Page 117 of Absolution

“It hasn’t changed,” I say, looking around.

He smiles. “We have.”

I glance at him, and it’s not flirtation in his voice. It’s something gentler. Observant. A little sad.

“I feel like I have,” I admit. “Some days I don’t even recognize the woman in the mirror.”

“I do,” he says softly.

The waitress interrupts before I can respond. We order. When she walks away, I ask, “So… what are we doing here?”

“Dinner,” he says with a little shrug, but there’s more behind it.

“Kyle.”

He sighs, rubbing the back of his neck. “Trying. That’s what we’re doing. I don’t expect this to fix anything. I just… I wanted to be with you tonight. Without therapy, without the kids between us. Just you and me.”

I nod slowly. “And if we crash and burn halfway through dessert?”

“Then at least we tried,” he says, a tiny smile tugging at his mouth. “But I don’t think we will.”

Once our drinks arrive, he takes a sip, then looks at me. “So… how’s school?”

“Good,” I say, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. “Really good, actually. I only have a year left.”

“That’s amazing,” he says. “What’s this year looking like?”

I let out a breath. “Tough. They really want us to have a working knowledge of the medical side, not just the imaging stuff. Like, I’m not trying to diagnose anyone, but if I miss something that shows up on a scan, someone could get hurt.”

His face shifts, respect, pride, maybe a little surprise. “You’re going to be great at it.”

“You think?”

“I know,” he says simply. “You’ve always been the most capable person in any room.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Even when I used to leave my car keys in the fridge?”

He laughs, and I laugh too. It feels good, the way it used to.

He swirls his glass gently. “I meant what I said earlier. About going forward.”

“I know you did.”

“And I know we’ve got a lot to work through. I just… I want to be someone you can depend on, again.”

I go quiet. Not because I don’t believe him. But because it’s the first time he’s said it that way. Not what he wants from me. But who he wants to be.

I let my fingers drift along the condensation on my glass. “Let’s just get through dinner first.”

He smiles, but this time it reaches his eyes. “Deal.”

Our food arrives. We eat. We talk about the kids, about the future. Kyle makes me laugh like he used to, with stories from work and his latest clients.

Afterward, we walk outside. The air is cooler now, thick with the scent of asphalt and warm engines. Across the dark parking lot, lights flicker from overhead poles, casting long shadows. The lot is full, people trickling to and from their cars, some laughing, some quiet, just like us.

“I really liked this,” Kyle says as we near his car.

“Me too,” I murmur.

---