The heart contract is paying well. I can afford to keep my promises. Keep it. Consider it a gift. Vivien, please let me do this one thing.
You've given me so much confidence, perspective, the courage to actually make a change. Let me give you this. He hesitated, then took her hand instead of the money. How about this? You keep the money and instead you come to dinner at my place tomorrow.
Sophie wants to cook for you. She's planning a menu. Sophie's eight. What's she planning to cook? Spaghetti with a side of dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets.
She's very specific about her culinary vision. Vivien laughed. That sounds perfect. What time? 6:30.
And Vivien, don't bring wine or flowers or anything expensive. Just bring yourself. I can do that. She kissed him in the parking lot under the flickering street light, and Ethan thought about how far they'd come from that rainy night when he'd stopped to help a stranger. How a broken down Jaguar had somehow led to this moment.
Standing outside his shop with a woman who just quit her empire to figure out what actually mattered. The next evening, Vivien showed up at his apartment at 6:30 sharp, wearing jeans and a sweater and carrying nothing but a bottle of sparkling cider. "For Sophie," she explained. "It's fancy, but not alcoholic. " Sophie opened the door before Ethan could, already wearing an apron that was three sizes too big. "You're here.
Come see the kitchen. I've been cooking for an hour. " The apartment smelled like tomato sauce and garlic bread, and Sophie had indeed been cooking. The spaghetti was slightly overcooked. The sauce was from a jar, and the dinosaur nuggets were exactly as advertised. But the table was set with care, complete with a construction paper centerpiece Sophie had made at school.
"This is amazing," Vivian said, examining the centerpiece. "Did you make this in art class? It's supposed to be flowers, but they look more like explosions. " I tried. I love explosions. They're very artistic.
They ate dinner together. Sophie dominating the conversation with theories about whether penguins could survive in space and detailed explanations of her science project. Viven listened with genuine interest, asking questions and offering suggestions that Sophie considered seriously. After dinner, they played Sophie's invented card game, still with rules that changed constantly, and watched the Penguin documentary that Sophie had now seen approximately 40 times. When Sophie finally fell asleep on the couch, Ethan carried her to bed and returned to find Vivian doing dishes.
You don't have to do that, he said. I want to. This is nice. Normal. Everything my life hasn't been for years.
You're going to have a lot more normal now. What are you going to do with 6 months of transition time? I honestly don't know. I've been CEO for so long. I don't remember what I like to do before.