A New Kind of Bliss by Bettye Griffin

night. Wayne and I both enjoyed ourselves.” I considered sharing with her just how much Wayne enjoyed Tanis’s company, then decided that wouldn’t be right. Just because Wayne hadn’t added a “just between us” clause didn’t give me carte blanche to blab his private feelings to anyone.
    “Glad to hear it. Now, I want to hear all about you and Aaron.”
    I bit into my muffin. “There’s not a lot to tell. He asked if he could see me again, and I said yes. We’ll get together when I come back from Indy.” I gasped as I realized an oversight. “Oh, no! I’m just remembering that I never gave him my number, Rosalind.” Then it occurred to me that maybe the oversight had been deliberate. “Damn. I hope that wasn’t just a line he fed me about wanting to go out with me.”
    “It wasn’t. He just called me and asked for your number. He said he’d forgotten to get it from you last night. If you ask me, he sounded a little panicked. I gave it to him. That’s why I called, to tell you. Hope you don’t mind.”
    “No, of course—” the beep of call waiting interrupted our conversation. “Oh, my. Someone’s calling. Give me a minute to get rid of them.” I depressed the flash button on the receiver. “Hello?”
    “Hello, Emily. Aaron Merritt here.”
    I’d expected to hear the voice of one of Mom’s friends. That he’d called so quickly showed real promise. “Well, hi! This is a surprise.”
    “I forgot to get your number, so I called Rosalind and asked her for it. I hope you don’t mind.”
    “No. I’m glad to hear from you. Oh, there’s the call waiting.” There hadn’t been any beep, but I didn’t want to tell him I had Rosalind on the other line. “Can you hold just a minute?”
    “Sure, go ahead.”
    “Be right back.” I clicked back over to Rosalind. “It’s Aaron. I’ll call you back.”
    “I want to know what hap—,” I could hear Rosalind saying as I clicked again.
    “I’m sorry,” I said to Aaron. “I know how annoying that can be.”
    “No problem. I enjoyed talking with you last night, Emily. I hate the idea of having to wait nearly two weeks to see you again.” He’d asked about the timeline of my move as we said goodnight last night. “Would you consider having dinner with me tonight if you have no plans?”
    “I’d love to.” I gave him directions to Mom’s apartment, and we agreed on seven-thirty.
    Maybe coming back to Euliss wouldn’t be so bad after all.
     
    After I hung up I went to sit with Mom on the living room couch, where she sat perusing the newspaper with a cup of coffee and her morning roll. In this day and age when mugs had such popularity I didn’t think I knew anyone who still drank coffee with a cup and saucer. She looked so lonely. She used to have breakfast at the small dinette table, but I think sitting there alone overwhelmed her with memories of Pop.
    She smiled at me expectantly. “How was the party?”
    “Very nice. Tanis was there. Did you know she and her husband are divorcing?”
    “No! That Mavis never said a word. Not that I would expect her to bring it up at your daddy’s funeral, but it’s not like I haven’t seen her lately.”
    After years of playing bid whist, all of Mom’s old social circle now participated in bingo at the church on Thursday and Saturday nights, with only an occasional card party at someone’s home. Increased crime and somewhat decreased mobility made the group of seventy-something-year-old women reluctant to visit each other’s homes at night.
    “Maybe she’s waiting until it becomes final,” I said.
    “Maybe she just doesn’t want to admit that her perfect daughter’s marriage went down the tubes.”
    I choked on my orange juice and quickly took another sip to clear my throat. “That’s a possibility.” I never thought I’d hear Mom be critical of Tanis when she’d praised her for as long as I could remember. I rather liked it.
    “Well, she does tend to brag, Emily. Helen Brown and