Page 16 of Absolute Certainty
She could feel Jay’s towering presence over her, never quite noticing how tall he was behind the counter at Amanda’s. For a brief second, it overwhelmed her, how steadying being beside him felt.
Two seats became vacant right as they entered Bryant Park. “Willa likes to joke that the universe always leaves empty chairs for me as an apology for what happened to my ankle,” she said with a low laugh.
Sahar sat down, and Jay followed on the other side. “What happened to your ankle?” he asked.
“I had a horrible sprain in secondary school. High school, as you lot call it here. Didn’t take proper precautions because I had a production ofSound of MusicI wanted to be part of, so I made it worse. Every now and then, it likes to remind me when I’ve over-exerted it.”
The look he gave her almost made her want to laugh. If Sahar didn’t know he had a kid, she would’ve questioned it at this point. It was the type of gentle scold that, at the same time, held a plethora of concerns. “Do you take better care of it now?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Yes, I do. Anyway, we aren’t here to talk about my ankle. We’re here to talk about Henry and Katherine.”
Shifting his large frame in the chair that was far too small for him, Jay looked her in the eyes before saying, “Let’s hear it.”
Sahar took a breath, collecting her thoughts. “Okay, so I read the first episode, and it made my heart burst. I don’t know how you managed to give me so much right from the start, but I was all in.That’swhy I skipped ahead and read the ending.”
A bee flew between them, buzzing along the table, and Sahar leaned back in fear. Clearly aware of her sudden discomfort,Jay carefully brushed it away and gestured for her to keep talking.
“Thanks for that,” she started again. “Anyway, that final line, Jay. It reads, ‘I’m going to find Katherine, and I’m going to bring her home,’ but in the end, she’s just gone. Dead? Her body is found after everything, and that’s it? Can you tell me what led to that decision?”
Jay’s face fell a bit. Sahar couldn’t read his expression.
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “I thought about it—Henry finding her, realizing that she’s been trying to get out all along. But it felt too easy. It felt too…I don’t know, convenient. I was also at a low point in my life when the idea came to me, so it wasn’t exactly easy to see a happy ending.”
Sahar blinked, once, twice.
Who hurt this man?
“That’s entirely understandable. And I don’t want to disregard the idea of realism, so I hope this doesn’t come off that way. But I think the death dismisses Katherine’s strength as a woman. I read up to episode three last night, and the bits we see of her while she’s trapped… She’s just as determined to survive, and she wants the Logan brothers gone as much as he does. She’s no damsel in distress, Jay.”
“She doesn’t die at their hands,” he countered.
Sahar leaned forward a bit, chair creaking underneath her. “And I think that’s the problem. From what I gather by skimming the finale, she dies from an untreated wound, which I completely understand is reasonable in a situation like this, but you’re telling me that when she snuck off during the raid, she didn’t find a pharmacy to hold herself over until she could properly see a doctor?”
Jay’s eyes went somewhere else. His mouth curled in thought.
Sahar remained quiet.
“Yeah, I…uh, I realize now I did the one thing that countless critics always seem to hate, which is when a man’s character development is tied to the loss of a woman. Though I’d argue that the focus here is on Katherine’s worth and how much he loves her, I can see where it feels forced. Plot over character.”
Sahar smiled. She hadn’t expected him to hear her this intently.
Sighing, Jay dropped his gaze to the pigeon wobbling beside their table. “I wanted this to be a story about endurance. I want these characters both to overcome all this bullshit and set themselves free, but why does that seem too easy in fiction? That wouldn’t be the case if it happened in real life.”
His cadence fell at the last sentence, and a sharp stab of sadness punctured her heart.
Once more, with feeling, who hurt this man?
“Real life might not be happy, but aren’t people allowed to hope? To watch something and maybe for a few hours believe that lifecanbe like that?”
He didn’t say anything. He merely looked at her.
“So, Katherine survives. But I think in order to make it feel earned, we have to push it far beyond what I have. We need to keep elevating the stakes. Henry has to come to a point where everything is too painful, and he’s not sure how much more he can take.”
Sahar nodded. “He grows a beard, loses himself a bit… that’ll make finding one another hit even harder.”
Jay tilted his head, running his fingers along his own beard. It momentarily bewildered her. Something about the intensity in his dark eyes, his angular features, and the curve of his lips—nope. She wouldnotgo there.
“He grows a beard. Loses himself, what else you got for me?”
