Tit For Tat Chapter 29
After the forum, a crowd of people came over to hand me their business cards.
I accepted them one by one.
Noah came to stand before me, his tone easy.
“You spoke well.”
I smiled.
“Is Mr. Bennett making polite conversation now?”
“I mean it.”
He paused.
“I’m going back to Vancouver next month. The overseas team still has a few things to wrap up.”
That surprised me slightly.
“What about Harbor Dock?”
“The local team will take over. The contract is stable. I don’t need to use it as an excuse to stay here anymore.”
I looked at him.
He smiled.
“Evelyn, I’ll always be sorry about the past.”
I nodded.
“I accept your apology.”
“Just accept it?”
“Just accept it.”
“Noah, people can’t build a future on late apologies.”
He was quiet for a moment, then smiled too.
“I understand.”
He held out his hand.
“Then I hope you keep moving forward.”
I shook it.
“And I hope the same for you.”
This time, we were like two people who truly belonged to each other’s past, closing the final page on the ledger, separately.
Adrian passed by not far away.
He paused and looked at me.
He didn’t walk over.
He just gave a slight nod from across the crowd.
I nodded back.
The way you would acknowledge an old acquaintance.
No hatred.
No lingering love.
That night, when I returned to Boston, a light rain was falling.
Water streaked down the car windows.
It had been raining like this three years ago.
I had stood outside the Bennett house, rejected, watched, judged.
Adrian had smashed the glass and pulled me from the rain.
I once believed that was the dramatic beginning to my life.
Only now did I understand that a real beginning doesn’t always need someone to come and rescue you.
Sometimes, it happens on an ordinary night.
You see a choice that can’t be undone, take off a ring, push open a door, and walk out on your own.