Ch. 6: Closer

The morning came in grey and quiet, the way it always did before everything changed.

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. She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more.

Money could buy a great many things, she had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most. "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.

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

There are moments that divide a life into before and after. This was becoming one of them.

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.

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