One Woman’s Treasure

by Jean Copeland

  Daphne relaxed in the warmth and safety of Nina’s reassuring words. Having Nina as a confidant and partner in wine was more valuable than any relationship. She’d never want to do anything to compromise that.

  Suddenly, her text chimed. “That must be Sophie.” She reached for her phone. “I called her earlier.” She looked down and was surprised. “It’s Brynne.”

  “Yes.” Nina hissed as she gave Daphne a fist bump. “What did she say?”

  “That she’s still thinking of my timid yet alluring eyes and can’t wait to see them again in person.”

  “Get out. That’s what she wrote?”

  Daphne nodded in excitement.

  “Damn. That woman’s seduction game is on point.” Nina emptied the bottle into their glasses. “What did you say she does for a living?”

  “Engineer.”

  “Talk about duality. The mind of a scientist and the soul of a poet. And you have her under your spell.”

  Daphne demurred. “Well, I don’t know about having the pizazz for casting spells or anything…”

  Nina pointed at her with a grave expression. “You need to stop selling yourself short. I know it can be nerve-wracking starting with someone new, but try to resist the temptation for negative self-talk.”

  “I’m just glad I didn’t sneeze and blow a glob of snot out, like I did on one of my early dates with Ann Marie.”

  Nina stared at her. “Do not say that to Brynne. Not now. Not ever. Should we open another bottle?”

  “I should get going. I want to check on Sophie when I get home.” She stood and stretched. “She probably fell asleep, but she always responds to my texts. She was so proud that she taught herself to text when her son gave her a phone.”

  “Call her now and see,” Nina said, also standing.

  “It’s late,” Daphne said. “I don’t want to wake her. I can peep into her windows when I get home and see that she’s okay.”

  “Sophie and I are both lucky to have you.”

  Nina wrapped her in a tight, full-body hug and held on. Daphne wasn’t sure if it was an expression of gratitude or that Nina was too buzzed to stand by herself. Whatever the reason, Daphne didn’t care. She closed her eyes and stood there holding Nina, waiting for her to pull away first.

  * * *

  When Daphne pulled into her driveway, Sophie’s house was completely dark, and since Sophie hadn’t returned Daphne’s voice mail or text, she now decided it was appropriate to panic. She trotted across the yard and knocked on her door and rang her bell. Nothing. She kicked herself for never taking down her son’s phone number. It was after eleven, so she called the hospital before resorting to smashing in her back window.

  Sure enough, that’s where Sophie was. While she couldn’t find out why she’d been admitted, once she started crying, someone at the nurses’ desk told her she was okay and would likely be released the next day. It was enough to allow her to eventually fall asleep.

  * * *

  After Daphne left, Nina cleared the wine bottles from the table and went upstairs to check on Noah.

  “Hey, buddy,” she said after a light tap on his door.

  He lay sprawled sideways across his bed with the TV on, his nightstand cluttered with several days’ worth of snack wrappers and empty bowls.

  “This kid didn’t brush his teeth,” she muttered. “I know it.”

  After tidying up and turning off the TV, she walked into her master bath to get ready for bed. She thought about Daphne and her puzzling lack of confidence as she brushed her teeth. With her lovely features and such a disarmingly sweet and funny way about her, how could she be so insecure? Whoever this Brynne woman was, she’d be a fool not to explore the possibilities with Daphne.

  If she wasn’t in love with Lacey, she would go for Daphne. Probably. But now that they’d become good friends, the threshold for that type of relationship had closed. Being romantically involved would feel weird. Wouldn’t it?

  Anyway, why speculate on “what ifs” when the “what is” was so promising? She was getting back with Lacey, Daphne was embarking on new romantic adventures, and they had each other as friends. It was all good.

  “Uh, oh,” she said out loud as she remembered actual Lacey. She grabbed her phone and saw three texts from her over the last two hours. She texted back and confessed that time had slipped away from her as she and Daphne discussed her date over a bottle and a half of rosé.

