She was silent for a moment. "Because no one ever made me feel like I was worth putting on the refrigerator," she said. "Is that it? Is that the pathetic little truth of it? That a woman worth 11 billion is standing here jealous of a 7-year-old's crayon drawings because they're evidence that somebody loves her enough to run out of magnets.
It's not pathetic," Nathan said. "It's the least pathetic thing I ever heard. Everybody wants to be on somebody's refrigerator. Victoria, that's the whole thing. That's the only thing.
All the rest of it, the towers, the deals, the magazine covers. People chase all that because they think it'll finally get them onto somebody's refrigerator, and it never does. You can't buy your way onto a refrigerator. You've got to be loved onto one. Victoria turned around and looked at him, and there were tears on her face, and she didn't wipe them away this time.
You have to stop, she said, half laughing, half crying. You have to stop saying things like that. I've known you for 18 hours, and you keep taking the top of my head off. Where were you? For 3 years, you were up a ladder in the corner of my building saying nothing, and I was down the hall marrying the wrong man.
And where were you? Right there, Nathan said quietly. In the corner where I was supposed to be. He held her eyes. It wasn't my place to say anything, Victoria.
You were my boss. You were engaged. A man in my position who starts saying things to a woman in your position, that's not a good man. That's a man with an angle. So, I kept my mouth shut and I kept your secrets and I watched you be lonely and I told myself it wasn't mine to fix.
His voice roughened. Last night was the first time you ever asked. So last night was the first time I got to answer. The apartment was very quiet. Down the hall, Lily slept.
The radiator ticked and the space between them had gotten very small and both of them were aware of it. And both of them knew that one step in the wrong direction or the right one would change everything in a way that couldn't be changed back. Nathan stepped back. He did it on purpose. He put distance between them and he saw Victoria register it and he saw something flicker across her face that might have been disappointment and might have been relief.
You're not going to, she said. It wasn't a question. No, Nathan said I'm not. Why not? And there was real hurt in it.