Let's go do this." He agreed. Daniel's place was 20 minutes across town, a rowhouse he'd owned for 6 years that always l looked slightly in progress. Something being fixed or painted or replaced. Evidence of a man who bought a home and committed to it incrementally. The lights were on.
Something smelled like it was cooking from the porch. Daniel opened the door before they knocked. He looked at the two of them standing there together, side by side on his porch, and something moved through his face, not surprise. He'd known they were coming, but something that landed past knowing. Something that landed in feeling.
He said, "Well, look at that." Olivia said, "Don't make it weird, Daniel." "I'm not making it weird," Daniel said. "I'm appreciating it. Come inside before the garlic burns." They went inside. The dinner was, as predicted, imperfect. Daniel's pasta was slightly overdone, and he'd put too much salt in the sauce, and he knew it, and covered for it by bringing out a very good bottle of wine that he'd clearly been saving.
They ate and they talked and after the first 20 minutes of the careful, slightly formal energy of a new configuration settling. They all seemed to exhale at the same time and just became three people who knew each other well sitting at a table together. At one point, Daniel looked at Marcus and looked at Olivia and said, "You know what's funny? What?" Olivia said, "I sent you over there with a folder." Daniel said to Marcus. That was it.
A folder. I just needed the documents. He shook his head slowly. "I had no idea." "Did you know she was home?" Marcus asked. Daniel paused.
"I knew she might be home," he said carefully. "Olivia put her fork down." "Daniel Emanuel Coleman." I said, "Might," Daniel said immediately. I had a general sense she could potentially be in the vicinity of the house. "I didn't plan anything. I just He picked up his wine glass.
I might have thought it was not the worst thing if you two were in the same place at the same time." He drank. Silence. You set this up, Olivia said. I facilitated a document retrieval. Daniel said.
Anything that happened after that was entirely between two consenting adults. Marcus looked at his best friend, his brother, since 7th grade, the man who had played it cool across a diner table and said, "I always thought my sister needed someone who'd make her happy. Like it was something that had occurred to him naturally." "You knew." Marcus said, "I had a feeling." Daniel said. You sent me over there knowing she'd be home. I sent you over there with a folder.
Daniel said serenely. The rest is fate. Olivia looked at Marcus. Marcus looked at Olivia. And then slowly, helplessly, Marcus started to laugh.
A real one, deep and genuine. And Olivia followed 3 seconds later. And Daniel looked extremely pleased with himself in the specific way of a man who has been sitting on a secret for months and has finally gotten to release it. You're unbelievable, Olivia told him. I'm thoughtful, Daniel corrected.