Anthony wished he could sink directly through the earth.
“I am so sorry,” he said. “I thought that was going to go better in my head than it did in real life.”
Diana still looked a little bemused, but she gave him a kind look. “Oh, yeah, that’s okay,” she said.
Anthony barely remembered what he said as he bid her goodnight, since his mind was mostly just internal cringing over how dreadful he had been all evening. He got into his car, pulled out of the driveway, and drove down the block. And then, as soon as Diana’s house was out of sight, he pulled over and pressed his forehead against the steering wheel so he could let out a strangled groan.
That had been… not good. And it was embarrassing, yeah, that he couldn’t manage to act normally for just a few hours. But somehow the part of it that stung the most was that Dianawouldsee him as just another bad date. Any friendship between them was certainly destined to be over too. There was no way she was going to want to see him again after this.
He would have to settle for being her accountant and nothing more.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Eleanor shrieked in excitement, the sound so loud that she caused poor Diana to jump about a foot in the air.
“What’s happening?” Diana cried, startled.
“Sorry.” Eleanor chuckled at herself. “I just got official, final,actualconfirmation that my bookshelf is finally coming tonight!”
Diana quickly put down the stack of books she’d been putting in place on one of the shelves in the kids’ section and did a little celebratory dance.
“Yay!” she cried. “Finally!”
“Finally,” Eleanor agreed, joining Diana in her dance. She was certain that they looked like total dorks, but she didn’t care at all. The opening was in three days, and she was starting to feel… pretty panicky about the whole bookshelf situation.
It was great to have the kind of friends who would celebrate your successes, even when what you succeeded at was not totally flipping out over a late bookshelf delivery.
“Okay,” Eleanor said when they were done with their dual shimmying, “you said you went on a date? Tell me everything.”
Diana scrunched up her face.
“Uh oh,” Eleanor said.
Diana sighed. “It was with Anthony,” she said, “the accountant.”
“The handsome accountant?”
“One and the same,” Diana confirmed. “And it wasn’tbad, not really. It was just… when we were together in a non-date capacity, like just running in to one another, or doing work stuff, it wassoeasy for us to talk. And then last night it was just really awkward. It was like no matter what we did, we couldn’t find our groove.”
There was something in Diana’s expression that made Eleanor think that she was more upset than her words suggested.
“And?” she prodded.
This time, Diana’s sigh was heavier. “And it just brings those big-picture worries up again. The ones that ask me, ‘If you can’t talk to a nice guy who you already know is friendly, who you met in an organic connection, how can you possibly hope to find love by talking to someone over the phone screen?’” Diana turned back to the bookshelf and continued stacking. “I don’t know. I don’t think that this online dating thing is totally for me, but also I don’t really know what else to try? I don’t want to totally give up. I still want a romance. I just… I don’t know how.”
Eleanor’s heart twisted in sympathy at Diana’s dejected tone. She didn’t have the same experience as Diana when it came to her romantic life, since Eleanor had married and had her son when she was young. But she’d heard Diana speak about wanting a family, and Eleanor loved her son, Jeremy, more than anything. She could easily understand longing for that kind of love in your life.
“Did you talk to him about it?” Eleanor asked. “I mean, I wasn’t there, so obviously you know better than I do how it went, but since you guys already know one another…”
“We didn’t,” Diana admitted. “And I guess we should, I just don’t really know what the protocol is. We weren’t close friends yet, just more friendly? And all our previous conversations went well. I guess I should just… talk to him.”
Eleanor was about to recommend this exact course of action when her phone rang loudly from her back pocket. She gave Diana an apologetic grimace, then pulled the device out of her pocket after receiving her friend’s understanding wave.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Ms. Ridley? This is Dan, from the Shelving Solutions delivery team.”
“Oh, hi!” she said brightly. “Is this about the shelf?”
