Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
The women shake hands and I can tell by her posture that Stephanie is back on guard again. Still, she smiles at Jules and says, “It was really nice of you to invite me. And I think Luc has the right idea…that we need to establish some sort of friendship if we’re going to go through this together.”
Jules releases the handshake, choosing instead to loop her arm through Stephanie’s. She pulls her past me toward the kitchen, chattering to her like they were old lost friends.
“Lucas tells me you’re from Northern California,” Jules says as I follow them. Once they get to the kitchen, Jules motions to one of the stools that sit at the center island and Stephanie takes a seat. I merely lean up against the entryway, fold my arms across my chest, and listen. “Max and I are thinking about touring some wineries there in the summer.”
Stephanie’s face brightens, and then she enthusiastically launches into some of the wineries that Max and Jules needs to try. In this moment, I see the same woman that flirted with me that night at the gala. In this brief moment, she’s not weighed down about the pregnancy or how her life has so dramatically changed against her will. So very different from the closed-off Stephanie I got at lunch. I don’t think it’s necessarily me who closes her off, and I get the distinct impression that the consequences of what we did are weighing heavier on her than they are on me.
In this moment, I tell myself I’m going to figure out why that is.
—
I have to give it to Max and Jules. Tonight was a perfect and relaxing evening. We eventually moved out onto the deck, and because it was a little chilly, Max turned on some outdoor space heaters. He then managed to grill some superb barbecue ribs and we ate that along with Jules’s southern potato salad and baked beans. The strawberry cake was served a little bit later as we sat around the outdoor table and chatted.
Max and I let Jules lead. She had established a quick and easy rapport with Stephanie, and because it was working so well, I let her run with it. It was nice to sit back and just listen and learn.
Jules didn’t necessarily get any deeper or personal information about Stephanie’s family than I was able to get, but her life since she became an adult has been interesting. She left home at eighteen and came to NC State in Raleigh, North Carolina, on a full-ride academic scholarship. She did mention that this was done against her parents’ wishes, and when Jules asked her about that, she managed to keep it vague with a simple, “They didn’t approve of my choice of careers.”
That of course launched into a very long discussion about how Stephanie ended up where she did. Turns out she never had a burning desire to be a curator or a director at a museum, but she took the job because there’s not a whole hell of a lot you can do with a zoology bachelor’s and a geology master’s.
“Then why did you bother with pursuing those degrees?” I had asked her.
She just shrugged and said, “I like rocks and minerals. What can I say?”
I laughed along with everyone else, but I didn’t believe what she said. I can tell that Stephanie doesn’t have a passion for either zoology, geology or the museum that she works at. It seems to me that more than anything, it was a means to an end. I know this about her, and I can make the comparison, because when she talks about something she’s extremely passionate about she’s a different person.
I observed the differences when Jules found out that Stephanie likes to work with the elderly, a subject that came about naturally since Jules works part time at a nursing home. I don’t know why that revelation stunned me, but it did. Steph apparently donates her time to a nonprofit that delivers meals to housebound geriatrics, and she also volunteers at some of the local nursing homes by visiting patients who don’t have family members. This, of course, was right up Jules’s alley, so the ladies had plenty to talk about. At that point, Max and I were almost completely cut out of the conversation so we talked about the play-offs that were coming up.
And now the evening has wound down and I’m walking Stephanie out to her car. I’m not going to be leaving just yet as I want to get Max’s and Jules’s impression of her, but I thought it was the polite thing to do.
There’s certainly no other purpose, like perhaps seeing if she’s any different with me when we’re alone and after spending a few relaxed hours together.
Pulling her keys from her purse, Stephanie turns to me with a laid-back smile. “Thanks for a great evening. I had a lot of fun.”