Ch. 18: The Longest Night

The city never really slept, and tonight neither did he.

She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more. 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. "I'm not asking you to forgive me," Nina said. "I'm asking you to listen."

"You shouldn't have come," he said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to. The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered.

He had built his whole life on being certain. She had a way of making certainty feel like a cage.

She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more. "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 he was watching without seeming to.

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Nina said. "I'm asking you to listen." The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. "You shouldn't have come," he said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.

She did not sleep that night. There was too much to lose, and far too much to want.