Marcus looked at her with an expression she couldn't fully read. "I might have mentioned that there's a diner on the east side, Riverside. She'd probably Viv stopped, started over. I'm being strange about this a little," he said, not unkindly. She looked at him directly.
I'm going to be less strange about it at the end of the week, I think, if that's all right. I'll be here, Marcus said and picked up his tool bag and walked away. It was a Thursday evening shift change. Most of the building clearing out. Viv had been thinking about it for 4 days.
She'd rehearsed versions of it in the elevator, in the shower, in the car. All the versions were controlled and measured and landed with exactly the right combination of confidence and lightness. She walked into the lobby and crossed to where Marcus was replacing a thermostat panel on the east wall and every version of the speech evaporated. She stopped in front of him. He stood up.
The lobby went quiet, not because anyone coordinated it, just because people can sense when something real is happening. I don't have a husband, she said. Her voice wasn't steady. I've been divorced for four years, and for four years, I've been telling myself that being alone was a choice I made from strength instead of fear. But that's not entirely honest.
She held his eyes. Can I take you and Lily to dinner, Riverside Diner, or wherever she'd want? Somewhere easy. I just I want to know you outside of maintenance requests I fabricated. The lobby was genuinely silent now.
30, 40 people with an earshot, not pretending to be anywhere else. Marcus stood very still. The compass turned over once in his hand. He looked at her for a long moment, not unkindly, not with amusement or calculation, just looking like he was reading something carefully before answering. Then he said, "You know what you just did in front of the entire company?"
"I know. And you're okay with that?" "I'm terrified of it." She said. I did it anyway.
Something in his face shifted, quiet, irreversible, like the sun coming out from behind a cloud that you'd stopped expecting to move. Lily has strong opinions about milkshake flavor, he said. She's going to order chocolate and spend 12 minutes deliberating. I can work with that, Viv said. Saturday, he said seven Riverside.
She nodded and then from behind him she heard a small voice. Lily had apparently come to meet her father at the end of his shift. Was standing at the edge of the lobby with her backpack and her orange coat, watching this entire scene with the expression of someone who understood exactly what was happening. Daddy Lily said loudly across the lobby. Is she going to be your girlfriend?
Because I think you should say yes. She has really good posture. The lobby erupted. Laughter. Real laughter.