Lunchtime Diana waswayless confident.
She was starting to think that maybe shedidneed a professional. A different professional than the one she’d had previously.
Her mind flashed briefly to Anthony, the handsome man from Anchor Bistro. He was an accountant.
A stubborn part of her didn’t want to call him though, if only because it would mean proving her friends right. This was, sheknew, foolish. Even if her friends would tease her, she knew they would stop if she asked them to.
But still. She felt like being pigheaded about it, just a little bit longer. And if part of her recognized that this was probably less about accounting and more about the low-grade anxiety she always felt about her personal life…
Well, there was no rule that said she had to be totally rationalallthe time, now was there?
“Hey, Diana, how about some—uh oh.”
Cadence’s cheery greeting broke off suddenly as she saw Diana’s weary posture. Diana looked up to see her friend holding take out bags from the diner and wearing a concerned expression.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Cadence asked.
Diana gave a moody shrug. “Oh, nothing really is so bad,” she said with a sigh. “I’m just muddling through these horrible accounts. But it’s not a disaster.”
She sounded like a grouchy teenager, which Cadence clearly recognized, given the way she pressed her lips together against a smile.
“Would lunch make things better?” she asked. “The gallery is an absolute ghost town with the rain, so I thought I’d pop by to have something to eat with my good pal Diana. But if you’re in a ‘leave me alone so I can be mad’ mood, I can leave the food and go too.”
Diana shook her head. “No, stay,” she said. Her mood was already feeling lighter, just due to Cadence’s presence and show of supportive friendship. “Lunch with a friend will definitely make me feel better. Brains need fuel and all that, right?”
Cadence grinned. “Yeah, I tell Izzy that basically every day. She’s on some sort of anti-breakfast kick.”
The two dug into the meals that Cadence had brought while she caught Diana up on the latest with Isabelle. Diana lovedCadence’s daughter and enjoyed hearing even the most minute stories about her.
Though, as much as hearing about Izzy was a pleasant distraction from her stressful morning, she couldn’t deny that the food was even more helpful. Cadence had brought Diana one of her favorites, pastrami on rye with coarse, whole grain mustard. Her friend had even remembered to request extra pickles for Diana. Cadence, for her part, was having her usual rainy-day meal: matzah ball soup with half a grilled cheese sandwich. Diana had heard Cadence defend this combo many times, which she felt was clearly superior to the more traditional grilled cheese and tomato soup pairing.
“Anyway, one day Tyler and I just let her go to school without breakfast, since she was so adamant about it,” Cadence concluded. “And when we picked her up, we asked, ‘Were you hungry?’ She said she was, so we figured that was the end of that.”
Diana could see where this was going. “No?”
Cadence chuckled ruefully. “No, indeed. The next morning, we offered her breakfast, and there she was, stubborn as a mule, determined she was not going to eat it.”
“The joys of motherhood?” Diana teased.
“Yeah, exactly,” Cadence said, although the expression on her face said that she wouldn’t trade her experiences for the world.
“Anyway,” Cadence went on, “how are you. Aside from all that, I mean,” she added, flicking her fingers at Diana’s computer.
Diana shrugged. “Same old, same old,” she said. The words came out casually enough, but she felt a pang as she said them. She longed for a time when her life would be as full of family chaos as was Cadence’s.
“You know,” Cadence said, so casually that Diana knew something was up immediately, “you could?—”
A loud chirp from Diana’s cell phone interrupted whatever silliness her friend was no doubt about to suggest. Feeling grateful for the distraction, Diana turned to the device, then frowned.
“What? Everything okay?” Cadence asked.
Diana sighed and pushed the phone over so Cadence could look.
“Yeah, just a message from this guy I met on one of those dating apps. We went out last week, but…”
But nothing, really. The date had been fine. There had been nothing about the man that Diana had disliked, necessarily.
But nothing that had made her excited to go out with him again either.
