“I didn’t want people gossiping about us.”
“I’m not asking you to announce an engagement.”
“I know.”
“I spend every day making sure other people are understood. I don’t want to come home and spend another hour trying to figure out what you mean.”
He stared at the kitchen floor.
Then he said something I hadn’t expected.
“I thought being careful meant respecting your freedom. But I’ve been using caution to avoid saying what I want.”
“And what do you want?”
“You.”
One word.
Finally.
The following Saturday, he took me to breakfast at the neighborhood diner.
When Mrs. Bell waved from a booth, Graham stopped beside her table.
“This is Renata,” he said. “The woman I’m dating.”
Mrs. Bell grinned.
“Well, it’s about time.”
For the first time that week, I felt like something in my life still belonged to me.
Then my phone rang.
