Page 114 of The Suit

“Ra… Rafe?” she stuttered. “What are you doing here?”

Guilt hit me hard in the gut as a tear overspilled and rolled down her cheek. I’d been so consumed by nerves and how I’d felt about seeing her again that I never considered how she’d feel at the surprise of me turning up unannounced.

Not that great, it seemed; also… not the best idea to sneak up on a woman.

My fists clenched before I reached out and wiped her face dry, not wanting to experience the flinch in case it came.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

She snatched away the tear then peered round me to the now empty hall. “Have you been here the whole time?”

I nodded, with a smile.

Her eyes widened. “You came to listen to my class?”

“I did.”

“Why?”

I placed the bag on the table next to us, ready to give her the truth, ready to tell her everything I should have been brave enough to tell her when we’d started this new journey.

“A few reasons. First, I got your letter.”

She looked at me hesitatingly for any indication of what I was about to say.

“Second, I wanted to see you. But third, and most importantly, I wanted to tell you I can’t forgive you...”

Her eyes widened before they started watering again. She shook her head hard, causing her curls to whip around her cheeks, “Wh… what? No, Rafe, please, let me apologize. I’m so…”

I placed my index finger over her lips, halting her speech before it got started. I didn’t want to hear it, and rehashing everything would be totally pointless.

“I can’t forgive you, because there’s nothing to forgive.” I pushed the bag toward her confused face. “There’s another reason I’m here. I have something for you.”

“What’s this?” She glanced at the bag, a tiny smile breaking through the tears. “You haven’t ruined any more of my clothing.”

“Just open it.”

She looked up at me in surprise when she tried to lift it, not expecting it to be quite so heavy, but whatever she was expecting had dulled her nervousness while she focused on my present. Reaching in, she heaved a box out and undid the ribbon. Little frown lines appeared on her brow as she eased the lid off, slid aside the tissue paper and pulled out the contents.

Her frown deepened as she unfolded the white silk scarf to find a piece of black slate underneath.

“Um, thank you?” She held them both up. “Is this a chalkboard? For teaching?”

I laughed. “No, that’s a piece of slate. A clean slate. For us.”

Her amber eyes darted up to meet mine, and I nodded to the scarf. “Unfold it.”

She did as she was told, holding it out in front of her until she noticed the word embroidered across the center.

“Truce?”

“Yes, a truce.” I took the scarf from her. “Read the edging,”

Her eyes followed the words around the four sides, “I, Raferty Latham, am declaring a truce with you, Beulah Holmes, on this day, June twenty first, twenty twenty two.”

She read the words again, then again, until I gently removed the scarf from her hands and placed it back on the box.

“Holmes, look at me.” She blinked a couple of times to clear the moisture which made her eyes seem brighter and bigger than ever before. I took one of her hands and placed it on my chest, directly above my heart so she could feel the sincerity. “We can apologize to each other until the word loses its meaning and we have no voices left, and it still wouldn’t be enough. Beulah, I’m done. I’m done with the hate and the fighting and the one-upmanship. I mean it, I want to start over. The way I behaved last week in your hotel room… it’s inexcusable.” She tried to speak but I held my hand up to cut her off again. “No, please, let me finish. Since that night, I’ve learned something. I learned everything that happened over the last few weeks is because we had unfinished business. We weren’t done from school. We needed one more battle to bring us back together. Because for some reason, some inexplicable reason, we’re supposed to be together. My heart has never ached before, but then I realized that underneath all the anger I felt toward you, was pain. Even when I briefly tried to forget you, I couldn’t, and I know neither of us would be where we are now without the other. But we can’t continue the path we’ve been on without one of us ending up dead, and if that happens, I’m never going to find out what I really want to know…”

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