Dear Darcy,

Even though we’ve been working together for a while now, it’s the first time I’ve put in an actual letter. I figured I should probably try to follow the rules for once.

Yesterday, my ex-girlfriend texted me out of the blue. Then long story short we spent the evening together, and I think she wants to give us another shot. So, basically, no matter where it goes from here, I think we can count this one toward your 95% success rate. And I did promise the other half when it worked out, remember?

From,

Me

I stared at the letter, and shoved the remaining unopened ones in my backpack. I stood up to leave, then remembered as an afterthought that I shouldn’t be carrying any letters around in my hands, so I stuffed this one in the backpack on top of the others. Then I walked straight to the pool, my stomping feet thudding on the floor.

A letter? That’s how he let me know? A letter? Where was the celebration? The “thank you so much, Darcy”? The “we did it, yay”?

Thankfully, Brougham was the only one in the pool today, so I didn’t need to worry about subtlety.

“Um, hi,” I called out, competing with the splashing and the hum of the pool heaters.

For once he heard me the first time. Brougham stopped mid-stroke and bobbed in the water, pushing his hair out of his face. “Hi. You got it?”

“Yeah, I got it,” I said, hovering by the pool’s edge. My voice came out funny. I didn’t know if I was angry at him, per se, or even fully hurt. It was just a little weird. It was a weird way to let me know. “I wasn’t expecting it.”

“No, I know,” he said. “I asked her where this was all coming from, and she reckons nothing happened. She just missed me, apparently.”

“Oh.” I cleared my throat to get rid of the funny tone. I didn’t want to ruin Brougham’s moment over a petty annoyance about his news delivery method. “Good of her to finally see the light!”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Brougham hadn’t come over to the side of the pool, so I got the feeling he didn’t want to talk about this, for whatever reason. I was so curious to know exactly what had gone down yesterday, though. Why was he choosing now to be so nonchalant about it all?

Maybe this very nonchalance was what had changed Winona’s mind. That thought worried me a little, because I wasn’t sure how long Brougham would be able to keep his investment at arm’s length like this.