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“That’s okay. Sunday is here in Chicago with me, and we were already planning on staying overnight in a hotel. Maybe we can find...a show or something to attend.” She didn’t want to go to the gala. Not with Franklin going with someone else. That would be hard enough to watch. Seeing him with someone else. Not that she was in love with him or anything, but she definitely liked him. More than she should obviously, since this bothered her more than she thought it would.
“You can still come.”
“Probably not though. Thanks anyway.”
She didn’t know what else to say. She’d never had this happen to her before. Where some guy asked her to go somewhere and then decided to go with someone else. She knew it wasn’t quite like that. Franklin’s relationship with Maisie was a little bit more complicated and definitely predated her own relationship with him.
“I appreciate your loyalty. Even if it’s not directed at me, I appreciate the fact that you’re loyal. I like that.” There. That was true. She truly did appreciate loyalty, and Franklin was displaying it currently. If she were Maisie, she would definitely admire it.
“I... I didn’t want to call you.”
“I’m sure it was an awkward situation to be in, and I can appreciate the fact that this was a difficult phone call. Was there anything else you needed?” She knew she probably shouldn’t ask that last question. But she wanted to get off the phone. She didn’t want to talk to him anymore. She just wanted to go and...process things. Not with Franklin and not by speaking, because she didn’t want to say something that might hurt him. It wasn’t her desire to hurt him. Even though her heart hurt. Not that he’d even done it on purpose. She knew truly that he hadn’t. He made the best decision that he could. She knew that for sure, but it didn’t make it hurt her less.
“Seriously. I... I would like to go out with you. Would you be interested?”
She wasn’t sure what he was saying.
“Not to the gala,” she clarified, just to make sure. She wasn’t the slightest bit interested in going with someone who was already with someone. To be the second woman on his arm? No thank you. No way.
“No,” he said quickly. “Some other time. Maybe... We can find somewhere to go where you can wear that dress. I can reimburse you for it,” he added, like he just thought of that.
“I don’t think so.” She liked him. She liked him a lot. But even while she admired his loyalty and admired the fact that he was being loyal to a friend who was older than she was and who had been friends with him longer than she had, she couldn’t escape the fact that she was his second choice. She didn’t want to be with someone where she was his second choice. She didn’t particularly want to be alone and didn’t like being single, but she wasn’t so desperate to have a significant other that she would accept being second.
“I think it’s probably better if we just let it go.”
She didn’t want to say that. She wanted to say yes. But she knew she was making the right decision. If she allowed him to put her in second place now and went out with him anyway, maybe he would think that she would always accept second place.
She wasn’t sure if that logic made any sense at all, but God could have worked it out completely differently, and He didn’t. Maybe when she had time to think about it, she’d figure out that God was saying something else, but for right now, it seemed like the good Lord was letting her know that this wasn’t something that was meant to be.
It wasn’t exactly the information that she wanted, but she felt like she was saying the right thing.
“I see,” Franklin said, but he didn’t sound happy.
“Hey, I hope everything goes really well tomorrow night. I hope you have a lot of fun, and you know I’m really pulling for you guys to make a lot of money on your auction. Let me know how much, okay?”
“I’m sure you’ll see it on the news. But yeah. I’ll let you know.”
They hung up shortly after, and Eleanor just stood there in the store. Shoppers walked around her, and Sunday was deep in discussion with one of the sales ladies, who was trying to talk her into trying on a dress. It looked like an expensive one to Eleanor, but she honestly didn’t care. Sunday normally wouldn’t have any need to wear a dress like that, but now that she was married to Noah, it probably was good for her to expand her wardrobe, and maybe that was why she eagerly accepted Eleanor’s invitation to go shopping in Chicago.
Their differences had never been more stark. And even though Eleanor knew when Sunday married Noah that her life was going to change, the changes hadn’t been obvious to Eleanor until just now.
Sunday had money. She could buy dresses, and go to galas, and do all kinds of things that they only dreamed about when they were little girls.
And Eleanor was completely happy for her. Truly she was.
The only thing she was a little bit jealous about was the fact that Sunday had a husband who doted on her. She wasn’t second in her husband’s eyes.
And that made all the difference to Eleanor.
Regardless, she walked over, and Sunday did indeed try on the dress, plus two more, and ended up buying one of them.
It was an hour later, and Eleanor was trying not to show how badly she wanted to go home and cuddle up with her cat or just be alone, when Sunday suggested that they go to the coffee shop across the street to grab a bite to eat before they went to their hotel.
Eleanor hadn’t told her what the phone call had been about, and Sunday had been too busy looking at the dresses to ask.
But they were in Chicago, they already had a hotel booked, and they might as well enjoy their time. Eleanor decided that once they got their food and sat down, she’d break the news to Sunday and then ask her if she thought there were any shows in town that they might attend while they were there. They might as well wear their new clothes and enjoy themselves, since that’s what they had set out to do.
