October. She was fifteen weeks along and visible now in the specific unambiguous way of someone past the hiding stage and simply in the next one. Victoria had been coming to Sunday lunches. This had started three weeks after the board meeting, tentatively, with a phone call that was different from all the previous Victoria calls — quieter, less produced. She had asked if she could come for Sunday lunch and Alison had said yes and Eric had said nothing except to set an extra place at the table. The first Sunday lunch had been careful. The second less so. By the fourth Victoria had brought a dish — prepared carefully, the kind that required knowing someone's preferences — and set it on the counter and said she had remembered Alison mentioning she liked this. Alison looked at the dish. She looked at Victoria. "Thank you," she said. "It is nothing," Victoria said. And then, because she was learning: "I wanted to." They had lunch. Eric was quieter than Alison during these lunches —
Dernière mise à jour : 2026-07-04
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