Ch. 1: A Stranger in the Rain

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

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Ela said. "I'm asking you to listen." She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more. "I'm not asking you to forgive me," Ela said. "I'm asking you to listen."

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, he had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most.

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. The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered.

Every choice had a price. Ela had known that for years, and still the knowing never made it easier.

Money could buy a great many things, he had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most. 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. The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all.

Tomorrow would ask its questions. Tonight, she let herself simply breathe.