They found a vacant bench facing the pond where Retta told Steve everything. Halfway through her retelling, she thought she might regret sharing so much. But Steve seemed actively engaged and unbothered by her rapid speech and expressive hands.
“Have you told him any of this?” Steve asked once she’d finished.
“No. Of course not. I know what he’d say.”
There’d been a moment in her grandmother’s house when Duncan was about to leave, where she could have expressed her feelings as rudimentary and unclear as they were at the time. But she already knew what his response would be, so she saved both of them the humiliation.
“No. Youthinkyou know what he’d say,” Steve said.
She frowned at his words.
“What if he surprises you? What if he has had a change of heart?”
Retta’s head tipped backward. “You sound like my best friend.”
Perking up, Steve asked, “Is she single and not in love with someone else?”
“No,” Retta said as she laughed for the first time that day. “She has a man and a whole baby on the way.”
Shrugging, Steve said, “I tried. But in all seriousness, let’s say you tell Duncan your feelings and he rejects you. At least you know for sure. There’s no guessing, and more importantly, there’s no regret.”
“But it’ll hurt,” she said.
“And you’ll recover.”
Retta didn’t say anything for a moment. She’d run away from her emotions for so long but doing so never truly made her feel better. Sometimes it even made her feel worse and do weird things like take a fake boyfriend to her ex’s wedding. Maybe it was time for a new strategy.
Looking up at Steve, Retta said, “If you’re this good with the advice, I might have to book an appointment with one of your parents.”
“I’m waiting for this to get less weird,” Gwen said, as she approached and handed Duncan a drink.
His parents’ divorce party was being held in a private room inside a generic restaurant, and the overall mood was light. They remained glued to each other’s sides, laughed with guests, and kissed the other as if they were in attendance for an entirely different celebration.
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he said.
“On the bright side, they look happy,” Gwen said.
Duncan sighed and looked at his sister. “There’s still time for them to fight about something.”
Gwen nodded. “Of course, I said they looked happy. I didn’t say they miraculously turned into different people.”
As the two siblings stood there watching the scene in front of them unfold, Gwen’s boyfriend, Eric, joined them.
“Hey, man, long time no see,” Eric said as the two men embraced.
“Yeah, welcome back,” Duncan replied. “How was the trip?”
“Good. Really good. Montreal is gorgeous. It made the job offer look even more appealing,” Eric said, taking a bite from his vegetarian hors d’oeuvre.
This was the first time he was hearing about this. Duncan expected there’d be an engagement in the future for the two, but he’d never thought he’d live in a different city than his sister. That would be an adjustment.
“You got a job offer?” Gwen asked, frowning. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“We’ll talk about it,” Eric replied.
The couple seemed to silently communicate several more points before Gwen turned to Duncan and asked, “How’s Retta? I’m thinking of getting some baked goods for my class for the start of the school year.”
Duncan winced.
