Page 84 of Save the Date

“Wow. Okay.” She turned to Imani. “I’ll give you one hour.”

Emma stood up, thrilled that this had somehow worked out. “I’ll come back then.” Her parents nodded, one more cheerfully than the other.

Emma knew it was frowned upon to force someone into therapy—especially under false pretenses. It was also extremely unlikely that anything would be solved in a single session. But none of that mattered since all Emma really wanted was for her parents to stop avoiding their issues and start talking. They had somehow made it forty years without fully understanding the inner workings of each other’s brains. It was time to learn.

***

“Is there anything I’m not doing that you wish I would do?”

Matt looked at Emma strangely from behind the wheel of his car. They were on their way to the final tasting at their wedding venue, a gorgeous hotel and event space in Malibu called Calamigos Ranch. When Emma and Ryan had first visited the spot a little over a year earlier, they had been blown away by the big trees and chic rustic decor. They’d even fantasized about coming back to the resort each year on their anniversary. Emma, who hadn’t been back in person since, hoped it would somehow feel just as special with Matt—or at least not super uncomfortable.

“What do you mean?”

“All this stuff with my parents has just reinforced how different people can be. You might need things that haven’t even occurred to me. I thought I’d ask.”

Her parents’ off-the-books session with Imani had been more successful than anyone could have expected. Debbie seemedto finally understand that even though it wasn’t true, Alan saw her need for alone time as a painful personal attack. And Alan started to come around to the idea that it wasn’t helpful to take all of Debbie’s actions so personally. Nothing was said that hadn’t been said before, but something about saying it in front of someone else, in a neutral territory, made it easier to listen. Funny how that worked. They’d even agreed to see another therapist Emma knew from grad school for a few more sessions as they worked the kinks out. It was a therapy success story, and it made Emma want to flex her own communication skills with Matt.

They also hadn’t said anything to each other in twenty minutes and Emma was getting pretty bored. Matt was a wonderful, kind, incredibly good-looking man. But he wasn’t much of a talker.

“Huh,” Matt said. “I can’t think of anything. What about you?”

“Oh, come on. I can’t be the only one to say something. That’s not fair,” Emma teased.

“So you do have something?”

“Nothing huge or anything.”

“What is it?”

Emma debated if she should share or not. On the one hand, she didn’t want to hurt his feelings. On the other, she needed to learn how to be more honest with Matt without fearing rejection.

“I guess sometimes I worry that we are going to run out of things to say to each other.”

Matt laughed until he realized she wasn’t joking. “Why would we run out of things to say?”

“Because it happens sometimes. Haven’t you ever seen two old people at a restaurant eating their entire meal in silence? That is my greatest fear.”

“Really? I’ve always thought it was nice. They’re so comfortable with each other that they don’t even have to talk.”

“But I love to talk. It’s one of my favorite things to do.”

“Then we can talk.”

“What if we run out of stuff to talkabout? What will we do then? People can die from boredom, you know.”

“Is that true?”

“Not really. But it isn’t good for you.” Emma wasn’t sure why she was getting so worked up. This was supposed to be a productive conversation, not a triggering one.

“Is this something you’ve always worried about or is it something you’re just worried about with me?”

“I’ve always worried about it. But I’ve also never dated someone who wouldwantto have a silent dinner. I guess that scares me a little.”

“Hmm,” Matt said with an unreadable look on his face.

“What?”

“I guess it scares me that you view silence as such a bad thing. I find it peaceful. Sometimes Kelly and I would just sit out on our porch and watch the sunset without saying a word.”

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