He was pouring orange juice. She has a conference on Valentine's Day. She didn't plan the calendar. Amara was quiet for a moment. The particular quiet of a child who is deciding whether to say the thing she is thinking.
She usually said it. Does she make you happy? She said. He put the orange juice down. He looked at his daughter who was 9 years old and sitting at his kitchen table with pink flowers in her hands and the most direct question Kenshi she had ever asked him.
Yeah, he said. She does. Amara nodded. The way she nodded when she had confirmed something she already believed. Good, she said.
You were sad for a long time. I noticed. He sat down across from her. I know you noticed, he said. I didn't say anything because Marcus said I shouldn't.
Marcus is occasionally right. Don't tell him that. His head will get too big. He reached across the table and put his hand over hers. And she turned her hand over and held his back the way she had since she was small, automatic, unhesitating, the most natural thing in the world.
I'm good, bug, he said. I know, she said. That's what I'm saying. The investor conference went well. He knew because Victoria texted him at 11:15 that night.
She always texted late. Always when the professional machinery had finally wound down and she had space to be a person again and the text said standing ovation didn't see that coming then Philip Chen resigned this afternoon sent a statement blaming cultural misalignment then after a pause I think it went well he texted standing ovation and a resignation in one day that's a full life she sent back I'm extremely tired and I want soup he looked at the time 11:20 he texted Come over. She texted. It's late. He texted I have leftover soup.
A pause. Then 20 minutes. She was there in 18. She ate soup at his kitchen table at midnight in her conference clothes. Shoes off, hair coming loose from whatever architectural arrangement it had started the day in.
And she told him about the conference in the way. She talked when she was tired more freely, less edited. The words arriving in the order they wanted rather than the order strategy would have chosen. He listened. He asked questions.
He refilled her bowl without asking. At one point, she stopped mid-sentence and looked at him. "What?" He said. "Nothing," she said.