Continued, Life A Love Story
Flo is in her nightgown making coffee when her phone rings. When she answers, she hears, “I did it!”
“Well, good morning, Teresa!”
“Did you hear what I said? That I did it?”
Flo looks out the window. Did it. Did it. Then, “Oh!” she says. “You and the cashier and the stars?”
“Yes!”
“Was it fun?”
“Yes!”
“Well, come and have some coffee with me and tell me all about it.”
“I have to go to work now, Flo, but I can come and see you at five.”
“Just stop by now. One second.”
“Okay, but I can’t stay.”
Flo waits on the front porch for Teresa to pull up outside and then come onto the porch.
“I just wanted to give you something,” Flo says.
“What?”
Flo steps forward and hugs Teresa hard.
“Thank you,” Teresa says. “For everything.”
“You’re welcome.”
Teresa heads back to her car with what Flo can only call a spring in her step. She looks different. She’s acting different. All right, then.
Flo goes back inside to get dressed. Standing out on the porch in her nightie for all the world to see! But she’d been so excited about Teresa she’d plum forgotten she is all but naked.
When she reaches into her dresser drawer for some clean clothes, she finds something she’s not thought about for a long time: a newspaper article with a photo of her and Terrence.
The page is yellow and delicate to the touch now; she fears unfolding it.
But she sits on the side of the bed to read it.
After a while, she goes downstairs to enclose the article in plastic wrap.