Chapter 20
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, actual confirmation 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’t bad, 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 was so easy 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?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and then paused.
Uh oh. That was a bad pause.
“We, uh. We’re having a problem with the truck.”
“Oh, no,” she said. “Oh, no.”
Diana looked up, worry in her expression. Eleanor shook her head to signal that this wasn’t an emergency, even if she wanted to react as though it was.
“Yeah, we have to stop for emergency repairs, I’m afraid.” Poor Dan did really sound apologetic. “But your shelf is safe and sound in our warehouse. We should have it to you by Sunday. Monday at the latest. Definitely not after Tuesday.”
Eleanor decided it would be too dramatic to shove her face into a pillow and scream out her frustration. It probably was. Also, she didn’t have a pillow handy.
“I can’t do that,” she said. “I’m opening a bookstore. The shelf is for a bookstore. And our grand opening is Sunday.”
She knew she sounded a little frantic, but she couldn’t help herself.
“Uh.” Her stress was probably not something that was under Dan’s job description, but she appreciated his apparent concern. “Well, you’re in Massachusetts, right?”
“Right.”
“Okay, so based on your delivery address, it looks like the warehouse is about two hours from you. So you could come pick it up if you wanted to.”
Eleanor closed her eyes. The shelf would never fit in her tiny hatchback, otherwise she absolutely would. But to transport a book of that shelf, she would need a truck…
A truck like the one that her boyfriend owned, maybe.
“Yes, Dan,” she said, feeling a rush of triumph that came with actually working toward a solution to a problem. “I will do that, thank you.”
“What’s going on?” Diana asked the moment Eleanor hung up the phone.
“The truck with my bookshelf is broken down two hours away,” Eleanor reported.
Diana’s eyes went wide.
“But it’s fine!” Eleanor went on. She felt oddly cheerful. Yes, this was yet another hiccup in this unending bookshelf saga. But she was doing something about it. She was going to accomplish something.
“It is?”
“It is,” Eleanor insisted. “Or it will be in just one second.”
She raised her phone and dialed Garrett.
“Hey, Ellie, what’s up, honey?” She smiled when her boyfriend answered right away. She filled him in on the whole to-do about the truck breakdown and the bookshelf. “So,” she said in conclusion, “I need your truck.”
There was a long, thoughtful pause.
“Ellie, sweetheart,” he said very delicately, “do you know how to drive a truck?”
“Um,” she said. “Yes?”
Garrett’s laughs were rare, which made them all the more precious.
“I’ll drive you,” he said.
“Oh, really? Do you mean it?”
“Of course I mean it,” he said. “I’ll wrap up over here and head right over. Okay?”
“Thanks, Garrett,” she said. Her chest was filled with warmth and emotion, the kind that made her think that sometime soon, she might consider using a certain special word to describe her feelings.
They were taking things gradually, since Eleanor hadn’t been divorced for that long when they met, but still. She cared about him a lot.
“Okay,” Diana said when Eleanor hung up the phone for a second time. “I’m coming with you.”
“Are you sure?” Eleanor asked. “I don’t think it’s going to be super fun or anything.”
Diana shrugged. “I’m invested now. Road trip!”
“Garrett?” Diana asked, popping a Sour Patch Kid in her mouth. She was on her second bag. The sugar was the only thing keeping her awake. She had not been thinking about her overall energy levels when she had agreed to come on this trip.
“Yeah, Diana?”
Diana didn’t know Eleanor’s boyfriend all that well. He was reserved, a little grumpy. But he was great to Eleanor, which was the only thing that mattered to Diana.
Still, she hoped he didn’t take this the wrong way.
“Why does your truck smell like Doritos and energy drinks?”
He met her eye through the rearview mirror.
“Because of all the Doritos and energy drinks I eat in here,” he replied, completely deadpan.
And Diana had absolutely no idea if he was kidding.
“Do you really ‘eat’ an energy drink?” Eleanor mused. This did not help Diana on the ‘is this a joke’ factor. Not in the least.
“I suppose not,” Garrett said, shooting his girlfriend a fond look.
Interesting. So very, very interesting.
“You’re an enigma, Wilder, do you know that?” she commented.
He hmphed.
In the rearview mirror, she caught a glimpse of Eleanor’s indulgent, fond smile, and Diana couldn’t resist letting out a little smile of her own, no matter her exhaustion…
or her own lackluster love life. Eleanor and Garrett were clearly destined for one another, and it was unspeakably charming to see them interact.
When they got to the warehouse, they found it supervised by a half-asleep worker who couldn’t have been older than twenty years old.
“Oh, hi,” the kid said, rubbing his eyes. “Are you the lady with the thing?”
Garrett crossed his arms in a way that wasn’t precisely menacing but did distinctly encourage the kid to develop some manners quickly.
“Right.” The worker pulled a rubber-encased cell phone out of his pocket. “You’re, um, Mrs. Ridley? With the bookshelf?”
“Ms. Ridley, but yes,” Eleanor said with a smile. “Can you help us load it up?”
The kid rubbed the back of his neck, looking like he wanted to refuse, but Garrett cleared his throat.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said quickly. “Of course, ma’am. Right away, ma’am.”
He scrambled to unlock the warehouse.
“Is this how you choose to use your powers, Garrett?” Diana teased. “Terrorizing youth?”
“I’m a man of many skills,” Garrett replied without hesitation.
Diana was delighted. Also, the sugar from the two packs of Sour Patch Kids was making her a little loopy.
“Was that a joke?” she asked happily. “Do you have a secret sense of humor?”
“No,” Garrett said flatly… which was, frankly, the funniest thing he could have said.
Diana got a fit of the giggles. Yes, definitely punchy.
Eleanor hid her own laughter behind her hands.
Getting the bookshelf onto the truck was an ordeal.
Garrett and the warehouse worker managed the bulk of the heavy lifting, with Eleanor and Diana serving as directors to stop any bumps or bangs that might risk Eleanor’s prize acquisition.
By the time they got everything loaded up and strapped down, Diana felt a little sweaty.
She could only imagine how the men must be feeling.
The poor warehouse kid looked like he was about to collapse into a puddle.
They piled back into the car, Garrett as unreadable as ever, Diana half asleep on her feet, Eleanor buzzing with excitement.
“Ooh,” Eleanor said, doing a little dance in her car seat. “I have it! I have it! Oh, I’m so excited! I can’t wait to see it unwrapped.”
Garrett, despite proving willing to do whatever it was his girlfriend desired of him, had put his foot down at the idea of unwrapping the bookshelf on site, as they would have to just wrap the whole thing back up anyway.
“I bet it looks great,” Diana said, feeling the lull of the truck start to push her toward sleep.
“It’s going to look so great,” Eleanor cooed. “Should we build it as soon as we get home?”
“No!” Garrett and Diana said in unison.
“I’m basically already asleep,” Diana admitted.
“Tomorrow,” Garrett insisted.
“But—” Eleanor said.
“Tomorrow!” Again, Garrett and Diana were perfectly in sync.
“Bah,” Eleanor said good naturedly.
“I’ll come over and help you tomorrow,” Diana offered to sweeten the deal.
“Oh, all right,” Eleanor said with a sigh. But something about her blinding grin told Diana that she wasn’t actually all that disappointed.