  That’s awesome.” Lacey wrote. I hope it’s only the beginning for them. I just wanted you to know I was missing you.

  I miss you, too.

  Did I mention that I LOVE having you all to myself now?

  Yes, I think you have. Nina added a heart and a smiley face. It’s wonderful for me, too.

  Can I steal you away this weekend? My sister’s having people up to the place she’s renting on the Vineyard.

  I have Noah this weekend…

  It took a couple of minutes for Lacey to reply. Any chance you can switch weekends with Zack?

  Nina sighed. Here we go, she thought. Not at eleven fifteen on a Thursday night. I’d need more notice.

  I know. It was a spontaneous thing my sister threw together. He’s welcome, too. Think about it. Good night, my love.

  Lacey signed off with heart and kiss emojis, but did the hasty ending to the chat mean she was disappointed or frustrated or worse? Not an auspicious way to begin their new, legitimate relationship, but what was she supposed to do? Her son was her priority, and Lacey had known that from the start.

  She was about to change into her sleep T-shirt when she caught the trace scent of Daphne’s perfume from their earlier hug still on the T-shirt she was wearing. She pulled it up to her nose for a closer sniff, smiled, and decided to sleep in it instead.

  * * *

  The next day, Daphne visited Sophie in the hospital as soon as she left work. As she zipped down the hall to her room, she tried to mentally prepare for the sight of Sophie lying inert and full of tubes, half out of it. The woman was in her early eighties, but she was so young at heart, Daphne never viewed her as elderly. This development certainly put things in perspective.

  She quietly entered her room and walked past the aged roommate balled up asleep only to find Sophie sitting up, looking spry as ever as she watched Judge Judy.

  “You scared the bejesus out of me, Soph.” Daphne bent down to give her a kiss and a small bouquet of flowers in a vase.

  “I hope you didn’t buy these in the gift shop,” Sophie said as she inspected them. “They’re a rip-off down there.”

  Daphne took the vase from her and made a place for it on the nightstand. “I didn’t have a lot of options. I raced here from work.”

  “You didn’t have to come at all, let alone race. When you called me this morning, I told you I was fine.”

  “You’re clearly not fine if you’re in the hospital,” Daphne said as she sat at the foot of the bed.

  “I feel like I can leave now, but the doctor wanted me here one more day because I hit my head.”

  “Oh, my God. You probably have a concussion. You’re lucky you didn’t crack your skull open. You need one of those Life Alert necklaces.”

  Sophie waved her off. “Stop being such a nervous Nelly. I never lost consciousness. I just got a little dizzy and lost my balance.”

  Daphne shook from her mind disturbing images of how much worse her fall could’ve been. “At your age, you have to take this stuff seriously, Soph. What if you had lost consciousness?” She took out her phone. “Please give me your son’s cell-phone number.”

  “What do you need that for?”

  “So I can keep in touch with him about you.”

  “I don’t know it off the top of my head. I’ll give it to you tomorrow after I get home. Now what happened on your date? Was this with the one who came over for breakfast?”

  Daphne gave her a stern glare. “No. That’s Nina, my friend.”

  “She’s a beautiful girl, Daphne. She’s the one you sho
uld be dating.”

  Daphne sighed and sprawled out across the foot of the bed. “Yes, you’ve already said that, but that’s not how these things work.”

  Sophie rolled her eyes. “Oh, right. All these lesbian rules you keep telling me about.”

  “They’re not rules. It’s not like we have by-laws or anything. They’re just common-sense social parameters.”

  Sophie seemed to puzzle it out in her head. “So some women you go to lunch with and some you sleep with.”

  Daphne propped herself up on her elbow. “It’s more like some women you can do both with, but some you can only go to lunch with.”

  “I see. So Nina, you only have lunch with. But this other one—”

  “Brynne.”

  “This Brynne you can also sleep with?”

