The words come out more forceful than she’d intended, but really, could Ella just stop taking everything so personally?

“I

t’s not that she can’t make it. I get it; it’s life; people have other commitments,” Ella says, her voice taking on that “perfectly reasonable” tone that Mimi’s learning to dread. “It’s just she isn’t interested in telling us why, like we don’t matter, like she doesn’t feel the need to explain herself.”

“Maybe it’s something she’s not comfortable saying,” Mimi offers. Personally, she thinks Tzippy has a right to not make it to a get-together, without having to explain herself, but Ella apparently thinks differently.

Ella sighs loudly into the phone. “Okay, fine, maybe, whatever. But then why is she ignoring our calls since vacation started? And why didn’t she show up yesterday when we met for pizza? And why — ”

“There’s probably something going on, and we should just be extra sensitive,” Mimi interrupts. Okay, so she’s also a tiny bit hurt that Tzippy hasn’t returned her calls in three days. But Ella’s taking it too far.

“I dunno, Mim, we’ve been through this. She should know by now that friends can get hurt. She should at least let us know that she’s too busy and…”

Mimi closes her eyes, opens them again, blows out a breath. “Let’s just give her some time, okay? It’s not always so simple.”

The words come out more forceful than she’d intended, but really, could Ella just stop taking everything so personally?

She wishes she had someone to talk to about all this, but Ella’s out, Tzippy’s out — ha, Tzippy’s not even answering her phone these days — and Shoshana…