While she did join them for meals, Diane had remained largely uncommunicative about what had caused her to suddenly decamp from New York and head home to her parents, apart from briefly assuring her concerned parents that she hadn’t suddenly abandoned her work commitments, and that she had taken a leave of absence, so people knew where she’d gone to.  No, she wasn’t in trouble with the law or anything.  No, she wasn’t quarreling with anyone at work.  Yes, she’d asked friends to drop by her apartment to check on things and pick up mail while she was away. She’d left the keys to her apartment with Christy, whom Demeter and Tyler had met during one of their visits to New York last winter.

Since she’d exhibited signs of the warm, loving daughter to Demeter and Tyler that she’d always been, they didn’t press her on the details.  Diane happily shared stories about her life in New York with them over dinners at home, and didn’t hesitate to catch them up on the friends they had met when they’d visited with Diane in New York.  Although something was amiss, Tyler and Demeter decided Diane would come around to talking to them about what had happened when she was ready.  Meanwhile, Tyler had taken to doubling up on his usual after-dinner cognac, however, and had started to pace restlessly around the house late at night, finding it difficult to fall asleep.

A few nights after Diane had arrived, he’d confessed his agitation to his wife, “Shouldn’t we be trying to do something, Dee?”

“You know Diane, Ty,” his wife answered, trying to soothe him, rubbing his arms as he stood uncertainly before her.  “She’ll tell us in her own time.  Let’s not push her…”

This was difficult for him, she knew, because he and Diane had always been close.  As such, he’d had a difficult time adjusting to life without Diane at first when she’d left home for college, but had been over the moon later on when their daughter had told them she’d chosen a job in New York, instead of in Beijing or California, where the other firms that Diane was also considering were located.

He was generally an impatient man, however, a trait which he used to good effect as the lead partner in the K street law firm that bore his name: but his powerlessness in the face of his daughter’s distress had been too much for him over the last few days.