For one brief second, my body reacted before my mind could catch up. My shoulders tightened. My stomach knotted. I waited for the old familiar fear.
But it didn’t last.
Tasha looked at Diane.
Then she looked at my hand resting on Diane’s back.
She didn’t come inside.
She didn’t shout.
She simply nodded, almost imperceptibly, and continued walking.
I watched her until she disappeared around the corner.
Diane glanced at me.
“Someone you know?”
“Someone I used to know.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
I considered the question.
“No. Not because it’s a secret. Because I don’t think it matters anymore.”
Diane nodded.
Then she broke off another piece of cake and placed it on my plate.
And that was the end of it.
At least, I thought it was.
Three weeks later, I received a phone call from an unfamiliar number.
The woman on the other end introduced herself as a paralegal working for a local estate attorney.
