Chương 13
At eleven, his former assistant called to ask where several files should be transferred. She cried after he thanked her, then apologized for crying.
At noon, a restaurant canceled his lunch reservation because protesters had gathered outside.
At one, Sophie called.
“Mom says you quit your job.”
“I resigned.”
“Is that quitting?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked around the apartment. Julia’s clothes remained in the closet, though more empty hangers appeared each week.
“Because I needed to take responsibility for some things.”
“Did you do something bad?”
“I ignored how bad things were done for me.”
Sophie frowned.
“That’s confusing.”
“It is.”
“Do you have no money now?”
He almost laughed.
“No. I still have more money than I need.”
“Then why did Grandma say you lost everything?”
“Which grandma?”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “My grandma.”
“Rosa exaggerates.”
Rosa’s voice came from off screen. “I heard that.”
Sophie grinned.
Adrian did too.
“Are you still coming Sunday?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“We’re going to the zoo.”
“I remember.”
“You have to wear walking shoes.”
“I own walking shoes.”
“Mom says rich people own shoes that look like walking shoes.”
Elena appeared behind her.
“I did not say all rich people.”
Adrian leaned closer to the screen.
“What exactly did you say?”
“That you once wore Italian loafers to a street fair and complained about your feet.”
“That was nine years ago.”
“Pain has a long memory.”
Sophie looked between them.
“You knew each other before me.”
“Yes,” Elena said.
“Did you like him?”
Elena became very interested in adjusting Sophie’s hair.
“Sometimes.”
Adrian smiled.
“Did he like you?”
“Always,” he said.
Elena looked at him.
The answer was too quick again, but this time she did not close the screen.
The zoo visit went badly.
A photographer recognized them near the sea lions. Two visitors began filming. Sophie noticed and refused to leave the bench where she had been eating pretzels.
“I want them to stop looking,” she said.
Elena knelt in front of her.
“We can go home.”
“I didn’t see the giraffes.”
“We’ll come another day.”
“They’ll look then too.”
Adrian stood several feet away, fury tightening his chest. Security waited outside the zoo because Elena had refused an escort inside. He could call them. He could have the photographer removed. He could rent the entire facility after hours if he wished.
Every solution available to him involved making the world bend around Sophie.
She had already lived too much of her life inside decisions made by powerful adults.
Adrian sat on the bench beside her.
“The giraffes are another fifteen minutes,” he said.
“I know.”
“We can walk there while people look. Or we can leave. Neither choice means they win.”
Sophie tore the soft center from her pretzel.
“What would you do?”
“I would want to yell at them.”
“Mom says yelling makes videos worse.”
“Your mom is right.”
Elena looked surprised.
Sophie considered.
“Can I wear your hat?”
Adrian gave her his baseball cap. It covered most of her curls and slipped down over her eyes.
She laughed and pushed it back.
They walked to the giraffes.
The photographer followed at a distance until another parent stepped into his path and asked him whether he felt proud of frightening a child. A small argument began. Adrian kept walking.
At the giraffe enclosure, Sophie held his hand for the first time without being asked.
Her fingers were warm and sticky with salt.
He did not squeeze.
He barely moved.
Elena saw but turned toward the animals.
Later, while Sophie and Rosa waited in line for ice cream, Elena stood beside Adrian near a railing.
“She had a nightmare after the gala,” she said.
His attention sharpened.
“What happened?”
“She dreamed everyone in the ballroom had cameras for faces.”
He looked toward Sophie.
“She didn’t tell me.”
“She is not responsible for making you feel included.”
“I know.”
Elena sighed.
“Sometimes you say the correct thing so quickly that I want to throw something.”
“I can answer incorrectly first.”
“You used to.”
He looked at her.
The smallest hint of a smile appeared, then vanished.
“I kept your messages,” she said.
“All of them?”
“Most.”
“Why?”
“Because deleting them felt like agreeing that it had meant nothing.”
He gripped the railing.
“I kept a scarf you left.”
“The green one?”
“Yes.”
“I hated that scarf.”
“You wore it constantly.”
“Because you said it made my eyes look brighter.”
“It did.”
She shook her head.
For a moment, they were not parents negotiating the consequences of a stolen history. They were twenty-something adults remembering a bad scarf.
Then Sophie ran toward them with chocolate ice cream on her chin, and the moment closed.
Julia agreed to meet Adrian in late July.
They chose a quiet restaurant in Brooklyn where they had once eaten after signing the lease on their first apartment. The owner seated them in the back and did not mention the scandal.
Julia wore no wedding ring.
Adrian noticed before he sat down.
She noticed him noticing.
“I’m not making an announcement,” she said. “It felt dishonest to wear it.”
He removed his own ring and placed it on the table.
“I didn’t know whether taking it off would feel like pressure.”
“It would have.”
They ordered food neither wanted.
For several minutes, they discussed practical matters: the apartment, shared accounts, her belongings, the charity commitments that now required separate attendance.
Then Julia folded her napkin.
“I spoke to Elena.”
Adrian looked up.
“She called me,” Julia added. “She wanted to apologize for the public situation.”
“She did not owe you that.”
“I told her.”
“What else?”
Julia gave him a tired look. “Not everything belongs to you.”
He leaned back.
“You’re right.”
“There. That.”
“What?”
“You agree as though agreement is transformation.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“I don’t know how to speak without making it worse.”
“Then don’t speak for a minute.”
May you like
He obeyed.
A server refilled their water. Someone dropped a fork near the kitchen. Julia looked toward the window, where traffic moved slowly through evening heat.
