Viven listened almost continuously. Jerome made terrible jokes. The sun moved across the sky the way it does on good days. Slowly, generously, like it's in no hurry to take the light back. It was ordinary.
That was the thing that caught Malcolm offg guard. It was completely, disarmingly ordinary. And ordinary felt extraordinary when you'd been running so long on the edge of everything that ordinary had started to feel like something that happened to other people. He didn't let himself think about it too hard. He just sat there and let it be what it was.
But nothing easy lasts long enough. And that afternoon, it was Ethan Blake who came back to complicate the picture. They were on the way back to the resort. Jaden ahead of them, Jerome having peeled off to take a call when Malcolm saw him. Ethan was sitting at the outdoor bar of the hotel alone this time, his companion nowhere visible.
He saw them at the same moment. And instead of the easy smile he'd worn that morning, something sharper crossed his face. He stood up. Vivien. He stepped into their path.
Not aggressively, but deliberately. Can I have five minutes, Ethan? Please. The word had weight in it. Not the pleasant social weight of the morning.
Something that had been sitting on it since then. 5 minutes. Malcolm looked at Viven. She looked at him. He gave her a small nod that meant whatever you need and stepped back, but not far.
He positioned himself close enough that she wasn't alone in this, but far enough that it was her conversation to have. Ethan glanced at Malcolm, then back at Viven. "Who is he?" He asked quietly. But the question was doing more work than the words.
"He's someone I care about," Vivien said. The directness of it, no hesitation, no qualification, landed visibly on Ethan. His jaw shifted. How long has this been going on? That's not your business anymore, Vivien.
Something complicated moved through Ethan's face. I'm not trying to start anything. I just He stopped. Tried again. You look different.
Different how? I don't know. Lighter. He said it like it cost him something. I came here with Ashley because I thought I was ready.
I thought I'd dealt with everything. And then I walked down that beach and saw you and I. He stopped again. Malcolm watched this from 5 yards away. He wasn't reading lips.