“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Alex, you are a terrible liar.”
“I’ve been told.”
She smiled, then turned toward the window.
Neither of us knew it yet, but the night that began with a broken car had already changed something between us.
We just weren’t ready to admit it.
At 3:18 a.m., Karen’s phone began vibrating.
Michael.
She stared at the screen until it stopped. Then it started again.
“You should answer,” I said.
“Why?”
“Maybe he wants to explain.”
She looked at me with such disbelief that I almost laughed.
“Alex, if a man needs twenty-two years to explain why he doesn’t love me, I don’t think another phone call will help.”
“Fair point.”
She switched off the phone.
A few minutes later, mine rang.
Daniel.
I answered.
“Hey.”
“Where are you?”
“At a diner.”
“With my mother?”
I glanced across the table.
Karen raised her eyebrows.
“Yeah,” I admitted.
“Is she okay?”
I looked at the woman sitting opposite me. She was holding a coffee cup between both hands, staring at the steam as if she had discovered something important inside it.
