by Erin Duffy
“And you’re a matchmaker now, too?”
“For one night only. Then I’m going into permanent retirement.”
He easily breezed through the crowd, because every woman in the place stepped back in order to get a better look at him. He grinned just enough to expose the dimple in his cheek, his white teeth, and as expected, his fledgling interest in Antonia.
“I’m so happy you could make it,” I said. I shook his hand and tried not to notice that he was looking at Antonia intently, and not turning away. I was no matchmaker, but sometimes you just have a sense about things. “This is my friend, Antonia. Antonia, this is Dr. Carpenter.”
“Blake,” he said. He shook her hand, she smiled, and I realized that I was already the third wheel, and that I should be hobbling off. I crutched over to Lissy, who was standing near the front door.
“It’s going great,” I said as I glanced around the room at the throngs of women fondling everything in sight.
“Antonia’s fake date, or the store opening?” Lissy teased.
“Both, don’t you think?”
Before she could answer, the bell above the door rang, and Stella entered, her vest still zipped up to her neck, her sunglasses perched on the top of her head. I knew it was possible that Dee Dee’s friends would stop in, in fact, it was probably a good thing. They may have been obnoxious, but they were also popular and social, and the reality was that they’d be good clients for Lissy. Still, I was hoping I’d be able to avoid them, or at least not have to stand next to one of them. So much for that.
“Welcome to Sealed with a Kiss. If I can help you with anything, please let me know,” Lissy said politely.
“Thank you. Wait, you look familiar,” she said, not at all trying to be rude and yet simultaneously being so insulting it was almost comical.
“She’s the reader at story hour,” I said.
“Oh my God! I didn’t recognize you without any of your jewelry and with your hair off your face.”
“I took the earrings out for today,” Lissy said.
“You look very nice,” she said. I think with sincerity.
“Thank you.”
“The store is really adorable. We could use something like this around here. I order most of my stuff online because it’s easy, but I’m never happy with the quality. I think there’s a bit of a backlash going on now with the internet. People like knowing exactly what they’re buying, and who they’re buying it from, you know?”
“We do,” I answered. “In fact, we’re counting on it.”
“I’m Stella,” she said, finally offering her hand and introducing herself. It was totally stupid that we were having this conversation to begin with. She didn’t like me, I didn’t like her because she didn’t like me, and that was okay. We should just stay in our opposite corners, literally, and pretend we didn’t see each other. That was the civilized thing to do.
“Lissy,” Lissy said. “And this is—”
“Claire,” she interrupted.
“We’ve met,” I said. “I’m going to go sit down.”
“Wait,” Stella said. “Before you go, I just wanted to tell you that I’m embarrassed by how we treated you,” she blurted.
“Excuse me?” I said. Lissy turned and walked away, leaving me alone with Stella and an awkward tension in the air.
“We weren’t very nice to you. We didn’t even know you, and we didn’t make any effort to try and get to know you. I’m not going to speak for anyone else, but for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
I didn’t care at all anymore about them not being nice to me. Don’t get me wrong, the apology was nice and everything, but it really didn’t matter. I didn’t need their friendship and I didn’t want their acceptance and I didn’t care if they looked at me as the girl who lost her husband to Dee Dee before Dee Dee lost him to absolutely no one. I was past all of that. I was happy in my life. I knew I really didn’t care anymore, because of how easy it was to forgive her.
“You weren’t mean. The others were, but you never actually did anything. You were just quiet.”
She quickly brushed a curl out of her face. “We’ve been friends since we were kids. I’ll always be friends with them, but I don’t agree with a lot of what they do and say. I should’ve spoken up sooner. I guess I just don’t want you to think that I’m like them. I’m not. I don’t want my daughter to think that her mother is a bully, or that it’s okay to treat people that way. It’s only a matter of time before they start picking up on things. Having a kid makes you take a hard look at yourself, I guess.”
“Yeah. It definitely does. I appreciate the apology. Thank you,” I said.
“I stopped going to story time with them. I decided to take a step back.”
“Take it from me, don’t let anyone keep you from bringing your daughter to story time. Lissy is too good at what she does.”
“She really is. What happened to your leg?” she asked. I wasn’t sure if she actually cared, or if she was making conversation, but I guess it didn’t really matter much. My injuries were nothing if not a good conversation piece.
“I got hit by a car.”
“Seriously? Oh my God.”
“Yup. Owen wasn’t driving it in case you were wondering.”
“I was going to ask if Dee Dee was,” she joked, making me wonder for a second if maybe we could somehow become very unlikely friends. “You’ve had quite a year, huh?”
“Yeah,” I answered as I waved for Fred to help lead me to Lissy at the register. “I guess I have.”
“Well, it was good to see you. Maybe I’ll see you at the park or something one day. Your son is adorable. My daughter is almost two.”
“I’d like that,” I said. “I go to the library on Wednesdays. It’s a nice crowd. You should come.”
