"I don't want to go up there," she said. Nathan looked at her. There's nothing up there, she said. Do you understand 9,000 square ft and there's nothing in it? It's beautiful.
It was in a magazine and it's empty. I go up there and it's like walking into a hotel where the guest never checked in. Her hands twisted in her lap. His things are up there, his clothes, his stupid awards. And I know if I go up there in the morning, I'll have talked myself out of everything you just said.
I'll wake up and I'll think he was just tired. It was just a joke. I'm being sensitive and I'll call him and I'll apologize. She pressed her lips together. I always apologize.
Do you know that I always end up being the one who says sorry. The door man tapped politely on the window. Victoria didn't look at him. She looked at Nathan. And Nathan, who had one simple rule, keep your head down.
Work hard. Never mix your personal life with your job. Sat there in the rain and felt that rule crack straight down the middle. He should take her up a stairs, hand her off to the doorman, go home to his daughter. That was the smart thing.
That was the safe thing. That was the thing that kept his job and his life and the careful walls he'd built around both. Instead, he heard himself say, "I've got a couch. " Victoria blinked. "What? It's not much," Nathan said quickly, already regretting it.
Already unable to stop. It's a two-bedroom in Queens. My daughter's asleep. It's Look, it's nothing like this. It's small and it's old and the radiator makes a noise all night, but there's coffee in the morning and there's a kid who'll be very confused to find a stranger in the living room.
And there's nobody up there who's going to make you apologize for anything. He shrugged, uncomfortable, honest. If you don't want to be alone, you don't have to be. That's all I'm saying. No strings, just a couch.
The doorman tapped again. Victoria looked at Nathan for a long, long moment. Then she turned to the window, rolled it down 2 in, and said in the clear, unmistakable voice of a woman who ran an empire. "Thank you, Gerald. I won't be needing the apartment tonight.
Go back inside where it's dry. " She rolled the window up. She looked at Nathan. "Drive," she said. The apartment in Queens was exactly what he'd promised, small, old, warm. Mrs.