With Kendrick?”

“There was no deciding,” Emma said, and then realized how that sounded. “It was more like we drifted into it, and it felt nice for both of us, so we continued, and it was…wow.”

“But you were doing all the work,” Gwendolyn said. “No wonder it was wow.”

Emma closed her eyes, remembering. That orgasm was in a class of its own. It was not something she could achieve by herself. “It was his voice. And his words. The pauses. The sighs. The growls.”

“He growled?”

“Wait, that was probably me.” Emma opened her eyes and looked at her sister, who was frowning at her across the table.

“Does he know about Jonah?”

“I told him I was married before.”

“That’s it?”

Emma shrugged. What else was there to tell? She’d been married to a slimeball. That didn’t make her slime. She’d spent a long time in therapy sorting that out, and she was tired of being put into a box marked damaged goods, or worse, fragile: handle with care.

Gwendolyn rubbed her thumb over the top of her index finger, something she did when she was nervous or upset, although Emma didn’t know what she had to be upset about.

“You said he’s coming to town tonight?”

“Just in time for tomorrow’s estate sale,” Emma said.

“What time does it start?”

“Eight. It goes until four.”

“Hmm.” Gwendolyn reached across the table to pat her hand. “I might have to drop by. I’m going to have to see this guy for myself.”