Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 11 - Chapitre 14

Evie POVI met Daniel over a broken printer.He was crouched beside it, holding a strip of paper that seemed much longer than the machine itself.“Before you ask,” he said, “I have tried turning it off and on.”“I was going to ask whether it won.”“Decisively.”He worked on the neighboring research team. We spent twenty minutes rescuing my interview notes, then missed the same bus.Over the next month, we started leaving together on Thursdays. Sometimes we walked to the station. Sometimes we bought coffee and complained about spreadsheets.He didn't ask about the pale mark the necklace had left. By then it was almost gone.When he eventually asked me to dinner, I stared so long that he raised both hands.“Coffee can stay coffee.”“No. I want to.”“Okay.” He smiled. “Friday?”The restaurant had paper menus and candles in old wine bottles. I checked the prices before I sat down.Daniel noticed, but didn't make a performance of not noticing.“I invited you,” he said. “I'd like to get this

Lucas POVI watched her reach the other side of the street.Then I went back inside and paid for my coffee.The server asked whether I wanted anything else. I nearly said yes, just to postpone leaving a place where Evie had been willing to sit with me.“No, thanks.”Outside, my driver opened the car door.“Home, sir?”“Home.”There was no other address I had a right to give him.That evening, my mother found me at the kitchen table, still wearing my jacket.“How was she?”“Well.”“And you?”I shook my head.She sat down beside me. For a while, we didn't speak.“I thought you could grow out of this without anyone getting hurt,” she said at last. “I saw more than I admitted.”“You weren't the one dating her.”“No. But I was the one teaching you that an apology could arrive in a box.”I looked at my wrists. I'd worn Evie's cuff links to the café. Part of me had hoped she'd notice.She hadn't mentioned them.I took them off and put them in my pocket.The next week, Connor approached me at