"The hardest part, not the grief part, not the loss, the actual day-to-day hardest part. What was it?" He locked the office door. He stood in the parking lot. Decisions, he said. There was nobody to share the decisions with.
Every single thing Maya's school, her doctor, money, the shop, what to have for dinner, every decision landed on me alone. And decisions compound. You make 200 decisions in a week, and by Friday, you are so tired from the weight of choosing that you can't think straight. He paused. I got better at it, but it never stopped being heavy.
A quiet on her end. I asked because that's what my days feel like, she said. Not the grief, obviously. But the alone with every decision, the weight of it, she paused. I didn't have language for it before.
Now you do, he said. Now I do. Another pause. I called you because I wanted to say that out loud to someone who would understand it. And you're the only person I thought of.
Something moved through Marcus's chest. I'm glad you called, he said. Even though I'm Daniel's sister, she said, and there was something in her voice, not quite teasing, not quite serious, somewhere in the space between them. Especially because you're Daniel's sister, he said, because that means I already know you come from good people. She was quiet for a moment.
Marcus Williams, she said. Yeah. I think you might be the most straightforward person I have ever met in my life. Is that good? It's terrifying, she said.
And also, yes, it's very good. Three weeks after the park, Marcus introduced them. Not formally, not planned, or rather not planned the way it sounds. It happened because Maya had a school event on a Saturday morning and Marcus' usual backup. His mother-in-law.
Gloria had a church obligation. She couldn't move. And he was texting Olivia when it came up. And Olivia said before he could even frame it as a question, I can come. He looked at the text.
You sure? He typed back. Marcus, I've been waiting for you to ask for 2 weeks. Yes, I'm sure. He stared at that message.
Then he typed, I wasn't not asking because I didn't want you there. I know, she replied. You were being careful. I appreciate it, but I'm ready. The school event was a science fair that Maya had spent 4 weeks preparing for a project about water filtration that Marcus had helped her build and had been hearing about in extraordinary detail since early September.