Ch. 19: After the Fall

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

"You shouldn't have come," she 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.

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

Sophia crossed the room slowly, aware of every step, of the way she was watching without seeming to. 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," she said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.

For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all. There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do.

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

Outside, the world went on as if nothing had shifted. Inside, everything had.

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

Whatever came next, there would be no pretending it had not begun.