Love and Other Words

Macy is with her friend Sabrina, holding Sabrina’s baby, Viv. Macy has a fiancé, Sean, and she works in pediatrics. Her friends are amazed she can handle working with sick children every day. Macy recalls that the last time she spent time with a non-work-related baby was when she babysat for the large family who lived next to her when she was young. Thinking about this reminds her of Elliot, the younger brother of the family, whom she misses.

Macy reveals that she and Sean are getting married. Sean has only met Macy’s best friend Sabrina twice before. They got engaged when Sean’s daughter, six-year-old Phoebe, asked her dad when he was going to propose. Macy reveals that she is bored at work. As she looks around the coffee shop, she notices a man with a long torso waiting in line and immediately knows it is Elliot. What gives him away, besides the torso, is his worn copy of Ivanhoe, which he reads ritualistically every October. He turns around, and she feels the air knocked out of her. She tells Sabrina, “That guy over there…It’s Elliot” (13).