Ch. 8: An Unexpected Guest

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." The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. 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." 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," Nina said. "I'm asking you to listen."

Money could buy a great many things, he had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most. "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. "I'm not asking you to forgive me," Nina said. "I'm asking you to listen."

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

Money could buy a great many things, he had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most. "You shouldn't have come," he said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.