Page 74 of Not Since Ewe
“Why would it be uncomfortable?” She’d only seen us together once, at Donal’s mom’s, and I thought we’d done a good job of acting friendly toward one another.
“I was under the impression you two didn’t get along.”
Since I’d never hinted at anything of the sort, there was only one place Erin could have gotten that impression. “Is that what Donal told you?”
“All he said was that things had ended badly between you. And I know you hadn’t spoken in years before I forced you to talk to each other again.”
I couldn’t exactly fault Donal for telling the truth. “Well, that’s true, but it’s all ancient history. We’ve put it behind us.”
“Really?” Her tone was hopeful rather than dubious.
“You saw us at Kathleen’s. Didn’t we look like we were getting along fine?” Maybe a little too fine when Kathleen interrupted us. We’d need to be more careful unless we wanted Erin guessing what was going on. Which didn’t seem like a good idea.
“You did. I was just worried it might have been an act and secretly you were both miserable having to be around each other for my sake.”
I couldn’t help my laugh. “We’re not that good at acting, trust me. You don’t need to worry about us. We’re fine.” Hopefully. Maybe. It still felt too early to tell.
“Oh good. That’s a huge load off my mind. I was feeling a little guilty, to tell you the truth.”
“About us? You definitely shouldn’t feel guilty. If anything, you did us a favor by putting us back in touch.”
“In that case, yay! I’m so glad to hear you’ve patched things up. It’s really cool, actually, that I was the one who brought you back together.”
“We’re not together,” I felt compelled to clarify. Perhaps too strongly.The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Were we together? I honestly had no idea at this point. But whatever Donal and I were doing, it was best to leave Erin out of it for now. I could sense from her enthusiasm that she was rooting for some sort of happy ending to our story, and I was afraid she’d get her hopes up only to be disappointed.
“We’re back to being friends,” I said. “That’s all.”
“Right,” Erin said slowly. “No, of course. Still, it’s nice that the two of you are getting along again.”
“It is nice,” I ventured as an uneasy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. If the situation between Donal and me got messy, it would make things awkward for Erin. I didn’t want her to be affected by our mistakes any more than she already had been.
“You should definitely ask Donal to come on Saturday,” she said. “I’d love for the three of us to spend time together.”
Like a family, a voice whispered in the back of my head.
I liked the idea of that. A little too much. I had to remind myself that whatever we were, the three of us would never be a regular family.
Erin and I chatted for a few more minutes before we said good night. After we hung up, I texted Donal to ask if he was free to have dinner with Erin and me on Saturday. I’d been avoiding reaching out to him in case he needed a breather. But I figured this was a legitimate reason to text.
He didn’t respond. I waited five minutes. Ten minutes. Twenty.He must be busy tonight.
It shouldn’t have bothered me, but his silence left me feeling even more uneasy. And annoyingly made me miss him even more.
It was an hour later when my phone rang again. This time it was Donal.
“Hi,” I said, absurdly happy to hear from him.
“Hey.” His voice was low and warm, like tea with honey and whiskey. “I saw your text. Dinner on Saturday sounds great.”
“Erin wants to come over and see my family photos. She offered to bring her baby album for us to look at.”
“I can’t wait.” His response was more subdued than I’d expected.
“You okay? You sound tired.”
“I had a client dinner tonight that felt like it was going to go on forever. I just now got home.”
