A Cup of Tea - Amy Ephron [13]
“Hello,” he said, “I’m supposed to pick up Miss Fell’s hats,” he said and smiled. There was a dimple evident just below his right cheekbone. There was something kind about his eyes, yet serious, as though he’d seen things, knew things, was somehow deeper than he’d first appeared. The muscles in his arms were well-defined. She was aware that they were alone in the hat shop.
“Yes,” said Eleanor, “I knew someone was coming.”
It was the voice that tipped him. He remembered her voice. It was oddly cultured, yet direct, as though she could defend herself if pushed. He was as taken with her as the first time he’d seen her.
He stared at her. After a moment, he said, “It is you, isn’t it?”
She nodded, “Yes, I’m afraid it is.”
He teased her. “Afraid of me?” he said.
Uncomfortable with the familiarity, she didn’t answer him. She shook her head. Then felt the need to put a proper amount of distance between them. “Let me get you your—Miss Fell’s hats.”
“It’s such a surprise to see you here,” he called out to the back room, but it was Dora who’d returned from lunch who came out of the back room bearing the many hat boxes.
“Oh—” said Philip, catching himself, as Dora started to gush at him. “You’ve come for the wedding hats. It’s been such a rush.”
“Yes, of course it has,” he said.
“The war…I don’t think we’ve ever worked this quickly,” said Dora making an odd face. “Although, if you ask me,” she added, “it’s about time we went over there.”
“Yes, ma’am, of course it is,” said Philip.
“And then she kept adding things—”
Philip laughed. “She always does that. That’s why I wouldn’t let her come today. I was afraid she would change something else. Do I owe you something?” he asked.
“Oh, no,” said Dora, shaking her head, “I’ve put it on her account.”
Eleanor walked back into the shop from the workroom carrying even more hat boxes. She said, as she would to anyone who had come into the shop, “I can help you with these to the car.” And then, aware of Dora’s watchful gaze, she straightened and added, “There are certainly too many for you to carry.”
Dora opened the shop door for them, and looked after them curiously as they walked to the car.
“How are you?” asked Philip as they walked to his car.
Eleanor, suddenly shy, didn’t answer.
“I can see how you are,” he said. “You’re fine.”
She smiled at this.
“Better than the last time I saw you, anyway,” said Philip.
“Certainly better than that,” she said.
Eleanor and Philip approached his car, juggling the many hat boxes. “I’d hoped that she was coming in,” said Eleanor. “I wanted to—”
Philip interrupted, “Thank her?”
“No, I wanted her to see me. I should thank her.”
She helped him load the hat boxes into the back of the car. One of the boxes she was carrying flew from off of the top of the others. She leaned over to catch it as Philip did the same and caught it just before it hit the ground. The effect of it was the two of them were pressed together. She set the hat boxes down on the pavement and took a breath.
“I wanted to see you,” he said very softly. Her face was framed in reflection in the back window of the car. She was so very pretty. Her clothes were simple, almost elegant. She looked a long way from the street.
Dora, who was sitting at the front table doing paperwork, looked out the window and thought she saw him lean down and whisper something in Eleanor’s ear.
It was almost dark out when they closed up for the night. Eleanor seemed in a hurry but stayed and helped as Dora fluttered fitfully about the shop methodically and meticulously removing the hats from the hatstands and putting them away in drawers as she did each evening.
“I can never sleep when I’ve finished a job like this,” said Dora. ‘You’d think it would be during. That I’d be so nervous how they’d turn out that I couldn’t sleep. But for me, it’s after. I’ve given them the hats and…” She gestured with her hand. “They never invite us to the wedding, you know.