And then you sat on their porch for an hour just talking to Mr. Henderson because he was scared about losing his home. Malcolm hadn't known anyone saw that. Nobody called the news, Vivien said quietly. Nobody put it on social media. You just did it because he was a person who was scared and you could help.
She looked at him directly. That was the day I stopped pretending I wasn't falling for you. The waves came in, went out, came back in. Malcolm stood very still with something expanding in his chest that he hadn't named in 6 years and was having trouble naming. Now, Vivien, he said, you don't have to say anything, she said quickly.
I'm not asking for anything. I just, she steadied herself. I owe you honesty. That's what I came here to give you. The stunt on the beach yesterday wasn't the truth.
This is He turned to face her fully. She met his eyes, didn't look away. Denise died 6 years ago, he said. I know, and I haven't. He stopped, started again.
Jaden is my whole world. My business is how I take care of that world and I have been very deliberately not making room for anything else because making room for something else felt like risk and I cannot afford to break. He paused. I cannot afford to bring someone into Jaden's life and have it fall apart. I can't do that to him.
I understand that, Vivien said. Do you? More than you might think," she said quietly. "I know what it costs to let someone in. I know what it costs when they leave."
Her voice was steady, but it was doing work to stay that way. I'm not asking you for a guarantee, Malcolm. I'm not asking you for anything today except she faltered. Except for you to know that what I feel is real. Not a performance, not a business decision, not whatever yesterday looked like real.
Malcolm looked at her. He thought about Jerome's voice that morning. Just be open, man. He thought about Jaden sleeping in the next room with his shell on the nightstand. He thought about Denise, who used to say when he'd get cautious, when he'd pull back from things.
She used to say, "Malcolm, fear is not the same thing as wisdom. Don't confuse them." He took a breath. I'm not good at this, he said. I haven't done it in a long time, and I was never particularly elegant about it to begin with.
Neither am I. Viven said clearly. I sat in your lap in front of a crowd of people. You did do that. In my defense, I panicked.
So noted. Something eased between them. Not resolved, not even close to resolved, but eased. The way a knot loosens before it comes undone, the tension didn't disappear, but it changed quality, became something warmer. I'm not ready to make any kind of Malcolm started.