There was a long pause on the line before she spoke carefully. “Okay, breathe deep, my friend, and tell me what exactly the note says.”
I read the message to her in a low whisper so no one in the hall would hear me. “It says thank you for keeping this between us, and she can never know until the right moment, signed R.”
“Okay, I hear you,” Felicia said softly.
“Felicia, he had this tucked in his pocket on our wedding night while he was standing there saying vows to me,” I said, feeling my voice break.
“Stop right there and stop spiraling,” she instructed me firmly.
“I am not spiraling,” I argued back.
“You are absolutely spiraling,” she corrected me without hesitation.
“I have a pretty good guess about what this means,” I insisted.
“You have a bad guess,” she corrected me gently. “You have a scared guess, and there is a huge difference between the two.”
I pressed the tiny brass key against my lips as I listened to her. The red ribbon attached to it was soft and worn, as though someone had handled it many times before.
“Who do we know whose name starts with the letter R?” Felicia asked me thoughtfully.
