I had earned that.

After everything, I had earned the right to be, for one afternoon, the only person in the building who understood how the story actually ended.

It was not petty.

Or if it was, it was the smallest and most forgivable pettiness in the world, and I would not give it back.

Chapter 10 — Everything’s Perfect

The next morning, Nathan called.

“Everything okay, honey?” His voice was warm and easy, just as it had always been, and I understood now that the warmth was a tool he picked up and set down, no more a part of him than a wrench is part of a plumber.