Chapter 7 #2
In the process of dropping Charlie off with Leo, Olivia’s mother had stumbled upon the two of them.
“What’s going on here?” Deb asked. She was an attractive brunette, dressed today in soft pants and a red tunic accessorized with a silk scarf imprinted with candy canes.
“Deb—” Leo began calmly.
“No need to answer,” Deb interrupted. “I can see what’s going on.” She motioned toward her car. “Charlie’s with me, Leo. I don’t think he saw what I saw, but what if he did?” Disappointment carved brackets into the skin on either side of her mouth. “Olivia was your friend,” she said to Maddie.
Heat flamed in Maddie’s cheeks. “She was.”
“Well.” Deb drew herself up. “I’m not sure she would have approved of what I just saw.”
“Whether or not she would have approved is a moot point,” Leo said. “Olivia’s been gone for more than two years.” He spoke gently but without apology. He regarded Deb levelly, with just a trace of warning in his expression.
I’m not sure she would have approved. Deb’s words penetrated right to the center of Maddie’s own concerns. Suddenly, she could no longer evade those concerns. Suddenly, it didn’t matter if she was too busy or too happy to let them in. Deb had dragged them all out.
“We can talk about this later,” Leo said to Deb.
“Daddy!” Charlie’s voice rang from within his grandmother’s car. He waved. “Hi, Maddie!”
“Hi, sweetheart,” she called back. Then to Leo and Deb, “I need to head out. I’ll see you both later.” She’d managed to speak pleasantly, but she didn’t have it in her to look either of them in the face or to hang around long enough to hear their response.
As soon as she pulled into her apartment’s parking lot, she texted Britt.
Britt, in true friend fashion, had driven straight to Maddie’s apartment when she’d received Maddie’s text. Maddie had just finished bringing her up to speed on all that had transpired between her and Leo last night and this morning.
“You know how Deb is,” Britt said. “She often speaks without thinking.”
“She might speak without thinking, but she definitely says what she means. She wasn’t happy about Leo and me.”
“Her reaction may have had more to do with surprise and grief than anything else. She’ll come around.
” Britt was perched on the edge of the coffee table, directly across from Maddie’s position on the sofa.
Britt pulled one of Sweet Art’s miniature boxes, just large enough for two truffles, from her purse and handed it over.
“I was at the shop making Christmas truffles for my family when I got your text. I figured that missing your twice-daily dose of chocolate was guaranteed to make this situation worse.”
“You’re supposed to be taking the day off. Sweet Art’s closed.”
“Not to me when I want to make Christmas truffles for my family.”
“I’m not family.”
“Just about,” Britt insisted, giving Maddie a staunch, direct look.
Hot tears constricted Maddie’s throat. She’d known she could trust her friend’s fierce brand of support.
Flicking open the lid of the box, she revealed two dome-topped dark chocolates, crowned with perfect sprigs of green fondant holly and red fondant berries.
“Thank you.” She couldn’t eat them at the moment because Deb’s words had left her feeling physically nauseous.
But these truffles were evidence of her friend’s love for her. That’s what mattered.
“Maddie,” Britt said. “Don’t go all quavery on me. This isn’t the end for you and Leo. You haven’t done anything wrong. Deb is the one who’s in the wrong for reacting the way that she did.”
“It’s understandable, though. It was hard enough for us when Olivia died. But imagine what it was like for her, to lose a child.”
“Brutal,” Britt allowed. “But that doesn’t excuse Deb’s behavior this morning. She was rude.”
“She was upset.”
“She was rude.”
Maddie’s phone beeped to signal an incoming text. She glanced at it.
Leo
I’m really sorry about Deb
Maddie slanted the phone toward Britt so she could see, then typed.
Maddie
It’s okay.
Leo
She and I will talk it over later today. I hope you have a good Christmas.
Maddie
You, too.
“See,” Britt said. “Leo’s on it.”
Yes, and she loved the way that Leo had stood up to Deb this morning.
He hadn’t been cowed the way she had. And yet .
. . everything felt so subdued now. It was like she and Leo were two elementary school students who’d been having a great time together right up until they’d been caught and sent to the principal’s office.
“Don’t let this throw you off course,” Britt said. “This is an obstacle, that’s all. Any long relationship will have to overcome dozens of obstacles.”
“But we don’t really have a relationship yet. We haven’t gone on a single date.”
“Overcome this obstacle and go on your date. Then overcome another obstacle and another. Do whatever you have to do because Leo’s worth it.”
Maddie said nothing.
Britt gazed at her hard, as if she were a doctor trying to diagnose an illness. “This isn’t really about Deb, is it? Deb just forced you to confront the guilt you already feel for liking Leo.”
Maddie squeezed her knuckle. “It’s hard to explain. I just . . . I don’t want to do anything that might betray Olivia.”
Britt’s expression turned long-suffering. “Want to know what I think?”
“I’m afraid to say yes.”
“I think that you were comfortable as the third wheel back when Olivia was alive and you had a hopeless crush on Leo. Now that Olivia’s gone and your crush might not be so hopeless, I think that you’ve cast yourself as the bad friend, and you’re not so comfortable in that role.
So”—she filled her lungs with air—“let me set the record straight. You weren’t a bad friend to Olivia, Maddie.
You were a great friend to her. And Leo was a great husband to her.
” She paused. “Do you think Olivia would have been against the prospect of Leo falling in love again? Of him remarrying?”
“Maybe! Maybe she would have preferred that he remain faithful to her until his death.”
“You’re a very loyal person, Maddie. Remember when we were in tenth grade and I threw up in history class?
Everyone else shrieked and rushed to the other side of the room and then started whispering and giggling.
Except you. You put your hand on my shoulder, and you scolded everyone for reacting the way they had instead of showing compassion to the sick person. ” She laughed.
“I remember.” Maddie had been surprised at herself after that incident. She hadn’t realized she’d had it in her to reprimand a roomful of her classmates.
“In this case, though,” Britt said, “I think your loyalty to Olivia has turned into a runaway train. Just because Olivia died doesn’t mean you have to compensate by becoming hyper-loyal to her now.
Leo’s only thirty-one years old. Let’s say he lives to the age of ninety-one.
” Britt’s lips tipped down with skepticism.
“Do you really think our kind, outgoing, bighearted friend would want the man she loved to go through life alone for the next sixty years?”
“I’m not sure.”
“I am sure. She wouldn’t. There’s no way she’d have wanted him to spend the rest of his life that way after being married to her for less than three years. And I happen to think that Olivia would have preferred for him to date one of her friends rather than a stranger.”
“What? No!”
“You knew her very well, Maddie. You treasure her memory.” She tossed out a hand for emphasis. “If Leo dates a woman who never met her, that woman won’t give a fig about Olivia. You and me and Hannah and Mia, we want to remember her. A stranger won’t.”
It was so quiet that she could hear the couple from down the hall talking as they made their way along the corridor to their apartment. The whir of the heater. The ticking of her decorative clock.
“Pray about it,” Britt said. “Listen to what God has to say in response. You’ll see that He agrees with me on this.”
“You always think God agrees with you.”
“This time, I’m doubly sure that He does.”