Page 4 of Save the Date

“Every single night,” he responded. Chris pointed at his head and said, “My mind needs total darkness to shut down or it keeps generating the goods.”

Alan nodded in agreement as though he didn’t often fall asleep under the fluorescent lights of the mall while waiting for Debbie to try on yet another chunky sweater.

“See!” Jackie exclaimed. “Just because you have moments of wanting to flee doesn’t mean you actually do it. You suck it up and wait for the feeling to pass. Because we are adults.”

“And we love each other,” Chris added.

“Right. And that,” Jackie agreed.

“I have never once wanted to leave your mother,” Alan proudly proclaimed, reading the room wrong.

“Well, you’re weird, Dad.” Jackie gestured at her parents. “You two are like obsessed with each other.”

“No, we’re not,” Debbie protested.

“Fine. But Dad is obsessed with you.”

Debbie nodded in agreement, causing Alan to shout, “Hey!”

“We’re just teasing, honey. Of course I’m obsessed with you too.”

“My point is that you don’t need to learn anything because you didn’t do anything wrong, Emma. You just need to date someone else. Someone better.”

Emma couldn’t help but snort at the notion of dating again. She wasn’t exactly feeling desirable. “I seriously doubt I’ll date anyone before my rewrites are due in a few months. Unless you happen to know someone interested in pursuing a hollow shell of a human being?”

“Actually, there is this one guy at my gym—”

“Jackie! It’s way too soon for me to eventhinkabout dating someone else. Right?”

Emma looked to her parents for confirmation but failed to find it. This was strange because her parents had spent years of her twenties trying to get Emma to focus on anything other than locking down a husband. This was likely due to her younger self’s tendency to completely fall apart whenever a relationship ended; it was historically safer for everyone when Emma was single. But now that her mental health was in better shape, were they suddenly yearning for more grandkids?

“I don’t know if it would be such a bad idea to venture back out there,” Debbie suggested with the tentativeness of a mother whose head had been bitten off too many times. “You’ve done a lot of work on yourself to get to this point. Who says you suddenly have to put your entire life on hold because your fiancé got cold feet?”

While Debbie had asked the question in a hypothetical way, Emma felt something substantial shift inside of her. She was having what those in the therapy biz called “a moment of clarity.” Up until a minute ago, Emma had had one very clear idea of the world: if your fiancé abruptly leaves you, the appropriate response is to close yourself off and hide forat leasteightto twelve months in order to heal properly, and maybeone daymove forward. Now, she wasn’t so sure that was her only option. Plus, her mother was right. Emma had spent her entire adult life figuring out how to get her anxiety disorder in check so she could be a good partner and eventual wife. After countless therapy sessions, multiple medications and one very helpful social skills class, she didn’t want to lose steam on all her progress just because Ryan turned out to be a spineless coward.

“You don’t think I need to wait, I don’t know, like six months or something?”

“Six months! I don’t think you have to wait six weeks!” Jackie decried with the conviction of someone who had had only one serious relationship before getting married at twenty-seven. “Everyone knows the best way to get over someone is to get someone else.”

“I think the phrase is, ‘The best way to get over someone is to getundersomeone else.’” Jackie stared at her blankly, so Emma clarified further, “You know, in a sexual way.”

“Ew! We’re with Mom and Dad!”

“Youbrought it up!”

“I’m just saying, you go on all the time in your videos about how easy it is to find a ‘good enough’ relationship if you’re willing to put in the work. Maybe it’s time for you to start putting in the work.”

Emma was startled and flattered to realize that her sister seemed to be a real fan of her content. Jackie also had a point. Emma had built her career around the concept that love wasn’t based on a magical connection. It was something two (or even three or four) people worked on together. Romantic love was about compatibility on some level, but it was mostly about dedication and commitment. It was picking someone who treated you well and then treating them well back. You couldn’t have fire and passion all the time. But you could—and should—­always have mutual respect. And looking for someone yourespected and enjoyed was far less of a tall order than finding The One.

Not that Emma believed in The One in the first place. Or at least not in the traditional sense with certain connections being preordained from above. Emma thought people became soulmates over time. True, enduring love couldn’t just be found—it had to be built, making it more attainable than people thought.

A wild idea started to percolate in her brain, but she wanted to get a better sense of her audience before sharing it. So, as nonchalantly as possible, Emma asked, “Don’t you think people will be freaked out when they learn I was engaged to someone else a few weeks ago?”

“Eh, shit happens!” Debbie waved her hand in front of her face as though she was casually swatting away a fly instead of a widely held societal expectation. “I’m sure the right person would be understanding. You’re a catch. Anyone would be lucky to have you.”

“Ryan didn’t think so,” Emma replied, unable to resist an opportunity to poke at her wound.

Alan scoffed. “Ryan thought the Padres had a real chance of winning the World Series. He was delusional from the start. You’re too good for him.” He reached across the table and squeezed her hand for emphasis.

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