Ruth's interference

“I did something bad today, I think,” she told Braydon at home that night.

His eyebrows rose as he looked at her, standing in the kitchen doorway, biting her lip. He lowered the newspaper slowly to the tabletop.

“Rachel got this email message from some woman she met in the doctor’s office, saying she had read her novel and wanted to get together and talk about it. The message came to her inbox at one of the magazines and was forwarded to her personal address, and I always scan those so she doesn’t have to read all of them. When I brought this one to her attention she got this look on her face, like she was pleased, but reluctant. So I asked her what happened. She said she enjoyed talking to the woman, they made a connection, but she just didn’t feel like doing anything about it. I think she’s afraid.

“So I said, ‘Okay, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much did you enjoy talking to this woman?’ and she said 8. Then I asked if she was pretty, and she smiled. But then she got all dismissive, and said it didn’t matter, the woman was divorced and has children and she wasn’t in the mood to make friends with her, because that’s all they could be anyway. I asked her how did she know, and she totally brushed me off.

“So I got this evil idea. And I replied to the message as if I was Rachel, saying that I had Thursday afternoon free if she wanted to have lunch, and I gave her a place and a time. Then I put the appointment in Rachel’s calendar.”