  “Maybe. We’ve only had one date, so I’ll have to see how things go.”

  “How many dates does it take before the sex happens?”

  Daphne laughed. “I don’t know. It’s different for everyone. Let me guess. You and Willie waited till your wedding night.”

  “Yes, we did,” Sophie said with a smile. “I was nineteen when we married, mind you, so it wasn’t such a big deal to wait—not like you kids today who can’t be bothered with marriage.”

  “Hey,” Daphne said, lightly offended by the generalization. “Ann Marie and I did get married when it became legal, but a lot of good that did me. She fell in love with her stomach doctor, and next thing you know, I’m served with divorce papers so they could march down the aisle.”

  “I thought you were over her,” Sophie said.

  “I am over her, but sometimes I think about how I felt when she left me for pretty, successful Francesca. After all those years together, she tossed me to the curb like trash. I’m still processing that part.”

  “Fair enough. I imagine that would be devastating. But just remember, she may have made you feel like trash, but you have two new ladies in your life who certainly don’t see you that way.”

  Daphne smiled and gave one of Sophie’s feet a playful rub. “How do you always know what to say to make me feel better?”

  “Not bad for a woman who never had a daughter or a granddaughter of her own.” Sophie pretended to polish her nails on her hospital gown, then looked up at her in earnest. “You’re nobody’s trash, Daphne. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel like that again.”

  “Thanks, Sophie. I won’t. I’ve come a long way in knowing my worth. At least that’s how all the Instagram memes say I should feel anyway.” She chuckled at her own quip.

  “That’s good. I’d hate to see you wind up on a Dr. Phil episode about middle-aged women who get taken to the cleaners by someone they met online.”

  Daphne laughed too loudly for a hospital room, then stopped abruptly when she remembered her online dalliance before Savannah left her. If she hadn’t accidentally left her browser open to her messenger, Savannah might never have discovered the conversations. Who knew what Daphne could’ve agreed to during that period of weakness?

  Sophie shook her head in apparent reflection. “Life was so much less complicated when we all married at nineteen.”

  “You didn’t have the internet then,” Daphne said. “What else were you supposed do?” Her jovial tone belied the fact that she was a tad jealous of Sophie’s decades of marriage to the love of her life. It was a dream she’d watched sift through her own fingers.

  Chapter Twelve

  As the summer waned, Daphne’s flea-market debut had finally arrived, and Nina seemed more excited than she was. She and Noah had picked Daphne up early in the morning, and they stopped for breakfast before driving to the flea market and helping her set up in her booth for the day.

  As nine a.m. rolled around, Nina stood beside Daphne trying to calm her. For some reason she was twitching with the same level of angst as a theater actress on opening night—who’d forgotten to memorize her lines.

  “Daph, are you truly this nervous about sitting in an antique booth, or are you just over-caffeinated?”

  “What if I mess up?” she said, rubbing her thumbs and forefingers in circles. “What if I’m overcharging people, and then I’m blackballed from ever doing business here again?”

  Nina shook her head as though Daphne had set it spinning. “What have I said about all the what ifs in business? Nothing ventured, nothing gained, remember?” She touched her arm in another effort to calm her. “Besides, we spent a lot of time in August researching the value of your pieces. Your prices are exactly where they should be.”

  “Okay. You’re right,” she said, shaking out her hands at her sides. “And you’ll be here if anything goes wrong, so it’s all good.”

  “I just have to drop Noah off at my mom’s, and I’ll come back for the rest of the day.”

  Daphne’s eyes went wide and glassy. “You’re leaving me?”

  Nina tried not to laugh, but Daphne’s irrational panic was so cute. She wanted to wrap her in a big bear hug. “My mother lives twenty minutes from here. I’ll be back before you even realize I’m gone.”

  “I’m going to realize you’re gone the moment you walk away. Can you wait like an hour, just so I can get used to the idea?”

  Nina felt sorry for her. Sometimes she seemed afraid of everything. It was no wonder her vision board was yellowing at the corners.

