Until the last goodbye

to a bouquet of white tulips waiti

folded slip of paper with

ding people that kin

ving despite herself. She didn'

at her last night like s

Vill

em on her desk. And for the rest of the day, she foun

long for Marc

f appreciation, a few comments about her speech, and a casual

ed within

eting turned into a t

e world. She ordered her usual: long black, no sugar. Marco asked for a flat white and a slice of sans rival. The bar

liked

ons, he actually listened. And when she talked, he didn't interrupt or offer unsolicit

was to be taken seriously when she was starting out, how the burden

d how that failure taught him more than any success had. He talked about watching his mother volunteer

aligned like

e believed in incremental change. She believed in systemic

th your heart

And you think

the same thing,"

is sleeves rolled up. And yet, there was something striking a

to impress because he

med her more than any p

s, they found reasons

sometimes at events where they weren't even speak

another invisible

ridiculous donor requests and bizarre gala themes. Marco started calling her "Mi

Spreadsheet" whenever he go

ted on something casual after a particularly long board meeting. They ate with chopsti

" she said sudden

oked up.

, nodding toward the window, where a row o

thought I was a

ed. You know. The type who wea

d n

"Now I think yo

t her for a

he sai

-not in pain, but in awareness. Of how da

posed to happen. Not wit

er, breaking down her careful walls w

was-feeling i

iling at her phone during a meeting wh

u would want to geek out. Also, I may have found

respond r

e message for a while, he

, between laughter over buttered noodles and shared frustrations about b

tarted se

. His calm.

p-her body betrayed her with every stolen glance, every shared silence, ev

now starting to wilt on her desk, Isabel let hersel

m beginnin

whispered the

t affo

h was as cruel a

ife on purpose. On

ld for something so uncertain, so