I’d kissed him goodbye.
And while I was being considerate, he was preparing to meet Laura.
I reached a quiet section near the event barricades and stopped.
My phone began ringing.
Daniel.
I declined the call.
It rang again.
Then several messages arrived.
*Claire, please don’t leave.*
*We need to talk.*
*It’s not as bad as it looks.*
I stared at the last sentence.
Not as bad as it looks.
I could hardly imagine what part he believed I’d misunderstood.
The hand-holding?
The matching shirts?
The four-month relationship?
The invented separation?
Then another message arrived.
*Laura didn’t know everything.*
That was when I realized he was still trying to manage the situation.
He wanted to decide what I knew.
He wanted to decide what Laura knew.
And he wanted enough time to create another explanation.
I slipped my phone into my pocket.
Then I heard footsteps behind me.
