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Annie snickers, and a bit of her uneasy ice melts away. “My editor chose that one. I did so much research on breeding vs animals finding a mate. It was interesting.”
“It was!” DJ laughs. Then she reaches out and pats my upper chest–right over the ink that has marked me as Annie’s. “Well, I was pleased as punch when you picked me out of your magic hat for this date. When you read that letter asking, ‘Why don’t you just go out with Owen yourself?’,ignore it. It was from me, before you picked me to be his date!” She balks out a loud laugh once more.
But I am stunned. Did she really do that? Along with my brothers, sister, and mother?
Annie titters out a nervous giggle—one that isn’t natural for her.
And I can’t let the moment pass. I shift, looking at DJ for the first time all night. “Did you really send in a letter like that?”
She huffs a breathy laugh. “I did. She just kept writing all these lovely things about you, and I was curious.” She lifts one shoulder. “So, Owen, you’re a teacher?”
“You didn’t tell me about a letter asking about the two of us,” I say, looking over at Annie. DJ has given me a gift all wrapped up with a bright red bow and she doesn’t even realize it.
Annie swallows. “I don’t tell you about all of my letters.”
“But…” I droll out. “Youdo. I mean, most of them. And this one was about me. And you.”
Annie’s eyes blink, her lashes fluttering inadvertently. She peeks at Adam, then back to me. “Ah, well, I just read it.”
“Oh, I wrote that two weeks ago,” DJ says.
“Yes, well, it takes time to go through all the letters.” Annie’s words are clipped, and her neck stiff.
“My friend Bev wrote one too. She’s your biggest fan.” DJ beams. “She knew you were single and—”
“Bev wrote one too?” I say, then turn my attention back to Annie. “How many letters about the two of us did you get?” My heart is racing, thundering in my chest. I am trying to keep cool—but apparently, my students and family aren’t the only people to wonder what I’ve been wondering my entire life:Why aren’t Annie and I together?
“O,” Annie says, her tone almost scolding. “You’re being rude. DJ asked about your job and”—she dips her head, eyeing me—“you told me you have some questions for her too.”
I don’t say anything. I just look at her, waiting for an answer to my question.
Annie is a jittery mess. My family aren’t the only people who asked her about us. I can’t look away. I have no words.
In my peripheral, I see DJ wrinkle her nose. She whispers, though we can all hear what she says. “I think he’s wait’n for you to answer his question first. How many letters?”
Adam, DJ, and I stare at her. All of us waiting for an answer.
Pink floods Annie’s cheeks and neck as she glances from oneface to the next. “I—I’m gonna use the restroom,” she says, pushing out from beneath the table. She stands quick and clumsy, and her chair goes spilling backward, crashing to the ground until everyone in the restaurant is looking at her. “I have to go. I just—um, small bladder.” She tosses her hands up, huffs out a series of breaths, and leaves with her chair still on the ground.
31
Annie
I’ve got a hand on the bathroom door—the one-stall, unisex door. I have no desire to be in a big bathroom with ten other women while I hyperventilate. But a hand on my wrists stops me.
Owen.
He’s worried. He’s kind. He just wants to make sure I’m okay.
But the words that leave his mouth aren’t what I expect. “How many letters, Annie?”
I flick my gaze upward and open the bathroom door, stepping inside and leaving Owen behind me. I just need to catch my breath. I just need to pause. It’s fine. I’m fine. I went through some inner turmoil today—turmoil that made me almost do something idiotic—like kiss my best friend.
All I’ve done is confuse us both. He just needs reassurance that I’m not going to go insane and make a pass at him. But I can’t give reassurance in this second. I can’t. I just need to breathe.
And then the bathroom door, the one that I neglected to lock, opens right up.
Owen dips inside, shuts it behind him, and locks the door.
