To hell with it. Call her. Get it over with. Tell her how you feel. You won’t be worse off with her than if you don’t call. For what could be the worst that could happen? No more meeting her for lunch? Well, that had to happen. So better now than later. Because being with her that hour to an hour and a half every other week has become too much for you. You get more depressed, after, every time you see her. So he calls her. Uses the house phone because the reception’s better than on the cell, and picks up the receiver a half-dozen times before he finally dials her. “Hi,” she says. “How nice. And how unusual too, a call from you. I like it better than emailing. And you’re not going to believe this, because I know people are always saying this on the phone, but I was just about to call you.” “Oh, yeah?” he says. “What about? Because in all the time we’ve known each other recently, I’ve received only one call from you and that was for the first time we had lunch. I called you and got your answering machine and you called back.” “First tell me why you called. Just to talk?” “More than that,” he says. “And I’ve a feeling you’re going to be so put off by what I say that I doubt you’ll want to tell me why you were about to call.” “What could you say that I’d get so upset about?” “I didn’t say ‘upset.’ I said ‘put off.’ Though maybe you will get upset. All right. I know we’re supposed to meet for lunch next week. But I think that should be the last time, and if you feel uncomfortable after I tell you why I think so, then maybe we shouldn’t meet even then. I’d hate to lose our friendship, since I’ve really enjoyed our lunches. . well, up to a point. They’ve been a little tough on me too, which I’ll also tell you about. But the main thing I’m going to say. . In other words, what I feel I have to say—” “Come on, out with it. Then, after we talk about what you said, if you want, I’ll tell you about my intended call to you. And I mean it. My hand was practically on the receiver, ready to dial. And I seriously doubt our friendship would be compromised by anything you say. Though it could be when you hear what I have to say.” “I want our friendship to become deeper,” he says. “That’s what I called to say. Or a little deeper at first and then much deeper and then as deep as anything could get between two people, or as close as it can be to that. Am I making myself clear? Are you upset, uncomfortable, put off? I don’t see how you’re not, at least one of them. And I’m saying this over the phone, you understand, because I don’t see how I could have said it in person at our lunch next week.” “It’s so ridiculous,” she says. “You’re going to think I’m lying. But in my call to you I was essentially going to say the same thing.” “That’s impossible.” “You see?” she says. “But you couldn’t have been thinking that. And now I definitely don’t know if I should even believe you were about to call me when I called.” “Believe me, Philip, believe me. I don’t know how it happened, the two of us with the same thoughts about the other and then calling the other, or about to, at almost the exact same time to say it, and probably also the same reason for not wanting to say it face to face. Do you know, if I had picked up my receiver a few seconds earlier to dial you while you were dialing my number, I would have got a busy signal after I was through dialing and you might have too, although I’m not sure how it works. And then both of us might have had, after we put our phones down, second thoughts of calling with what we wanted to say and not called. Isn’t that strange?” “We would have said what we felt we had to say, sometime,” and she says “I don’t know, though I guess so.” “I’m sure of it. I at least know I would have. I would have called you right back, hoping you’d just got off the phone, or kept dialing your number no matter how many busy signals I got till I reached you.” “Mind if I change the subject a little?” she says. “Would you like to come by later to tell me why you wanted to move our friendship to something resembling more a romance? And I say ‘wanted’ rather than ‘want’ because it seems, with just this phone call, it’s already moved there. I’d like for you to. The kids will be here, but we can still have a nice quiet talk. If you’d rather do it another time, that’s fine with me.” “No, tonight. Name the time,” and she says “Sevenish? The kids will have had their dinner.” “Sevenish it is. God, this has been some day. One hard to believe.” “Incidentally, I didn’t say it but I’ll say it now. I’m very happy you called.” “I no longer have to tell you how I feel,” he says.