Ch. 19: After the Fall

If someone had told her a year ago that she would be standing here, she would have laughed.

Sophia 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.

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. "You shouldn't have come," he said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.

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

They did not speak for a long moment. Some silences carry more than words ever could, and this was one of them.

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Sophia said. "I'm asking you to listen." 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.

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