Page 38 of Happiness for Beginners

“I shout, ‘Hey! You’re pocket-dialing me!’ But you never hear me.”

“Then, what?”

“Then I give up and listen for a while before I hang up.”

“Youlisten?” I said. “Can you hear anything?”

“Well, on a good day, I can hear everything.”

“But that’s eavesdropping! That’s morally wrong,” I said, wondering what on earth he’d heard me say.

“Hey!” he said. “You’re the one calling me.”

“Not on purpose!”

“Nonetheless.”

“Have I ever said anything—” I started.

“Incriminating?” he finished.

I nodded into the phone.

“Nah,” he said. “It’s always just grocery checkers. Or your hairdresser. Or your pet. Sounds like you got a dog that eats your furniture.”

I nodded again. “A mini dachshund. She’s terrible.”

“Get rid of it. Life’s too short.”

“Why didn’t you tell me I’d been pocket-dialing you?”

“I didn’t think you’d want to hear from me before.”

“But now you think I do?”

“I hope so,” he said. “Plus I want to thank you for yesterday. For being so kind.”

“It was nothing.”

“It wasn’t nothing to me.”

I opened a bag of potato chips, and several spilled on my lap.

“I take it you haven’t left yet,” he went on.

“Correct,” I said, crunching the chips.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?”

“No,” I said, the honesty of the word fluttering over me like a breeze. “But there’s no turning back now.”

“Sure there is,” Mike said. “There’s always turning back.”

“I’m not so sure that’s true.”

“Duncan seems genuinely concerned about your safety on this trip.”

“You talked to Duncan?”

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