The reservation isn't for 40 minutes. Claire, they have good bread. I started on the bread. He put his phone in his pocket and got in his car. She was at a corner table.
She'd claimed it the way she claimed spaces naturally, like she'd always been there. She dressed simply, which somehow made everything more deliberate. and she had a glass of water and a bread bask basket and she was reading something on her phone and looked up when he walked in like she'd felt him arrive. "You changed your shirt," she said. He stopped. "How can you possibly know that?
You have a mark on your collar from the other one. The tags on your shirts are slightly scratchy, and you always rub the back of your neck when you've just put one on." She tilted her head. You rubbed it twice on the way to the table. He sat down.
You're alarming. You already knew that. I did. He agreed. He picked up the menu.
Put it down. I'm nervous. He said he said it directly without setup because he was tired of spending energy on not saying true things. She looked at him. Me too.
She said, "You don't look nervous. I've been practicing looking calm since I was 22. Don't let it fool you." She picked up her water glass. My hands are slightly cold.
That's my tell. He reached across the table and touched the back of her hand briefly, just for a second. Cold, he confirmed. Told you. He pulled his hand back.
She looked at where it had been for a moment and then looked up at him. Something in the air between them had changed thinned. Maybe gone from careful to something more immediate. I want to say something, he said. Say it.
I've been thinking about what this is. About, he paused. about whether I'm ready for what this is. He held her gaze and I keep landing in the same place, which is that I don't know if I'm ready, he said. I genuinely don't know. I've been He searched for the word dormant for a long time.
And dormant things don't always know how to start again. They just He paused. They start because that's what living things do. And they figure it out while they're going. She was very still listening.