Marissa’s Answer
Chapter 19 - Marissa’s Answer
Julian waited eighteen months before asking Marissa for anything beyond co-parenting.
They were sitting in the empty hotel lobby after Theo’s school fundraiser. Marissa had played the piano for the first time in years. Julian listened from a distance, remembering the young woman he loved and seeing clearly the woman she had become without him.
“I am not asking you to forget,” he said.
Marissa’s hands rested on the keys.
“Good.”
“I am not asking you to move into the mansion.”
“Better.”
“I am asking whether you would consider dinner with me that is not about Theo, lawyers, schools, or foundations.”
Marissa looked at him.
“You rehearsed that.”
“Elias rejected three versions.”
She smiled despite herself.
Then the smile faded.
“I loved you,” she said. “But the man I loved allowed other people to decide what was true.”
“I know.”
“I will not spend the rest of my life reassuring you that I am not leaving.”
“I know.”
“And I will not be absorbed into the Cross family like an acquisition.”
“I know.”
She studied him.
“You say that a lot now.”
“It is often the correct answer.”
Marissa closed the piano lid.
“One dinner.”
Julian did not move.
“That is a yes?”
“That is one dinner. If you turn it into a private ballroom, I will leave.”
“I know a diner.”
“You know of a diner.”
“Fair.”
Their first date was at a twenty-four-hour place near the lake. Julian burned his mouth on coffee because he was nervous. Marissa laughed for nearly a minute.
They did not discuss marriage.
They did not promise permanence.
They talked about music, work, Theo, fear, and the strange burden of being given a second chance nobody was required to use.
When Julian walked her home, Marissa kissed his cheek.
May you like
Then she went inside alone.
He stood on the sidewalk smiling like a man who had finally learned that patience was not punishment.
