Chapter 11
I looked at him.
“What was the plan?”
“Breakfast.”
“You saw her at breakfast?”
He nodded.
“What time?”
“Eight fifteen.”
“So you drove straight there after leaving home.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“A hotel restaurant downtown.”
My fingers tightened around my coffee cup.
“A hotel.”
“The conference was there.”
I stared at him.
He understood immediately.
“We were in the restaurant.”
“At first?”
He flinched.
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Make me prove every sentence.”
I nearly stood.
Then Lucas corrected himself.
“No. Sorry.”
He rubbed his face.
“You have every right.”
I sat back down.
“What happened after breakfast?”
They walked to the river.
Then they had coffee.
Then lunch.
The day stretched because neither wanted to leave.
At some point Rachel asked whether Lucas was happy.
He told her he didn’t know.
That answer hurt almost as much as the kiss.
I asked him whether he was unhappy with me.
“No.”
“You told her you didn’t know if you were happy.”
“I was unhappy with myself.”
“But you made it about us.”
“Yes.”
He looked ashamed.
I let the silence sit.
“What time did you kiss her?”
“Around four.”
I glanced automatically toward the clock on the wall.
5:21.
Daniel called me one hour and twenty-one minutes later.
“What happened after?”
“I panicked.”
I almost laughed.
“There’s that word again.”
“This time I did.”
“What did you do?”
“We talked.”
“About what?”
“About how it shouldn’t have happened.”
“Did she agree?”
“Yes.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
“We went back to the hotel.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
Lucas saw it.
“To the lobby.”
I stared at him.
“She had to get something before dinner with people from the conference.”
“And you stayed?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do.”
He looked down.
“Because I didn’t want the day to end.”
There it was.
Finally.
A truth ugly enough to sound true.
I swallowed.
“Thank you.”
Lucas looked confused.
“For what?”
“For finally saying something that doesn’t make you look better.”
He lowered his eyes.
“At six, she went to dinner.”
“Where did you go?”
“I drove.”
That part, apparently, had been true.
He drove for almost two hours.
He parked near the lake.
At some point he checked his phone and saw my message.
Not yet.
He had asked if I had eaten while sitting alone in his car after kissing another woman.
“What were you thinking when you sent me that heart?”