I sent another text asking whether everything was all right.
Several minutes later, my phone buzzed.
Her reply was short.
“Don’t contact me. Please.”
I read the message several times.
I couldn’t understand it.
Rachel had been enthusiastic about the date. She had called my father wonderful. She had told me that the afternoon had gone better than expected.
Now she was telling me not to contact her.
I immediately wondered whether something had happened after she spoke to me the previous evening.
Had my father called her?
Had he said something that upset her?
Had she discovered something about him that she hadn’t wanted to tell me?
My thoughts began racing.
I called again, but the phone went straight to voicemail.
I tried to convince myself that she simply needed time alone.
But Rachel was my best friend. If she had changed her mind about the situation, I believed she would tell me why.
