“All right, Teresa, I’m just going to tell you right out. When I look at you, I see a beautiful soul, and a lonely one.”
“I’m not lonely!”
“Well, all right,” Flo says, “then I see a beautiful soul all by herself.”
“It’s okay to be by yourself.”
“Not if you feel lonely. That’s a sign that you want to be with someone. Now, tell me true, Teresa, wouldn’t you like to be with someone in an intimate way? Just you and him? And I’m not talking about sex, I mean someone to talk to about things, someone to share things with, who will take care of you, who—”
“I know what you mean, Flo. Thank you. But it just doesn’t seem to be in the cards for me to have that kind of relationship.”
“Well, you know what? I did some research on dating sites.”
Teresa looks over at her sharply.
“Over at the library,” Flo says. “I went there, and I learned about all kinds of services for dating. And guess what. The librarian, her name is Mimi, she is also in her fifties, and she went on one of those sites, and she said it is definitelynottoo late for a fifty-something woman to find someone. It’s not too late even for people much older than that.”
Teresa says nothing, and Flo makes herself not push.
“And didshefind someone?” Teresa finally asks.
“Well, not yet, but she had the gumption to try it, and she’s still trying.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You do know, Teresa, that some people get married from those sites.”
“So I’ve heard.” Teresa shifts in her chair, looks at her watch, and starts to pick up Flash.
“All right,” Flo says. “Let’s change the subject. And let’s us have some lemonade.”
Teresa hands the leash to Flo. “Now you’re talking. I’ll go and get it. I know where it is.”
When Teresa goes into the house, Flo pats her lap and the cat jumps into it. Flo speaks quietly into one pointed ear. “Work on her a little, will you?” She rocks a bit more and thinks of a friend who met up again with an old flame, just out of curiosity. They had been a hot item in their twenties; now they were in their seventies. They had lunch together and they had a nice time, though both of them had gone a little deaf and it was hard to hear each other. But they had a nice time, and the friend told Flo that when they parted, they embraced, and she whispered into his ear, “We ain’t done with each other yet,” and he whispered back in a way that she described as fierce, “I know we ain’t.” She won’t tell Teresa that story. She won’t talk any more about that kind of thing. Not today. But, oh, what makes a person so shy as to not take something off the platter that life passes around to them?
Teresa bangs out onto the porch and offers Flo a glass of lemonade. She must see something in Flo’s face, because she smiles and says, “What.”
Flo looks up and shrugs. “Nothing. I am just an old woman wearing my Keds with red socks and an apron over my housedress and I am looking out onto this evening and my heart is full.”
Teresa leans over to put her hand over Flo’s. “I like you so, so much.”
“Ditto,” Flo says. “Who wouldn’t like you? Nobody, that’s who.”
—
A week later, when Teresa stops by, Flo says, “Teresa, I want to thank you for coming over here so often to visit with me.”
“I like talking with you. You know that.”
“But you’re checking up on me, too, aren’t you? I feel like I ought to pay you, Teresa. Can we agree upon a sum?”
“Flo. Please don’t insult me that way.”
“I didn’t mean to insult you! It just seems that I’m taking up your time same as your other clients but I’m not giving you enough in return.”
“Oh, Flo, you’re giving me so much in return. Your friendship, for one.”
All the friends Flo used to have are dead; she’s the last one standing, something she never would have predicted. Yet here again is a friend. Well, life keeps on being life, unendingly surprising.
