“I was so nervous I wrote down everything I
wanted to say,” she admitted.
Susan laughed through her tears.
“I had a whole notebook.”
Emily smiled.
“I know. You told me.”
I watched them together.
There was so much affection between them.
And so much lost time.
Then Emily turned toward me.
“There’s something you should know about Robert.”
My breath caught.
“What?”
She reached into her handbag.
“I met him.”
I stared at her.
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
I couldn’t speak.
Emily continued.
“My first meeting with Susan was supposed to happen at a café. She got frightened
and almost canceled.”
Susan looked embarrassed.
“I did cancel. Twice.”
Emily smiled gently.
“Robert called me afterward. He said Susan was scared, but that she loved me very much.”
I
pressed my fingers against my lips.
“He called you?”
“Yes.”
“He asked whether I’d be willing to give her another chance.”
Emily paused.
“And then he said something I’ve never forgotten.”
“What?”
She looked directly at me.
“He said, ‘Sometimes the people who love us most are the ones who are most afraid of disappointing us.’”
My eyes filled.
That
sounded exactly like Robert.
Later that afternoon, Emily showed me a photograph.
It had been taken in a small restaurant five years earlier.
Susan sat on one side of a table.
Emily sat beside her.
And across from them was Robert.
He was smiling.
Healthy.
Alive.
I hadn’t seen that smile in eleven months.
I traced the edge of the photograph with my finger.
“Why was he there?”
Susan answered quietly.
“I asked him to come. I was so frightened I couldn’t walk into the restaurant alone.”
I looked at
her.
“And you couldn’t ask me?”
She lowered her eyes.
“I was afraid you’d never forgive me for waiting so long.”
I stared at the picture again.
Robert had been there for her.
Just as he’d always been there for me.
But I couldn’t pretend his secrecy didn’t hurt.
“I wish he’d trusted me,” I whispered.
Susan nodded.
“So do I.”
That was the first moment I truly believed she understood what she’d taken from me.
Not the chance to judge her.
The chance to support her.
That evening, Emily
invited us to dinner.
We went to a little restaurant overlooking the harbor.
For the first time in years, Susan seemed lighter
