Ch. 1: A Stranger in the Rain

The city never really slept, and tonight neither did he.

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Nina 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. "You shouldn't have come," he said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.

Nina 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. For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all.

Nina crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way he was watching without seeming to. "I'm not asking you to forgive me," Nina said. "I'm asking you to listen."

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Nina said. "I'm asking you to listen." For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all. She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more.

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

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.

The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. "You shouldn't have come," he said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.

She did not sleep that night. There was too much to lose, and far too much to want.