Second date 7, "I'm glad you came"

Saturday dawned. The job -- as it had been scoped -- was done. There was some talk of doing more, maybe taking down the Christmas tree or vacuuming the dining room or something. But I insisted that we were through. We had cleaned the kitchen, the study, both bathrooms, ... and the boys' bedroom in the bargain. That was enough and it was time to rest.

So we spent Saturday morning just visiting, as if we were friends getting together over the Christmas holidays and nothing more. D and Wife spent some time together talking, D and I spent some time walking around the block talking, we went out for lunch before D had to go to the airport ... and it was all in all a pleasant and relaxing day, after a week like no other. It was tempting to hope that all the animosities and hurt feelings had vanished, but of course it never works like that. But for that day, we were all just too tired to sustain them.

As D and Wife were talking, Wife said, "I'm glad you came, because it gave Hosea somebody to talk to. You know, he always wants to talk about things like politics and philosophy and stuff like that, and it just bores me to tears. But you think about those things too, or at least you were willing to humor him. So it gave him somebody to talk to, and I'm glad." D smiled to herself and said merely, "Oh I could sit and listen to Hosea talk for hours."

A little later, D and I were walking around the block talking, and I expressed the fear which had been nagging at the back of my head all week -- namely, that this was a hell of a way for her to spend her Christmas vacation, and I was worried that she would regret it. Oh no, she told me, she wouldn't have traded this for the world. She learned so much about us by staying with us for a week -- far more than she had learned in 19 years of being Wife's friend -- that she found it absolutely invaluable. So that was another fear quieted.

And then it was lunchtime. D had been promising to take the boys out for dessert ever since Monday, as a reward for all their hard work, but it had never worked out. So she asked them where they wanted to go for lunch. They picked a spaghetti restaurant nearby, so that's where we went. Then after lunch, we walked down the street a few doors to an ice cream parlor, and D bought us all whatever decadent ice cream dessert our hearts desired. Wife and I each stuck to something simple (as did D herself), but the boys went all out -- and in fairness, they had been waiting almost a whole week for this treat, and they had worked hard to earn it. I no longer remember all the extras they ordered; all I remember is that Son 2's looked truly weird. But he enjoyed every bite.

Then to the airport. D checked in for her flight, we all hugged, and she went off to the gate. And we went home. There was still a day and a half left in the weekend, but we were all exhausted The week was over.
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