Chapter 21 - I asked Mark out.
Not a casual Thursday visit. A real date.
I called him on a Tuesday evening. My palms were sweating like I was a teenager.
"Do you want to get dinner?" I asked when he picked up. "On Friday? Natalie said she’d watch Clara."
There was a brief pause on the line. Then, a slow, warm exhale.
"I would love that, Lucy."
Friday night, I wore a dark green dress I hadn't touched since before I was pregnant. I put on makeup. I felt foreign, but good.
Mark picked me up. He didn't bring a grand bouquet. He brought a single, simple white tulip.
"You look beautiful," he said.
We went to a quiet Italian place. We didn't talk about the fire department. We didn't talk about Alex or the elevator.
We talked about his childhood in Wisconsin. We talked about my architectural designs. We laughed.
It was so remarkably ordinary.
There was no intense, traumatic bond holding us together. There was no crisis.
When he walked me to my door, he didn't try to kiss me. He just held my hand for a moment, his thumb brushing my knuckles.
"Goodnight, Lucy."
"Goodnight, Mark."
May you like
I closed the door and leaned against it, smiling.
Ordinary was exactly what I wanted.
