Mona

Anna’s heart jolted when the brass knocker banged against their front door. The treadle sewing machine her sister had been using stopped, but Anna’s heartbeat raced on. Jessie shot her a conspiratorial glance unnoticed by their father as he snapped and folded away the Sunday business section. In preparation for this introduction, Anna had trumpeted Charles’ attributes for weeks, but she had deliberately omitted the obvious. Now that he was here and the truth would out, she wanted to catapult from her seat in the parlor and send him away. Unfortunately, her mother had already answered the door.

Anna tucked the suffrage article she’d been furtively reading out of sight, not wanting to give her parents any further cause to question her judgment. Tinker, their Jack Russell, barked. Anna swooped him onto her lap to keep him from being a nuisance. She petted him to calm them both, her hands trembling as Charles appeared in the doorway. Anna locked on Charles’ twinkling espresso eyes. Her face transformed into what Jessie called perma-grin, a smile her sister insisted consumed Anna’s face any time she was talking about him. Charles donned a fresh pressed white shirt, a slightly too large jacket, and worn but recently shined shoes. Anna thought him incredibly handsome, but in the entryway surrounded by new wallpaper, electric lighting, and the gleam of the polished-to-a-shine grandfather clock, he seemed out of place. Charles crossed the threshold extending a modest bouquet and a hopeful smile to Mrs. McIntosh, who shifted her squat form aside to let him in. “Constantinos Patrinos,” he said introducing himself with his given name.

Anna froze with her hand mid-stroke on Tinker’s back.