Marcus looked at her for a moment. Yeah. He said, "It does. " The directness between them had appeared so gradually that he couldn't have told you when it started. Somewhere between the first kalash and the tepid coffee, they had crossed some invisible line into talking the way people talk when they're no longer performing ease for each other. They were just being easy.
That was different. He thought about Robert's words on the porch. Everything worth anything gets complicated. That's not a reason. That's just a fact.
His phone rang. He almost let it go, but he checked it out of habit. And when he saw the number, he went still. I have to take this, he said. He got up and went out to the back.
And when he came back inside 4 minutes later, Olivia looked at his face and said, "Good news or bad? The Dun Woody project? " He said, "They want me to start Monday. " She looked at him for a moment. Then she said, "Marcus, that's two things in one day. I know. That's a lot of things in one day.
I know. " He sat back down. He looked at the kitchen at the living room where Robert was still asleep in the chair at the doorway where he could hear his daughter's movie playing. He pressed his hands flat on the table again. He breathed. "Are you okay? " Olivia said.
"I think so," he said. "I think I'm just He stopped. What? I forgot what it felt like when things moved toward you instead of away from you, he said. Takes some getting used to.
She looked at him for a long time. Something was shifting in her expression that she wasn't trying to hide, but also wasn't naming out loud. "Yeah," she said softly. "I remember that feeling. " Robert woke up from the armchair at 4:00, announced that he was going home because his knee was bothering him and he needed his own chair. Thanked no one specifically for lunch and let himself out the frontal door.
Olivia watched him go with a look that was half exasperation and half something much softer. He's different, she said, turning back to Marcus than he was even from 2 months ago from what he's described. How so? She thought about it seriously. The way she thought about everything.
Less defended. She said he still doesn't say much, but what he says is real now. It used to be like talking to a wall that occasionally replied. Marcus nodded. He understood that.
You did that, she said. He did it, Marcus said. Marcus. Her voice was firm. Not unkind, but firm.
Stop giving other people credit for the things you did. It's a habit. I've noticed it. He looked at her. 3 weeks and you've already noticed my habits.