I pay attention. He picked his tool back up. She lost her mother at 16. Now she's losing her father and she's been choosing every single morning to get on a train and sit next to a man who understands what loss feels like from the inside, not just theoretically. Actually, he paused.
You think that's a coincidence? You think that's just a commute? Marcus said nothing. She chose you. Dvau said before you chose anything.
The call came on a Thursday evening at 9:47 p.m. Marcus was in the kitchen cleaning up after Amara's dinner. And when he saw Emily's name on the screen, his stomach dropped before he'd even picked up because it was almost 10:00. And Emily did not call at almost 10:00. And the only reason to call this late when your father was in the hospital was if something had happened, he picked up immediately. Emily, she didn't say anything at first.
He could hear her breathing careful, controlled the breathing of someone who was managing a very specific amount of collapse. He's okay, she said. I just need I just needed to hear a voice that wasn't the hospital. He exhaled. Okay, I'm here.
I've been in that room for 6 hours, she said. And the whole time I've been watching him sleep and thinking about all the things I never said and all the things I should have and how there's never a right time. And then suddenly the right time is gone. And she stopped. He heard her pull in a breath.
Sorry. I know it's late. Emily, stop apologizing. I just I didn't know who else to call. You called the right person.
He moved to the living room, sat down, let the apartment go quiet around him. Tell me about him. Something good. Tell me something good. She was quiet for a moment.
Then he taught me to drive in an empty parking lot in Columbus. I was 15. He let me steer his N,994 Buick and I hit a traffic cone and started crying. And he laughed so hard he had to get out of the car. She paused.
He wasn't laughing at me. He was laughing because he said he'd done the exact same thing at 15 and nobody had told him it was normal. he said. Emily, every person who can drive today once ran over a cone and panicked. You're exactly on schedule. Marcus smiled in the dark.
He sounds like someone who knew how to make things feel okay. He made everything feel okay, she said softly. He was very good at that. Is he is good at that, she corrected herself. But the correction cost her.