“I will. Bye,” she said. She exited the store, and I watched her leave, and found that I was happy to see that not all the mean mommies were really mean mommies. Some of them were still trying to figure out who they were, and I understood that completely. Fred stood next to me and helped to gently move people out of the way as I crutched over to the counter.
Lissy continued to ring up customer after customer buying preprinted note cards and thank-you notes and made appointments to meet with women who wanted to get their Christmas cards done early, just like I knew they would. I wanted to be part of this because I’d never been involved in anything like this. I hobbled over to the counter and helped bag the purchases after Lissy finished ringing them up. I stuffed each white paper bag with red tissue paper, affixed a round sticker with our name, address, phone number, email address, and a lip print onto the middle of the bag, and tied the handles together with red ribbons. I admired the bags and thought they looked beautiful, appropriate, and just edgy enough to be interesting. Originally, Lissy thought that maybe we should put giant lip prints in the middle of each bag, but collectively, we’d decided that it might look more like a trampy lingerie store than a stationery store, and all it would take was one person to think the bag contained furry handcuffs for the well-heeled women in town to never so much as walk past the store again. We wanted people to think modern Emily Post, not Heidi Fleiss, when they came to S.W.A.K. I handed the bag to the customer. “Have a nice day,” I said.
“You too, dear. Feel better,” she offered, noting my current disability. I smiled at the next customer, an impeccably dressed woman with a bright pink scarf tied around her neck and giant diamond earrings that were so big I wondered if maybe they were purchased at the jewelry kiosk in the mall. I placed three packs of note cards in her bag, which seemed appropriate. She looked like a woman who believed in sending proper notes. She probably didn’t even know what email was.
“Who does the calligraphy?” she asked as she pointed at the tray in the glass case. Lissy bent down and removed the tray so she could place it on the counter in front of her. The woman gently ran her pale pink manicured finger across the letters on the envelope, checking to see if the ink smudge
d on her index finger. I could smell her hand lotion, a combination of jasmine and lavender that reminded me of my grandmother. When she saw that it hadn’t, she picked up one of the envelopes and examined it closely. “It’s absolutely stunning.”
“I do, actually,” Lissy said.
“You did all of these yourself?” she asked, fully impressed at Lissy’s talent level just like I knew she would be.
“Yes. I learned when I was a little girl. My mother taught me.”
“It’s incredible. It’s not easy to find people who know how to do this kind of work anymore. Everything is done by machine now. It’s beautiful, sure, but it’s not the same.”
“I agree,” I said. “I think it totally went out of the window when we started expecting drones to deliver our orders from Amazon.com.”
“You’re probably right,” she agreed with a small giggle. I liked her. Turned out there were plenty of nice people in this town after all. Who knew?
“She can do any style you want. It makes any formal invitation infinitely more special, doesn’t it?” I asked.
The woman nodded. “Do you have a card?” she asked.
Lissy reached over and handed her a business card. “I’d be happy to meet with you at your convenience to discuss doing invitations for you if you’d like.”
“Are you open on Sundays?”
“Yes. From ten to four.”
“Wonderful! I’ll come in on Sunday. I’m having a dinner party next month for some colleagues from my husband’s office, and I think you have some really beautiful things to choose from. I’m so happy you’re here.”
The woman walked away and Lissy turned and looked at me. “I’ve been here. How have these people not noticed that I’ve been here the whole time?”
“Because people are all on autopilot. They think they know everything so they don’t pay attention. Now you’ve got everyone’s attention. Trust me, that awning won’t go unnoticed by anyone.”
“Kind of like me,” Lissy joked.
“Exactly like you,” I agreed.
THE PARTY WAS over. Empty champagne bottles filled the coolers on the floor in the office upstairs. Crumpled red napkins were strewn all over the shelves and the counter, and crumbs from quiche covered the floor. The ladies had all come and gone, and when Lissy tallied her orders she realized she’d done more business in one afternoon than she had in the last six months. It was a huge success. Fred, Lissy, and I sat at the small table and enjoyed the quiet, but sitting in quiet made me realize that I needed to leave. I wouldn’t have missed this party for anything, but the truth was every bone in my body ached and I was past the point where Motrin was going to help. I needed a painkiller, and to lie down, and to crawl under the duvet that had made me feel safe so many nights when nothing else had. The only difference now was that I wanted Fred to crawl under it with me.
“I should probably get going,” I said.
“I can’t believe you came,” Lissy said.
“Of course I came,” I answered. I leaned over and hugged her. “You’re going to do so well here.”
“I know. I can’t help thinking about how not that long ago I was living in the East Village in New York City and didn’t care about a career or working or anything. I just wanted to party and stay young forever. Now here I am, a business owner, with a beautiful store, and an awesome seating area, and a path forward in my life, and I didn’t have to give up who I am to get any of it. I wouldn’t have thought that this was possible.”
“You’re a badass. You have the whole town at your feet. Just keep working hard and being you and doing your amazing calligraphy and the business will come. I’m going to check your Instagram religiously, though. If I don’t see you posting I’m going to come over here and clock you with something.”
