You make this sound like an acquisition.
Victoria:
Everything is an acquisition if you are honest enough about it.
I made it to the bathroom before I was sick.
Afterward I sat on the cold floor.
The same position.
Different bathroom.
Different January light.
For months I had believed I was grieving the end of my marriage.
Now I understood I was grieving something worse.
The beginning.
The bookstore.
The changed place cards.
The questions.
The rainstorm when he appeared outside my office with coffee because he “happened to be nearby.”
Our first Christmas when he found a first edition of my father’s favorite novel.
I had cried.
“You listen to everything,” I told him.
He had kissed my forehead.
Apparently Victoria listened first.
Daniel called that evening.
“Rebecca told me.”
I sat beside the bedroom window.
“How much of it was planned?”
“The meeting definitely.”
“The relationship?”
“At least initially.”