  “Noah, should we hang out here a while with Daphne before I take you to Gram’s?”

  He nodded. “Can I go over there and look at the comic books?”

  She looked in the direction he was pointing and saw the booth was in her line of vision. “Sure, but do not leave that booth without telling me first. You hear me? It’ll take all of two minutes for you to get lost and kidnapped.”

  After another nod, he made his way to the comic-book booth. Nina surveyed the crowd slowly starting to fill in the market, then joined Daphne in the other chair behind her table.

  “Where’s Brynne today?”

  “Kayaking with friends,” Daphne said ambivalently.

  “Is she coming down later?”

  “She might. I told her to stay out and seize the day. Who wouldn’t want to be out on the water?”

  Nina tried to keep her face neutral, not wanting to pass any judgments. If she were Daphne’s girlfriend, she’d be here with her from start till finish. Actually, she would be, with the exception of dropping off Noah.

  “You’re such a good girlfriend,” she said. “Most women would expect their significant others to be by their side for something like this.”

  Daphne shrugged. “I’m not sure how significant we are.”

  “What do you mean? I haven’t asked because I didn’t want to pry, but how’s the sex?”

  Daphne looked at her, seeming embarrassed.

  “You don’t have to tell me if you’re uncomfortable talking about it.”

  “We haven’t done it yet,” Daphne whispered.

  “Are you kidding? You’ve been together a month.”

  “Almost a month and a half.”

  Nina was trying to wrap her head around this new information. “What the hell? Is it you or her?”

  “I think it’s me. I just haven’t felt ready. I want to get to know her better.”

  “Good for you. I admire your self-restraint. But does Brynne find it admirable, too?”

  Daphne’s mouth twisted in concern. “I’m messing it up with her, aren’t I?”

  “I don’t know,” Nina said, thinking, yes, quite possibly. “Look, every relationship is different, and if you both agree on abstaining, then that’s cool. Do you want something more meaningful with her?”

  “I think so. I really like her, and we have fun when we spend time together.”

  Lacey’s incoming call interrupted Nina’s response. After noting Noah’s whereabouts, she walked away to answer.

  “I miss my sweet babe,” Lacey said in a sultry morning voice.

  Nina smiled into her phone. “Hi, honey. What’s going on?”

&nbs
p; “After last night, I’m having Nina withdrawals. How about dinner later this afternoon?”

  “I’d love to,” Nina said. “But I’ll be with Daphne at the flea market till around four. Then I have to pick up Noah at my mom’s and catch up on some work at home. How about Tuesday or Wednesday?”

  Nina stuck her finger in her other ear to hear through the crowd noise. Lacey hadn’t answered.

  “Are you there, honey?” Nina said.

  “Yeah. I’m here.” Lacey’s tone was a bit more rigid. “Do you have to stay with her all day?”

  “I told her I would. It’s her first time running her booth, and she feels a lot better having me here while she gets used to the routine.”

  Lacey exhaled into the phone. “You can’t see me tomorrow either?”

  “Lace, you know Mondays are bad. I have a bunch of meetings tomorrow and won’t get to leave by five, more like six or seven.”

  “Do you need me to pick up Noah if you run late?”

  “Daphne said she would. She lives closer to my office than all of us.”

  “Jeez, it’s starting to seem like you spend more time with her than you do me.” Lacey said it with a chuckle, but Nina clearly heard the tinge of resentment in the quip.

  “That’s not true, honey. It just feels like that this weekend.”

  “How about you just cut out of there early? She’ll be fine after a few hours of you babysitting her.”

  Nina bristled. She didn’t feel like she was babysitting her at all. Was her friendship with Daphne starting to be a problem for Lacey? She breathed in slowly as she chose her words.

  “Lace, I made a plan and a promise with Daphne, and I’d like for you to understand and be okay with it.”

  There. That sounded mature and reasonable.