bedrooms and Claire was

master suite, with a narrow bed and a window that

A room was a room. She was not here to be

fore sunrise and came home after dark, and most nights Claire

speaking, the only sound the clink of his spoon against his cof

ds made her anxious, and the penthouse was its own k

papers stacked in crooked towers, folders mislabeled, sticky notes peeling off the edg

tized the files, color coded the folders, a

me, walked straight into his offic

from the hall, b

id this,"

ry, I should have asked first. I just

time since the wedding, his eyes were not

ix this office for two years," he sai

me to put it bac

ws of folders again, almost like

thank you. But i

ept on Sundays, when he allowed himself cream and sugar like a small act of rebellion against his own rules. She lea

ivery drivers far more than necessary and always, always asked

was something more complicated, something Claire w

Nathaniel sitting alone at the island in the dark, tie loosened, jacket gone, a bottle of whiskey un

asleep," he said w

shoul

Claire poured her water slowly, giving

ire asked quietly. "Your ex

d around the whiskey glass.

" Claire said. "And because you warned me about her on o

the way he always did. Instead, something in his shoulders lo

e richer asked her to. I came home one night and her closet was empty. No note. No call. I foun

a way she did not expect.

me out loud. He looked up at her, startled,

e get close anymore,"

hy you are so

ht, and for one breathless second, Claire th

Nathaniel glanced at the screen, and whatever softness had crept into

s it," Cla

the screen like it had personally betrayed him

ly said, "just bought