Lily didn’t cry.
That was the part that broke me.
She simply folded her drawing into a neat little square.
Put it in her pocket.
And said,
“Okay.”
Like she already knew how disappointment worked.
I cried in my car for an hour afterward.
That evening, I had dinner with Julian.
Our fourth date.
He noticed immediately that something was wrong.
Of course he did.
I told him about Lily.
About the children watching the parking lot.
About the folded drawing.
“It’s the loneliest room I’ve ever seen,” I told him.
Then I said something I had almost completely forgotten.
“Nobody should have to wait for someone who might never come.”
Julian held my hand across the table.
He knew exactly what that place meant to me.
So why had he been there?
Charlie brought me back to the present.
“Dani?”
“I’m sorry.”
He hesitated.
“You look worried.”
