Best,
Benji Andor
And that was all it said.
For the next four hours, I paced the apartment trying to decode every secret message within those twenty-two words with Rose and a bottle of pineapple Riesling.
“We didn’t even work together!” I cried, carving a hole in the hardwood floors the faster I paced. “What does he mean?”
Does he remember? No—he couldn’t. If he did, then he would have contacted me so much sooner than this. That couldn’t be it.
Rose watched me pace from her perch in the middle of the couch, sipping on her wine. “Perhaps it was just a polite email?”
“I didn’t even get one of those from my old editor.”
“You should respond.”
I stopped pacing. “What?”
She took another large gulp. “Tell him you’d like to meet, and then finish up your unfinished business.”
“I don’t have any—”
“Florence.”
“Rose.”
“I love you, but you do.”
“I love you, too, but you just expect me to waltz into his office and—and tell him what? That I’m a chaotic mess? Seven drunk ferrets in a trench coat?”
In reply, Rose forcibly set down her wineglass onto the coffee table and reached behind her on the couch to our bookcases. She grabbed one and presented it to me. “Sign, seal, deliver.”
I stared down at my own book, Ardently Yours. The book that Ben said was his favorite in the whole world. And I let out a very long sigh. “Remember your last idea involving Ben?”
She shrugged. “You got to punch Lee, didn’t you?”
She had a point.
So, the next morning, while I nursed a hangover and ate congealed oatmeal, I wrote a reply email.
Mr. Andor,
It was a pleasure. Though I do have something for you. Do you think we could set up a meeting?
Sincerely,
Florence Day
Miss Day,
Would this Friday work, at noon?
Best,
Benji
Mr. Andor,
Noon would be lovely.
With all my best,
Florence
And that was that.
I second-guessed my email the entire week. Was lovely too strong a word? Should I have signed it Miss Day? Should I have addressed him as Benji instead of Mr. Andor? Rose told me that Wednesday that if I spiraled any more, I’d drill myself to the center of the earth.
So I tried to spiral more quietly.
I think I might’ve had a full-on panic attack if it weren’t for having to finalize plans for Carver and Nicki’s wedding that weekend. Right after the meeting with Ben on Friday, I was to take a taxi to Newark and hop on a plane home for their wedding on Saturday. Friday was the rehearsal dinner and bachelor parties, and as the big sister who did absolutely nothing to help with the wedding while I was in the deadline trenches, I had to at least show up for those. I reserved my room at the inn （to John and Dana’s pure ecstatic joy）， and walked Mom through the whiplash of “I’m so happy!” and “My baby’s all grown up and leaving the mortuary!” and I managed to talk Rose into coming with me purely because I was the best eldest sister in the entire world and I knew for a fact that Alice would never ask her. She was bold at doing absolutely everything, except when it came to her own happiness.