Ch. 9: Rules of the Game

The letter had arrived without a name, and that was the first thing that frightened her.

Nina crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way she was watching without seeming to. For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all. The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered.

For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all. "You shouldn't have come," she said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.

There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do. "You shouldn't have come," she said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.

"You shouldn't have come," she said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to. For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all. For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all.

There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do. There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do.

The truth, when it finally came, was smaller and sharper than she had imagined.

"You shouldn't have come," she said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to. Nina crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way she was watching without seeming to. She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more.

Tomorrow would ask its questions. Tonight, she let herself simply breathe.