Ch. 17: Promises

Rain traced long silver lines down the window, and somewhere a clock counted the hours.

The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. "I'm not asking you to forgive me," Nina said. "I'm asking you to listen." 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. Nina crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way she was watching without seeming to. Money could buy a great many things, she had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most.

The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. "I'm not asking you to forgive me," Nina said. "I'm asking you to listen."

She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more. "You shouldn't have come," she said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.

Every choice had a price. Nina had known that for years, and still the knowing never made it easier.

Money could buy a great many things, she had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most. She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more.

There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do. The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. Money could buy a great many things, she had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most.

Whatever came next, there would be no pretending it had not begun.