Ch. 18: The Longest Night

There were things Emily had learned never to say aloud, and most of them were about he.

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

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Emily said. "I'm asking you to listen." Money could buy a great many things, he had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most.

Emily crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way he was watching without seeming to. For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all.

Emily crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way he was watching without seeming to. "You shouldn't have come," he said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to. "I'm not asking you to forgive me," Emily said. "I'm asking you to listen."

She thought of all the versions of herself she might have been, and wondered which one he saw.

She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more. Emily crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way he was watching without seeming to. For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all.

He watched her go and understood, too late, that he had already made his choice.