Page 85 of Dance with Me on New Year's Eve

SawyerRox4:… yes? Not gonna lie, I’m kind of nervous. But I’ll send you a message with my address the day before, as we talked about, OK?

CastGamer55:Perfect.

As soon as I put the phone down, I realized I’d forgotten to ask Danny if he was having a white Christmas, wherever he was visiting his family. I still couldn’t believe he lived in southern Minnesota too.What were the odds?

When I walked to the kitchen, I found my mother cooking already and came to a stop near her. “Morning, Mom.”

“Morning,” she said, quickly looking at me and then back at the gas stove, which was a recent upgrade. Hardly anything in my childhood home was the same anymore.

“Can I help with anything?”

“No.”

“You don’t have to make that much food, really, since it’s just the three of us.”

That got her attention. “Roxanne, ‘just the three of us’ is your family. And it’s still Christmas.”

She turned back to the stove, stirred for a moment, and then put on her cutting gloves and retrieved the cutting board from a lower cabinet.

I tried to think of something to say. “I wish we had a white Christmas.”

She didn’t answer.

“Mom? Just wondering, do you think this dress would be OK for a work party I’m attending next week?”

She finished cutting the onions and then turned to me, eyeing me up and down. “Is it a fancy party?”

“Kind of? Not the most formal ever, but definitely not casual.”

My mother eyed me and then turned back to the stove. “Well, if you want my honest opinion, that dress doesn’t do you any favors.”

“Why?” I asked, afraid to hear the answer.

Her eyes assessed me again. “I don’t think the designer had a pear shape in mind when they created that dress.”

I looked down at the dress and felt the snugness at the hips. I thought it was supposed to fit this way. Emotion welled up in my chest, and I wanted to kick myself. Iaskedfor her opinion.Why?

“OK, Mom.”

“How’s your love life these days? Are you bringing home a man one of these days?”

I looked at her blankly. “No, what gave you that idea?”

“I mean, you’re heading toward thirty, and you’ve barely had any boyfriends. Only two or three, right?”

Actually, it was only one. I’d dated a bit, but I’d only called one a boyfriend. But I just nodded to her.

She added the onions to a pan on the stove and started stirring. “Well, are you trying, at least?”

“What do you mean bytrying?” I asked quietly.

“I can’t hear you! You always talk so darn soft.”

I repeated myself, my voice starting to shake.

“I mean, putting yourself out there. Being social. Letting guys know you’re interested. Have mutual friends set you up.” She spoke so casually, as though it was as easy as tying my shoes.

“I thought about trying a dating app once, but—”

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