I don't know why you got her number." "No, you know her last name." Marcus opened his mouth, stopped. "Carter." Emily Carter. She works in the building. Devou raised an eyebrow. She works in the building and you don't have her number.
We talk on the train. Dev, it's not like that. It's clearly like something or you wouldn't have said. There's this woman before you said good afternoon. Dearoo folded his arms.
You could look her up in the directory. That's weird. That's a weird thing to do. You're sitting here not eating at 2:00 in the afternoon because a woman you met on a train hasn't shown up for a few days. I'd argue weird is already here.
Marcus ate half the sandwich in silence. Then what if something's wrong? Something might be wrong. Dearu said with the particular honesty of a man who didn't believe in softening things unnecessarily. People disappear for reasons.
Could be good ones. Could be bad ones. That's not helpful. You didn't ask me to be helpful. You're just thinking out loud.
Dearu stood up. Look her up in the directory, Marcus. You'll feel better knowing she's okay. That's not weird. That's human.
He didn't look her up. But on the seventh morning, she was back. He heard her before he saw her. That particular energy she carried. Something between urgency and restraint.
The sound of someone moving through the world a little faster than they had planned. She boarded at 6:21. 2 minutes late. And she looked wrong. Not sick exactly, not injured, but hollowed like something had been quietly removed from behind her eyes while she was gone.
She sat beside him without a word. Marcus waited 30 seconds, a minute, Emily. She was staring straight ahead. I'm okay. I didn't ask.
She looked at him, then sharp, a flicker of something, and then slower. Right, you didn't. She exhaled. My dad is sick. Marcus, let that land.
How sick. She was quiet for a moment. The train moved. the kind where they stop telling you about treatments and start talking about comfort. Her voice was steady, but her hands weren't. He caught the slight tremor before she locked her fingers together.
I've been at the hospital every morning before work, which is why I'm always on this train, which is why she stopped. Which is why you were always tired, Marcus said. Yeah. She looked down at her hands. I've been doing the smile thing.
The I'm fine, I can handle it thing. You probably know that thing. I know that thing. It's exhausting. It is.
He said, "It really genuinely is." Something about hearing him say it. Not as a platitude, not as sympathy, but as a man who had lived inside that exhaustion and knew its exact texture made Emily's composure slip just slightly, just enough. Her jaw tightened. She pressed her lips together and breathed very carefully through her nose for a moment. Marcus didn't offer a hug. didn't say it's going to be okay.
He had heard that enough times to know how little it meant when someone actually needed at least. Instead, he said, "Tell me about him." She looked up. "What? Your dad? Tell me about him.
What's he like?" For a moment, she seemed confused by the question. Like it wasn't what she'd been bracing for. Then something in her shoulders came down an inch. "He's stubborn," she said. Like embarrassingly stubborn.
"He still argues with the TV. News, sports, doesn't matter. He'll be lying in a hospital bed and he'll point at the screen and go, "That man doesn't know what he's talking about." Marcus smiled. A real one. What does he watch?
Baseball. Always baseball. She shook her head, but it was fond. He grew up in Ohio. Red's fan, which he will tell you is a character building experience.
That's his exact phrase. Loving the Reds builds character. He's not wrong. He's absolutely right. She laughed a small surprised sound like it caught her off guard.
He used to take me to games when I was little. He'd buy me a hot dog and a soda and I'd be more interested in watching the people in the stands than the actual game. And he knew it and he never cared. He just wanted to be there with me. He sounds like a good man, Marcus said.
He's the best man I know. She said it simply without performance. Then she looked at Marcus until recently. He held her gaze. recently. She tilted her head slightly, considering deciding.