Graham looked around and straightened, ready to perform for the room.<\/p>\n
I spoke before he could.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad, I\u2019m leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re talking about this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis affects the family.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at Adrian, then back at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy marriage isn\u2019t a family asset.\u201d<\/p>\n
His jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you tell me?\u201d<\/p>\n
Not us.<\/p>\n
Me.<\/p>\n
I thought of the fountain, the laughter, thirty-two years of jokes. But I also remembered pancakes shaped like animals, bicycle lessons, and the time he drove through snow to bring me home from college when I was sick.<\/p>\n
Families are tragic that way.<\/p>\n
Love does not erase harm.<\/p>\n
Harm does not erase every memory of love.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I didn\u2019t know how to let you into my life without letting you define it,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
He stared at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t trust you to meet Adrian without evaluating him. And I didn\u2019t trust you to see me happy without making it a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n
His certainty faded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think that little of me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you taught me to expect it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He flinched.<\/p>\n
For once, I did not take the words back.<\/p>\n
Sophie hugged me before I left.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to talk,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo do I.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPromise?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adrian opened the car door outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be fine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you don\u2019t owe me an apology for calling.\u201d<\/p>\n
I almost laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to apologize.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graham looked around and straightened, ready to perform for the room. I spoke before he could. \u201cDad, I\u2019m leaving.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re talking about this.\u201d \u201cNot tonight.\u201d \u201cThis affects the family.\u201d I … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sharestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=887"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":937,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions\/937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}