After lunch, after Ava was settled with a book, Marcus and Victoria sat on the porch. First time outside in the actual air. He had his coffee. She had hers. The Saturday afternoon was doing what October afternoons in Georgia do.
Going golden and generous with the light. The kind of light that makes everything look like it's worth keeping. You didn't book the birchwood, he said. It wasn't a question. No, she said.
Where are you staying? I haven't figured that out yet. She said, I drove down this morning and I'll drive back tonight. I have a meeting tomorrow at 9:00. He looked at her.
That's 10 hours of driving in one day, he said. I know because you wanted to come for a Saturday. I wanted to come, she said simply. The Saturday was what was available. He was quiet for a moment.
Then you drove 5 hours to eat biscuits and look at dinosaurs and to see you, she said. Without qualifier, without performance, he looked out at the yard. There's a conversation we should have, he said. I know, she said. About what this is, he said.
About what it can realistically be between somebody who's here and somebody who's 482 mi away, she said. He looked at her. I checked, she said. He almost smiled, then didn't because the conversation they were having was real and deserved to stay real. I have Ava, he said.
Her school is here. Her life is here. Everything she has left of her mother is here. I can't. He stopped.
Started again. I need you to understand what I can and can't move. I'm not asking you to move anything, she said. Then what are you asking? She thought about it honestly.
She thought about everything she'd said in his living room 3 weeks ago about wanting to come back as herself and everything that had happened since then. The board call, the framework she'd written, the way her apartment felt when she was cooking the waffles, the way it felt different now from how it had feltful before. I'm asking for the chance to show you that 482 mi is a number, she said, not a verdict. Marcus looked at her for a long time. I've been hurt, he said quietly.