Twenty One

I got out of the bathroom and throw on my night robe hoping I could clear my head with a can of beer as I proceed to my kitchen but the splattering of the rain on my window takes me back again as I sit on my dining and watch How it drops on my window.It was raining.We were on Bleecker Street, heading back from the coffee shop when the rain started—the way spring rain always seems to start. One second the sky was only threatening it, the next it had made up its mind.People around us hurried. A few swore under their breath. Someone pulled a newspaper over their head.She didn’t.That was the first thing I noticed.The rain caught us for maybe thirty seconds before we ducked beneath the awning of a bookstore, and by then the ends of her hair were dark with water. Tiny droplets clung to her eyelashes.Most people react to unexpected rain. A groan. A laugh. Some acknowledgment that their plans have been inconvenienced.She just adjusted.As if weather was simply another fact to work aro

Twenty two

A call comes in as my phone screen light up, I stand to check and it’s Zara.I’m not not surprised she called, I understand that even though she acts pretty tough on the outside somewhere or somehow a part of her must be worried about me, and probably about Maya.I pick up and I can hear from the other end of the phone that she is not at home.“Hey” I said.“ Ethan, hope I didn’t wake you?” “No. Not at all I’m still going awake” I replied“oh! Ok. I went out for some drinks with my friend and It just felt right to call you.” She muttered on the phone.I smile “ I understand. Have fun.” I hang up.For some reason a thread of guilt slowly creeps in as I drop my phone. a question continues to pop up in my head.“ Will I be able to see this relationship through without?”My mind drifts again to the day I took Maya to meet my family.I waited almost two months before I took her home.Not because I was unsure about her.Quite the opposite.The more certain I became about Maya, the

Chapter Twenty two

Ethan’s POVNot just ambition, but struggle.As though determination were something people developed because life hadn’t given them easier options.“She is determined,” I said.I couldn’t stop myself from smiling.“She’s the most determined person I’ve ever met.”For the first time during the conversation, I meant every word with a kind of defensiveness.Because determination wasn’t the thing I admired most about Maya.It wasn’t even close.But I could already feel my mother reducing her to a category she understood.Hardworking.Driven.Scholarship student.Girl from Newark.And Maya was so much bigger than any of those things.“When are you bringing her?” my mother asked.“The second weekend in June.”“We’ll plan a dinner.”There it was.Not a suggestion.A decision.A family dinner.The official introduction.I laughed softly.“Okay.”“We’ll make something nice.”“Thank you.”“Of course.”We exchanged a few more routine words and then hung up.The apartment became quiet again.Too

Chapter twenty four

Ethan’s POV My mother was waiting for us in the entrance hall. She looked exactly as I had expected her to. Not overdressed—she would have considered that desperate—but carefully put together in the effortless way that actually took effort. Everything about her said she’d simply happened to look this polished. It was a performance she’d perfected years ago, one so practiced that even I couldn’t always tell where it ended and the real her began. The smile she wore when she saw us was warm. Familiar. The same smile she’d greeted guests with my entire life. She stepped toward Maya and held out her hand. “Maya,” she said, her voice brightening just enough. “How wonderful to finally meet you. Ethan has told us so much about you.” That wasn’t true. I’d mentioned Maya exactly three times. Once to say we were working together. Once to explain why I’d be away for a weekend conference. Once because my mother had asked whether there was “anyone special.” Apparently, three f

Chapter Twenty Five

Ethan’s POVA notification alert snaps me out of my head and I can’t stop myself from finally breaking the eyes between me and Maya.I feel like I owe her an explanation even though I know she must moved on and what I’m about to do may or may not make any difference .I pick my phone and my eyes scan the time and It feels like it’s the right time to start.I sent the text at 11:47.I’d been writing it in my head for two weeks.At one point, I even wrote it out on paper. That’s what I do when something matters too much to trust to a blinking cursor. I filled half a page, folded it, tucked it into a drawer, and told myself I’d come back to it when I was ready.Eventually, I was.There was something I couldn’t keep carrying around anymore.For years, I believed a conversation had happened.My mother told me Maya had come to her privately, heartbroken, asking for help because she didn’t know how to end our marriage. She didn’t tell it like gossip or speculation. She told it like

Chapter Twenty six

Maya’s POVmy mom continued.“And does that make it easier or harder?” Mom asked.She’d always had a way of asking the question underneath the question. She’d been doing it since I was a kid.I stared into my coffee for a second before answering.“Harder.”“Obviously.”She hummed softly.That little mm she does when she has an entire opinion ready but decides to keep most of it to herself.“You know,” she said, “I never really blamed Ethan.”I looked up.“I blamed everything around him. The people in his ear. The pressure. The noise. But not him.”“That’s… surprisingly generous.”She laughed.“I’m sixty-two, sweetheart. At some point you either make peace with the past or you let it keep stealing your future.”I couldn’t argue with that.“He was a good boy, Maya,” she continued, her voice gentler now. “And from what you’re telling me, he sounds like a good man too. Whatever happened between you two, I never stopped believing that.”I let those words settle before I spoke again.“He’s