The way Omra looked at things she was encountering for the first time. He thought about that about a woman who had built a company from nothing, who sat in rooms where millions of dollars changed direction based on what she said, who had been featured in national publications, who had made it to CEO at 27, coming to his after midnight to sit at his kitchen table and be uncertain in a way she couldn't afford to be anywhere else. He thought about what that meant. He thought about what it required of her and what it required of him. One night late in December, she came over after a 14-hour day and fell asleep at his kitchen table with her head on her folded arms, half a cup of tea going cold beside her, her phone finally silent for the first time in hours.
He sat across from her. He looked at the payment notice on the counter final notice. Water bill. 46 days passed due and he turned it face down before she could wake up and see it. Not because he was ashamed of it, because it was his and it wasn't hers to solve.
That was a boundary he felt clearly and held without anger the line between what she was to him and what she was in the world. He would not let the second one eat the first. He made himself a cup of coffee and sat at the table and let her sleep and read one of Amara's chapter books, the one about the girl with plants because it was the only thing close to hand and found himself actually interested in what happened to the character which made him feel like a reasonable human being. An hour later, Victoria surfaced. She lifted her head, looked at him across the table, saw the book in his hands, and produced an expression of profound and genuine confusion.
Are you reading a children's book? It's a very sophisticated children's book. What's it about? A girl who can talk to plants. There are themes.
What themes? Listening, he said. About how the things that can't speak loudly still have something to say if you learn how to pay attention. She looked at him for a long moment. Darius H.
Are you actually a children's book character? He put the book down. Are you feeling better? I wasn't sick. You were tired enough to fall asleep in a kitchen chair.
That's a kind of sick. She was quiet, stretching her neck. Then there's a payment notice on your counter. He looked at it. It's handled.
It says final notice. It's handled. He said the same tone. No variation. She looked at him that careful reading the room.
Look. I'm not going to offer you money, she said. Good. I know you'd say no. Correct.
I just want you to know that I noticed and I'm She stopped. I'm not pitying you. I want to be clear about that. I'm not capable of pitying you. I just She stopped again.