Page 52 of Save the Date

“So youreallywant to do this? You want to go all the way?”

Matt raised his eyes suggestively and Emma blushed.

“I mean with the wedding.”

“Emma Moskowitz, I want to go all the different ways with you.”

And with that declaration of something bordering on love, he kissed her.

***

Emma waited for the valet under the building’s awning, hoping the dim light wouldn’t reveal the full extent of her splotchy, red face. She had just spent the past forty minutes making out and it showed. Even though they were now pretty much engaged, she and Matt had mutually decided to take the physical aspect of their relationship slow. Part of Emma worried that Matt must not be that attracted to her if he wasn’t trying to get her naked, but a more mature part understood where he was coming from. Just because they had a wedding date didn’t mean they had to rush their courtship. They had plenty of time to sleep together—hopefully a whole lifetime.

There was something special about this phase of their relationship,before they knew what it was like to be with each other physically. It made everything more charged, more exciting. Emma had felt like a teenager again as she straddled Matt on the couch with all her clothes on. Just because they knew where the relationship was going, it didn’t mean they had to rush through the journey.

Feeling more at peace than she’d felt in months, Emma smiled eagerly at the valet when he handed over her keys. She then smiled the whole way home. Her smile even managed to stay in place as she drifted off to sleep because she was stubbornly ignoring the one nagging question in the back of her mind:Am I really willing to get hurt again?

Twenty-One

“DO YOU THINK THIS WILL LOOK GOOD?” EMMA ASKEDher mother and sister as they sat side by side by side in pedicure chairs. Both women leaned over to inspect the bright blue Essie polish Emma was considering for her toes.

“No,” Jackie replied.

“Really? I think it would be fun,” Debbie countered.

“Why would you want your feet to look like aSesame Streetcharacter? Go with something more natural.” Jackie held up a bottle of Mademoiselle, the same shade of light pink she had been using for decades; nail salons were an important part of their affluent childhood.

“Pink nails aren’t exactly natural either,” Emma argued even though she knew exactly what Jackie meant. Sometimes annoying younger-sibling instincts were hard to shake.

“How about this?” Debbie showed them her selected color, a brighter pink that was more fun than Jackie’s shade but not quite as daring as what Emma had proposed.

“That’ll work,” Emma agreed, not at all embarrassed that she was going to match her mom. There was already quite a bit of crossover in their wardrobes.

“Your phone is buzzing,” Jackie said with a nod toward Emma’s purse. “Is it Matt?”

Emma checked her screen and saw a message from Will asking if she would be down to do another recording session soon and if she was willing to share bagels with other people. It was a playful tease about her strange eating habits, and she grinned as she texted back her reply:Yes and yes (but only if I get a full bagel to myself).

He quickly wrote back:That’s not exactly sharing.

No one shares bagels! That’s why they’re so wonderful!Emma replied.

“It’s totally Matt,” Jackie declared. “Look at that smile.”

Feeling caught, Emma put her phone back in her bag. “Actually, it was Will. We’re trying to figure out when to record again.”

“I like Will,” Debbie said. “I can tell he really gets you.”

“What do you mean? You barely met him.”

“I know, but you two seem to have the same kind of energy. Super playful but smart. Call it a mother’s instinct,” Debbie said with a shrug.

“Well, Will didn’t want to marry her,” Jackie replied. “So we leveled up and found someone better.”

“Did Ryan and I have the same energy?” Emma asked, not ready to move on.

It was rare for her mom to make bold observations like this, even though Debbie had an uncanny habit for being right. Like when Emma had briefly considered getting a PhD after her master’s to become a psychologist. Debbie had deftly asked if Emma actuallywantedto go that route or if she just felt compelled to because of other people’s opinions. Psychologists tended to be more highly regarded in the field than marriage and family therapists. Emma hadn’t even realized she was caving to professional peer pressure until her mother brought itup. Now she loved her job and was delighted to not have spent an extra four years in school for no real reason.

“That’s a good question,” Debbie said as she considered her daughter’s ex-fiancé. Ryan had become a fixture in all their lives before his abrupt exit, so she knew him well. “I know you two had a lot of fun together. But I always got the sense that Ryan was too conventional for you.”

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