Over the weekend, Dawn had calmed down a bit, having had a chance to talk to her Mom, her California best friend Sunny Winslow and to her Connecticut best friend and step-sister, Mary-Anne Spier, all of whom told Dawn she needs to give Jeff another chance simply so she doesn't cast a dark cloud over Jeff's wedding and for the sake of family unity.
Dawn spent most of her Monday morning in her office, chatting with her intern Jessica and explaining not only what it takes to be in the business they were in but also explaining that they had big plans for her and wanted to make sure she was up for it, which she was and that built up a quite a bit of excitement in Dawn. She really did enjoy working with new people and she felt like this girl had a lot of potential.
The constant conversing with Jessica, as well as spending the entire day with her trucking around between the tile store, the cabinet store and the paint store to place orders for their supplies proved to be a good distraction for Dawn and prevented her from thinking about the inevitable phone call she'd have to have with Jeff later that day.
After dropping Jessica back at the office, Dawn sat in her car for a good 10 minutes and contemplated when to give Jeff a call, which was either right then on the way to pick up River or later on at home, after her son was in bed and perhaps after a nice glass of wine. She figured she would stress or chicken out if she waited too long so she just decided to do it right then and get it overwith.
The phone call was a little awkward but pretty uneventful and civil, with no mention of jail or Dawn's decision to cut him off and after just ten minutes, it ended with Jeff agreeing to meet Dawn privately for coffee the following weekend and then they planned for a visit and dinner at her house accompanied by his fiance, Julie. She just hoped it would all go smoothly.
Before going to bed, Dawn decided to check her phone and saw that she had received a text a few hours earlier from Stacey McGill, her longtime friend who lives in the L.A. area. It was a picture of Stacey's 8 month old son Zack, looking adorable with his big blue eyes and blonde curly hair and standing up in his crib with the caption "Uh Oh! Look who's standing up!"
It was a bit late but Dawn texted back anyway "OMG, he's so cute!" Not receiving an immediate response, and suddenly feeling the need for some additional support, she sent a second text that said "Hey. I know it's late but are you busy right now? I really want to talk to you."
An immediate response did follow. "Of course. You can call me any time."
That did it.
