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He should have known there would be a hundred messages on his phone.
It was ringing as he reached for it, and he saw it was Noah, his business partner and Eleanor’s brother-in-law. Suddenly, he wanted to ask Noah a thousand questions about Eleanor. But he held his tongue, swiped his phone, and said, “Hello?”
“Hey, man. So how was it?”
“How was what?” he asked, smirking and playing dumb.
“Being trapped in a shack with my sister-in-law. I can’t think of a worse fate.”
“Your sister-in-law’s pretty nice. Being trapped wasn’t the best, but... I’m not too upset about it. I could stay longer. As long as we didn’t run out of food, I was good.”
“You’re kidding. Mr. ‘I can’t leave Chicago because I love the city’ was happy being trapped in a shack in the middle of nowhere during the snowstorm?”
“Yeah. I was fine.” He shrugged a shoulder, walking over and standing in front of the window looking out at the parking lot. The snow had been plowed off it, cinders had been thrown down, and big piles of snow heaped up on either side.
The lot itself was mostly empty, which was totally normal for this time of day.
“I’m in shock. I thought you’d be complaining up a storm.”
He laughed at Noah’s choice of words. “Why? There is no point in complaining. And it really wasn’t that bad. I actually enjoyed spending a dozen hours or so without my phone. I should do that more often.”
“You could turn it off and walk away from it. You don’t have to go quite to that extreme.”
“I know.” He didn’t want to say anything more about Eleanor, and he was hoping Noah would let it go.
“It must’ve been the company. I’m going to have to call Eleanor. Sunday,” he said to his wife, “you should get her on the phone.”
“Actually, she probably will be calling Sunday just as soon as she can. She’s going to the gala with me tomorrow.”
“What?” Noah’s surprise came through the phone loud and clear. “What about Maisie? You didn’t dump her, did you?”
“No. I can hardly dump her. We’re not exactly a couple.”
“Everybody knows you go places together. We were just waiting for you guys to actually get together-together. You know she’s in love with you.”
“No, she’s not. She feels the exact same way about me that I feel about her. Someone to go places with, someone uncomplicated, with no drama.”
“That’s what you want to think,” Noah mumbled.
“That’s what I know. Plus, her sister has malaria, and she was dropping everything and going to Africa. I had to find someone else, and...I ended up stuck with your sister. She happens to be a dog groomer and is interested in the humane society, and she was willing to help me out. Plus, she did a great job on the barn dance.”
“She actually did do a great job on the barn dance. And she ended up doing most of it herself. She hangs in there and gets things done. You can definitely consider Eleanor dependable. I... I’m a little surprised though that she agreed to go to the gala with you.”
Franklin paused. Then he said slowly, “Because of her anxiety?”
“Did she tell you about that?” Noah asked, sounding even more surprised than he had when Franklin told him Eleanor was going.
“She did. Why do you sound so surprised about it?”
“Because she doesn’t tell anyone. No one knows. No one except family.”
“Well, then maybe I’m family.” He wanted to know what Noah thought about it. What Sunday had told him, since he assumed it was Sunday who said something. But he didn’t ask. Eleanor had worked so hard to get over it, he kind of hated the thought that she was defined by it. But he supposed that a person’s past helped shape their reputation, and there really wasn’t anything a person could do about it.
Noah laughed like he was joking. And Franklin didn’t bother to try to do anything to correct him.
They chatted for a bit more before Noah hung up, and Franklin swiped off as well.
Noah hadn’t said much about Eleanor, and Franklin hadn’t wanted to push it, because he didn’t want Noah to know how interested he was. It might turn out to be nothing, and he didn’t want to be hearing about it from now until doomsday if it did. And he didn’t want a big deal made out of it, to make things uncomfortable anytime he would see her in the future.
