Ch. 6: Closer

She had promised herself she would not come back to this place. She had promised a lot of things.

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. Money could buy a great many things, he 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. 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. Emily crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way he 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. 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.

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. Emily crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way he was watching without seeming to.

By the time the light faded, nothing was decided, and yet everything felt different.