Chapter 9 - The Beginning of Tomorrow
That evening she met Nathan at a small restaurant near the river.
He was already seated.
Of course he was.
Seven minutes early.
“You’re staring,” he said.
Claire sat opposite him.
“I sold the dress.”
His expression softened.
“The dress?”
“The one.”
He nodded.
Didn’t celebrate.
Didn’t make it about himself.
“How do you feel?”
“Strange.”
“Good strange?”
“Just strange.”
Nathan reached across the table.
Claire placed her hand in his.
After dinner they walked along the river.
The city glowed around them.
Nothing dramatic happened.
No rival appeared.
No one watched.
Near the bridge, Claire stopped.
Nathan turned.
“What?”
She studied his face.
The man who had once been Adrian’s greatest rival.
How absurd that seemed now.
Nathan had become so many other things.
The man who forgot bananas made her nauseous and put them in a smoothie anyway.
The man who worked too late when afraid.
The man who apologized badly sometimes, then returned and tried again.
The man who had once waited four doors away in a hotel hallway because she needed to decide what she wanted.
The man who carried a ring for months and had the strength not to use it.
“Do you still have it?” Claire asked.
Nathan became very still.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“At home.”
She nodded.
He stared at her.
“Claire.”
“Don’t ask me here.”
A slow smile appeared.
“No?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because there are people everywhere.”
He looked around dramatically.
“Three cyclists and a man walking a terrier.”
“That’s an audience.”
Nathan laughed.
Claire stepped closer.
“But you can ask me tomorrow.”
His laughter stopped.
For once, Nathan Mercer had no clever answer.
“Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Are you sure?”
Claire smiled.
That question.
Always that question.
She took his face between her hands.
“I spent years waiting for a man to become ready for me.”
Her voice trembled.
“I needed some time to make sure I was ready for myself.”
Nathan’s eyes shone.
“And now?”
“Ask me tomorrow.”
He kissed her.
Slowly.
There was no one there who mattered enough to impress.
Miles away, Adrian sat alone in a quiet restaurant with a woman he had recently begun seeing.
His phone lay facedown on the table.
For the first time in his adult life, an urgent email had arrived and remained unanswered while the person across from him spoke.
She was telling him about her father.
Adrian listened.
Really listened.
Perhaps he would become a better man.
Perhaps he would fail again.
Perhaps Claire and Nathan would marry and live happily.
Perhaps they would marry and discover happiness required far more work than either expected.
Perhaps they would disappoint each other in ways neither could yet imagine.
Life did not offer guarantees merely because people finally learned the lesson.
It offered another day.
Another choice.
Another opportunity not to repeat yesterday.
The next evening, Nathan asked Claire to marry him.
And this time, when she said yes, the word did not sound like the beginning of forever.
It sounded better than that.
May you like
It sounded like the beginning of tomorrow.
THE END
