Emma Hartwell's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

A week later Emma sat at the same table by the window. The old leather book was open in front of her, but she had not turned a page in twenty minutes. She was watching the door. A man named Ethan Carter had messaged her three times that morning, each note warmer than the last, asking if she wanted to meet for coffee here at four. It was ten past. Emma reread his last text and looked for the word that would tell her he did not mean it. She could not find one. That scared her more than finding one would have. The bell over the door rang. It was not Ethan. Morgan walked in, hair pulled up, jacket zipped against the cold, and stopped when she saw Emma. She had not been invited. Emma felt her old habit rise in her throat, ready to say she was fine, ready to say she was waiting for a friend, ready to send Morgan back out the door with a smile that meant nothing. Morgan crossed to the table and set down a small ceramic owl with a heart-shaped face and one chipped wing. "Found it at the shop next door," Morgan said. "Made me think of you. The wing is messed up. Still an owl." She did not sit. Emma looked at the owl. She looked at Morgan standing there, waiting to be told to stay or go. The easy thing was the hedge. I'm meeting someone. Maybe another time. The words were already shaped in her mouth. She thought about last Friday and the Friday before, and the man who had said he would come and did not, and the ex she had sent out this door a week ago. She thought about who had actually shown up. "Sit," Emma said. "Please." Morgan sat. Emma turned her phone face down without reading the new message that had just lit the screen. "I was waiting for someone," she said. "He's late. I don't think I want him to come anymore." Morgan did not ask who. She nodded once and picked up the owl and turned it in her fingers. "Then tell him," she said. Emma picked up her phone. She typed four words. Please don't come today. She sent it before she could reread it. The screen went dark. Her hands were shaking a little, but she set the phone down and left it there. Morgan pushed the owl across the table until it sat beside the open book. "Coffee?" she said. "I'm buying." Emma said yes. She said it the first time Morgan asked.