When She Came Back

Elena handed him an envelope on Friday afternoon.

Adrian looked at it, then at her face.

He had spent the morning deciding whether asking her to dinner twice in one week would make him look impatient.

Apparently there had been other things to worry about.

"What's this?"

"My notice."

The words emptied the room.

He put the envelope on his desk without opening it.

"Why?"

"I interviewed for a reception position at a plumbing company. They offered it to me this morning."

"You've been looking for another job?"

She sat in the chair opposite him.

"Since before Mia found the key. I told you I used to do that kind of work."

He remembered. Of course he remembered.

He had pictured a future in which she stayed in his house while her role in it changed according to his desires. Once again, he had left her actual plans out of the picture.

Knowing that did not make the empty feeling smaller.

"Are the hours better?"

"Full days, but predictable. Preschool until the afternoon, then Tessa. My sister can cover when she needs to."

"And the pay?"

"Enough."

He looked at her.

She looked back, steady and a little anxious.

"I could increase—"

He stopped.

Her expression softened painfully.

"I know you could."

He leaned back.

Outside the study, Mia was singing to Rosa in the kitchen, stopping every few lines to invent the words she had forgotten.

"Is this because of us?" he asked.

"Partly."

He braced himself.

"I liked Wednesday," she said. "I liked being there with you and coming home and knowing the evening was mine to say yes to. Then yesterday I was here changing the towels in your room, and I felt ridiculous."

He said nothing.

"Not because the work is beneath me. Because I was thinking about kissing you while wondering whether your laundry should go downstairs before lunch."

Despite everything, he almost smiled.

She noticed.

"Don't. I'm trying to explain this properly."

"I'm listening."

"I want to find out what we are. I don't want every uncomfortable morning to include a conversation about my wages."

His hand relaxed against the arm of his chair.

"So you're leaving the job."

"Yes."

"And me?"

The question emerged before he could make it less naked.

Elena went very still.

Then she stood and came around the desk.

"Is that what you thought?"

He looked at the envelope.

"I wasn't sure."

She touched his shoulder.

"I'm giving notice, Adrian. I'm not disappearing."

He caught her hand and brought it to his mouth.

For a moment, she let him keep it there.

Then she whispered, "I start in two weeks."

"We'll arrange a handover."

"The house manager already knows. I wanted to tell you myself."

"You've organized everything."

"Someone has to keep up with you."

He pulled her closer, just enough that her knee touched his chair.

"Come to dinner Sunday."

"With Mia?"

"Yes. Unless she has plans."

Elena smiled.

"I'll ask her office."

During her final two weeks, Adrian learned that seeing someone in his house was not the same as knowing she would choose to come back.

He behaved badly once, when she mentioned meeting an old coworker for coffee and he asked three questions too many.

She looked at him over the kitchen counter.

"Would you like his résumé too?"

"That won't be necessary."

"Good. His wife might find it strange."

He put down his coffee.

She crossed the space between them and straightened his tie.

"You can ask whether I'm free Saturday without investigating Thursday."

"Are you?"

"Yes."

He kissed her before she could finish smiling.

The kiss would have lasted longer if Rosa had not entered carrying a bag of onions.

She stopped, looked from one to the other, and continued toward the pantry.

"Finally," she said.

Elena hid her face against Adrian's shoulder.

He laughed into her hair.

On her last day, Mia stood beside the desk drawer with Rabbit tucked beneath one arm.

"Do I take these?" she asked.

Adrian looked at the crayons.

"You can leave them here."

"Mommy isn't working here now."

"I know."

The child frowned, trying to make the rules fit.

He knelt in front of her.

"You can visit even when she isn't working."

"Like Rosa visits her sister?"

"Something like that."

Mia considered him, then placed Rabbit in the drawer.

"He'll stay. So you aren't lonely."

Adrian's throat tightened unexpectedly.

"You'll want him tonight."

"He can have a short visit."

Elena appeared at the door with her bag.

She had changed out of her uniform. Without it, the room looked different already.

"Ready, sweetheart?"

Mia retrieved Rabbit after deciding he might dislike sleeping without her.

At the front door, Elena reached up and kissed Adrian in full view of the house manager.

"I'll call you later."

He watched her walk down the steps holding Mia's hand.

There was no disaster. No sudden revelation that she had only liked him because her days had been spent under his roof.

There was simply a quiet house and the unpleasant discovery that he wanted to hear about her day before it had ended.

At half past seven, the doorbell rang.

Adrian opened the door himself.

Elena stood on the step carrying a paper bag.

"Mia's sleeping at my sister's," she said. "They made plans involving pancakes. I wasn't invited."

He looked at the bag.

"What's that?"

"Dinner. I thought we should eat something you haven't personally endangered."

He stepped aside.

She came in, put the bag on the hall table, and turned toward him.

"I wanted to come back," she said.

He closed the door.

For a moment, he could not find an answer that would hold everything he felt.

So he took her face between his hands and kissed her.

She pressed close, her fingers sliding into his hair. He felt the last two weeks of restraint leave him in one long breath.

When they parted, she rested her forehead against his.

"You're pleased, then."

"Moderately."

She laughed, and he kissed the sound from her mouth.

Later, their dinner sat cooling on the kitchen table while he held her hand.

"I don't want to pretend this is casual," he said.

Elena's expression changed.

"Neither do I."

"I want to be the person you call when something happens. Good or bad. I want Saturday evenings and inconvenient weekday ones. And I don't want to wonder whether you're seeing someone else."

"I'm not."

"Neither am I."

She watched him for a moment, then smiled.

"Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?"

The word sounded unexpectedly young in his kitchen.

He found that he liked it.

"Yes."

"You could have started there."

"I'm told I overcomplicate things."

She squeezed his hand.

"Then yes."

He drew her chair closer to his.

"There's Mia," she added, more quietly. "I can't promise things for her because I'm happy tonight. She needs time to understand."

"Then we'll give her time."

Elena searched his face.

"And you need to tell me when you're frightened instead of finding an apartment."

He looked down at their joined hands.

"I was frightened when you handed me that envelope."

She leaned toward him and kissed his cheek.

"I know."

After dinner, she sat beside him on the sofa with her shoes tucked beneath the table and her head against his shoulder.

For once, there were no papers between them. No question left over from a man who could no longer answer it.

Adrian slid his arm around her.

When she reached for his other hand, he gave it to her.