The next morning came.
Evelyn was up before the alarm.
She had slept properly, which surprised her.
Leon slept until eight, which was late for him.
He came out of his room with his hair on one side and Gerald under his arm and stood in the kitchen doorway blinking.
“Morning, baby,” Evelyn said.
“I’m hungry”
”Good morning to you too.”
”Good morning, Mommy.” He climbed onto the kitchen stool and kissed her cheek.
“Is there food?”
She made him eggs.
He ate them without complaint, which meant he was still recovering and his body was being sensible.
He asked twice if he could go to school.
She said not yet.
He accepted this with moderate disappointment and went to find his sketchbook.
By nine, Evelyn was at her desk going through the fallout from yesterday.
There was quite a lot of it.
The media had made a lot from it too.
Her legal team had sent three messages.
Zara had sent five.
Sophie had forwarded seventeen emails from various people in the industry who had heard, through the specific and unstoppable channel of fashion world gossip, that LUXE had terminated a major acquisition deal mid-signing.
The messages ranged from concerned to curious to barely disguised critics and she read all of them with the same expression and replied to none of them.
She would deal with it, later
She was halfway through the legal team’s notes when the buzzer went.
Daniel came up with a paper bag and the easy, unhurried energy of someone who had nowhere more important to be.
“I was in the neighbourhood,” he said at the door smiling.
“You live twenty minutes away.” Evelyn rolled her eyes as she went in for a hug.
“I was in the neighbourhood of your neighbourhood.” He hugged her back and let go.
He held up the bag.
“Wings.
From the good place.”
She stepped back and smiled.
He set the bag on the kitchen counter.
“Hey Leon” Daniel said to Leon.
“Daniel!!” Leon ran to hug him.
“Hey boy, look I got you some wings.” Leon smiled, took the bag and went back to drawing.
“He looks better,” Daniel said.
“He is better.” Evelyn poured him a coffee without asking.
“He’s been drawing all morning.”
”Good sign.”
”Yes.”
They sat at the kitchen table.
Daniel unpacked their wings onto a plate.
Evelyn picked one up and ate it.
He didn’t say anything for a while.
That was one of the things about Daniel — he never rushed toward the thing.
He was patient.
“How are you doing?” he said finally.
“Fine.”
”Evelyn.”
”Daniel, I’m fine, for real.
Yesterday was —” She paused.
Picked the right word.
“A lot.”
”You tore up the deal.”
”I did.”
”In front of everyone.”
”Yes.”
He looked at her.
“Do you regret it?”
She thought about it honestly.
“No,” she said.
“I don’t regret it.”
”Even the cost?”
”Some things cost what they cost.”
He nodded slowly.
He picked up his coffee.
“Tell me about her,” he said.
“Jane, Aidam’s wife.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Daniel, I don’t wanna talk about that woman.”
He looked at her, silent.
“Evelyn.” His voice was different now.
Careful.
She looked up.
He had his hands around his cup and he was looking at her.
“Does he still affect you?” he said.
“Aidan.”
The question sat between them.
She did not answer immediately.
She should have answered immediately, a clean no, said easily, meaning nothing.
That was the answer.
That was the true answer.
He was her past and she had built six years of distance from that past and she was fine.
But she sat there for one second too long.
And Daniel, who had known her for three years and was not a man who missed things, saw it.
“I’m not asking to start something,” he said quietly.
“I’m asking because I can see something bothering you and I haven’t seen it before.
And I’d rather know.”
”He doesn’t affect me, Daniel,” she said.
“What happened yesterday was about Jane.
About Leon.
About six years of something that needed to be said.”
”And Aidan?”
”Is a person I used to know.”
”Is that all?”
She looked at him.
“Daniel–”
”I’m not asking you to feel a certain way,” he said.
“I just need to know where I’m standing…in your life.”
She looked at him properly then.
At the steadiness of him — the patience, the kindness, the three years of showing up without being asked.
“You’re standing exactly where you’ve always stood,” she said.
“You’re one of the most important people in my life.
That hasn’t changed.”
He looked at her for a moment.
“But,” he said.
“I didn’t say any buts.”
”You didn’t have to.”
”Daniel —”
”It’s okay.” He said it without self-pity, which somehow made it worse.
Just plainly.
Like a man accepting information he had already suspected.
“I’m not going anywhere.
I just needed to know.”
She looked at him.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
And meant it.
“Don’t be.” He picked up his coffee.
“You know, I love that boy there,” he said.
Nodding toward the living room where Leon was drawing.
“Like he’s my own.
Whatever happens with us, that doesn’t change.”
Something tightened in her chest.
“I know,” she said softly.
“Good.” He stood.
Picked up his jacket from the back of the chair.
“Go deal with your emails.
I know you haven’t.”
”I’ve dealt with some of them.”
”The important ones?”
”…Some of the important ones.”
He almost smiled.
He kissed her forehead, gentle, brief.
” I got work to do,” He whispered in her ears.
Then he walked to the door.
“Daniel.” He stopped.
Turned.
She looked at him from across the kitchen.
“Thank you.
For coming.”
”Always,” he said.
He left.
Evelyn sat at the kitchen table for a while.
She thought about Daniel’s question.
Does he still affect you?
She said he didn’t, so why did that feel so unsure when she said it.
Why did her chest hurt when she saw the look on his face?
And that right there was the thing that unsettled her more than anything.