“She got worse.”
My thumb stopped moving over the scratch.
Claire continued quietly.
“She died that winter.”
I stared toward the shelves.
Somewhere behind us, a child laughed.
Neither of us spoke for a while.
Then I asked, “Nobody told me?”
“No.”
“But you knew I existed.”
“Yes.”
“You knew who I was when you saw me on Tinder.”Plan Date Nights
“Yes.”
“So why then?”
Claire looked down at her hands.
“Because I thought I’d finally been given a chance to tell you.”
I waited.
“I didn’t know your last name for years,” she continued. “I knew Ethan. I knew your mom used to pick you up in a red car. I knew you moved not long after Nora got sick. By the time I thought seriously about finding you, I had almost nothing useful.”
“But eventually you did.”
“Seventeen years later, your face showed up on my
I rubbed both palms against my jeans.
“And you swiped right.”
“Yes.”
“To tell me Nora died. That was the whole plan?”
“One coffee. Tell you who I was. Tell you what happened. Thank you for being her friend.”
I looked at her.
“And then?”
Claire gave a tired little laugh.
“Then you ordered another coffee. You stayed until they started stacking chairs around us.”Shop Sofas
“That doesn’t answer why you lied, Claire.”
“No.”
Good.
At least she wasn’t trying to pretend that it did.
I leaned back in the chair.
“If Nora had never existed, would you have swiped right on me?”
Claire watched me silently for several seconds.
“I don’t know.”
That hurt more than a nicer answer would have.
She continued before I could respond.
“I probably wouldn’t have stopped on your profile long enough to find out.”
I turned my face away.
“But Nora got me to
that coffee shop,” she admitted. “She didn’t make me order another coffee. Or stay until they stacked the chairs around us.”Get Writing Tools
I stood up.
“What happened after that doesn’t erase what happened before it.”
