Page 67 of Nineteen Seventy-Six

Soren poured her a glass and handed it to her as he sat next to her. She’d never liked liquor, and mint made her gag, ever since her pregnancy with Olivia, but this was his first act of caring for her in over a month and she wouldn’t take that from him.

Maureen winced through a deep sip. “He says I can still see you.”

Soren’s face dissolved in relief. “Thank God. I know we said this was just fun for us both, but it’s not, is it? Not anymore.” He touched her cheek. “Not for me.”

Maureen dropped her eyes, focusing on the ice in her glass, hued in green from the mint. “Not for me, either. But it’s not so simple. I’ve told you about him. About…”

Soren nodded.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into him. He’s… changed since the hurricane, but also not changed at all. He’s more protective of me, but only in the restrictions he’s placed on me, not in the way he treats me himself. Not in any meaningful way, that might feel good.”

“He realized he loves you,” Soren said. “Must have been some revelation for him.”

“I don’t think he’s happy about it,” Maureen said. “He’d just as soon go around assaulting his secretaries in ignorant bliss.”

Soren squeezed her leg.

“I also don’t think anything has changed. Not really. He’s only afraid, now, of losing me, or losing a mother for Olivia.”

“Don’t sell his affection for you too short. Is it so crazy to think he might really care for you? Not in the way I do, or the way most men care for the women they love, but everyone speaks differently when they love.”

“He raped me, Soren. Don’t make excuses for him.”

Soren’s face fell. “I’m so sorry, Maureen. I was trying to make you feel better, so you know whatever the shortcomings of the man, they’re not yours.”

“I know that,” she said. “I knew it then, too, but until now I never expected he’d turn a corner, and he has, but it comes with a price.”

Soren didn’t interject this time. He let her speak, and when she was done telling him about Edouard’s sordid proposal, he moved to the side of the couch, hands running down the length of his face.

“I shouldn’t have come here.” Maureen jumped up. “I don’t even know why I told you. The whole thing is so absolutely positively—”

Soren shook his head. He joined her on the carpet. “It’s only absolutely positively whatever you were about to say if we care what society thinks.”

“What are you… what are you saying? That you want Edouard to watch us?”

“I don’t want him to, ma cher, but this is progress for your husband, don’t you see? He’s never going to be the man you wish he’d be, but he might become one you can live with.”

“I don’t see how him watching us have sex accomplishes any of that.”

“You’ve seen things in this world, Maureen, but so have I. And my experience tells me this is a bigger step for Edouard than it will be for you. And I don’t want to scare you with my predictions, but I think this will be the beginning of something beautiful.”

Maureen wrinkled her face. “I don’t see how.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Of course I trust you, but that has nothing to do with this.”

Soren leaned in to kiss her. “I only want you, Maureen. But if I have to go through Edouard to do it, then I will. And if at any time, you’re uncomfortable, we stop. No matter what. No questions asked. I want you to have peace of mind, Maureen. Okay?”

Maureen had come here looking for Soren’s guidance on another way to keep what they had, but instead he’d sold her on the efficacy of Edouard’s insane proposal.

Was she really going to do this?

“Peace of mind,” Maureen mused. “Like that song on the radio.”

“Yeah,” Soren said. “Boston.”

Charles paced around the quad at Loyola University. He didn’t know this campus the way he knew Tulane, where he’d misspent more years than he liked to admit. But Cat chose it for a reason; a reason he might’ve known if they were talking. Maybe her parents had Jesuit ties, or maybe she was just sick and tired of Tulane, that old, esteemed college all her husband’s family had such a hard-on for.

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