40 minutes. He had a system. She looked at him sideways. He didn't ask you a single question about your finances. He asked me about the designated hitter rule.
That's the real test. She said the money thing he can look past. But a man's character on the DH rule that's permanent. What did I say that he liked? you said. I understand both arguments and I think reasonable people can disagree.
She shook her head. He told me last year he broke up a friendship of 40 years over the DH rule and you just completely disarmed him with diplomatic neutrality. I genuinely do understand both arguments. I know you do. She stopped walking.
They were in the parking lot halfway to his car and she stopped and turned to face him. Marcus, he stopped too. Yeah, what he said in there about me talking differently. She looked at him directly. He's right.
I do. She paused. I spent a long time thinking that needing people was the same as losing yourself to them. That depending on someone meant giving them the power to undo you. She exhaled.
And then I met you. And you needed nobody. And it was the loneliest thing I'd ever seen. He held her gaze. Is that what you saw?
That's what I saw, she said. a man who had built the most functional, loving, competent life around a hole in the middle of it, and who had no idea the hole was visible. Marcus looked away for a moment. The parking lot, the cold, the ordinary, unremarkable December afternoon. Then back at her, "You fixed that," he said. "For the record, we fixed it." She said, "There's a difference." He looked at her.
She was looking at him. The thing that had been building since November, since a wrist and a shoulder and 32 minutes, and I wasn't sleeping, was fully present now. Undeniable. Both of them standing in the middle of it. He reached out and tucked a strand of hair back from her face.
She didn't move. Her eyes didn't move. Emily, he said. Marcus, I want to say something. Okay.
I haven't said it to anyone since Renee, he said. So, I need you to understand. It's not something I says easily. It's not something I say to fill space, she waited. I love spending time with you, he said.