Ch. 20: Where We Begin

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

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," 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.

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.

Sophia crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way he was watching without seeming to. 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. She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more. The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered.

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

The past was not a place you could visit and leave unchanged. It followed you home.