“As long as you don’t cut my hair,” she joked.
“Nah. I’m retired from that game. I’m just a boring suburban mom now. And that’s pretty awesome.”
“Mom, yes. Boring, never,” Fred said.
“I don’t know that it would have been possible without you, Claire,” Lissy said. “If you ever want to help me with my marketing or my social media stuff, I’d love it.”
“Count on it. You can’t get rid of me that easily. How many women willing to work as unpaid interns are floating around this town anyway? Ten? Twenty max.”
“Before you go, I have something for you,” Lissy said. She reached under the counter and produced a small box tied with a giant red bow.
“You got me a present?”
“Sort of. Open it,” she ordered.
I slid the bow off the box and ripped off the paper to reveal a small box of thank-you notes, the ones Lissy had shown me the first day I came to The Stationer, with the small ladybug in the upper right-hand corner, and my name, Claire Stevens, imprinted on the bottom.
“You are Claire Stevens. You should have the paper to prove it,” she said. “I don’t want you to ever forget who you are again.”
To say that I was touched by Lissy’s gesture would be an understatement. It might have been the most perfect gift anyone had ever given me. “I love them. Thank you, Lissy. Do I need to buy thank-you notes so that I can properly thank you? Is this just to make sure I spend more money here? I’m on to you,” I teased.
“I think we can just call it even.”
“Deal.”
“I’d never have been able to do this without you guys,” Lissy said.
“Yes, you could have,” I reassured her. “Well, definitely without me. Probably not without Fred.” I turned to Fred and continued, “Your being handy with tools, equipment, and all things renovation certainly helped.”
“I’m happy I was able to be a part of it. It was a great day,” Fred said. “You pulled it off, Claire. You got hit by a car in the process, but you really pulled it off.”
“Yeah, I told you that sometimes being a little crazy comes in handy.”
“Good crazy. You’re definitely good crazy.”
I was touched. That was one of the nicest things he’d ever said to me and that included the earlier comment about not needing makeup to be beautiful. It was probably better. “Thank you for saying that. It means a lot. Hey, I want to take a picture and send it to my mom. It’s funny how this whole time I’ve been trying to convince her that I was happy. Let’s see if she can tell the difference now that I actually am.”
“Oh, she’ll know,” Lissy said. “You’re like a whole different person.”
“I feel like a whole different person. I think it’s time that I try and go back to work. And when I say go back to work, I mean start my own business.”
“I think that’s a great idea!” Lissy said. “I love working for me.”
“I loved working for you, too. But I think I have something to offer. I have a niche and maybe it’s time I start thinking about what I want for me. I don’t want Owen to pay my mortgage. I don’t want to move anymore, but I want to pay for my own house. I want to pay for some things for Bo on my own. I remember when you came to my house that day I said that I could handle more than a baby. I can. I can handle a business, too. I just need a name for it.”
“Here we go again,” Lissy said.
“Maybe Antonia will have some ideas. Where is Antonia anyway?” I asked, looking around and realizing she’d left without saying good-bye, which was very un-Antonia-like. Unless . . .
“She told me to tell you she was going to have a beer and some oysters with the doctor,” Fred said. “She snuck out.”
“That’s fantastic! They’re on a date! I knew it!” I yelled. I held my phone up and Lissy and Fred leaned in close so I could take a selfie of the team that helped make Lissy’s dream come true. I sent it to my mother with a lip print and the words “Sealed with a Kiss.”
“They’re only having a beer. Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Fred advised. “She’s probably still going home to Chicago. Just prepare yourself for that. I don’t want you to be hurt if she sits you down one day a
nd tells you she’s leaving.”
“I know she might,” I admitted, even though the thought of it made me feel ill. “But, she might not. Maybe things will work out for her here, too. Who knows?” I asked, optimism oozing out of me from the same place where doubt, fear, and negativity had recently dwelled. “If this year has taught me anything it’s that life is totally unpredictable. And isn’t that wonderful?”
Acknowledgments
I’M SO GRATEFUL to the entire team of people who helped make this book possible, but to two women in particular:
Thank you to my agent, Erin Malone, for working so hard with me on this book, for having such great thoughts on the early drafts, and for once again having my back. As always, you’re awesome.
Thanks so much to my talented editor, Emily Krump, who somehow made this book better than I ever hoped it could be. Thank you for all of your time, all of your energy, and all of your thoughtful comments. Working with you on this was so much fun. Thanks, Em!
In addition, thank you to Jenifer Foley, Esq., for giving me your time and expertise in the field of family law. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.
Thank you to Telicha Waldron, for taking such good care of my little squad so I can make time to write. We are all so lucky to have you.
Thank you once again to my family and to all my friends who encouraged me to keep going when I wanted to stop and who pitched in to help with anything and everything so that I could finish this book. I love you guys.
P.S. Insights, Interviews & More . . .*
About the Author
* * *
Meet Erin Duffy
About the Book
* * *
Behind the Book
Bo’s Pear and Applesauce Recipe
Read On
* * *
More from Erin Duffy