Claire Bennett had spent forty-three dollars on the flowers and nearly twelve thousand on the plane tickets.
By four-thirty that afternoon, both felt ridiculous.
The peonies lay across the passenger seat of her car in a white paper wrap, their pale petals trembling each time someone passed through the underground garage of Meridian Dynamics. Inside Claire’s handbag were two first-class tickets to Lisbon, leaving Philadelphia the following evening and returning nine days later.
Ryan did not know about either.
That was the point.
After fourteen years of marriage, Claire had decided surprises might be one of the few things they had not completely forgotten how to give each other.
Their fifteenth anniversary was eight days away.
For the past eleven months, Ryan had been almost impossible to reach.
Investor dinners.
Board meetings.
Flights to San Francisco.
Late nights at Meridian.
A confidential acquisition he supposedly could not discuss.
Claire had tried patience.
Then anger.
Then marriage counseling.
Ryan attended three sessions before saying the timing was impossible until after “the transaction.”
Everything in their marriage now seemed to exist on the other side of a transaction Claire was not allowed to understand.
So when her younger sister offered to keep fourteen-year-old Sophie for a week, Claire made the decision herself.
Lisbon.
No work calls after dinner.
No assistants.
No board.
No Sophie caught between two parents pretending everything was fine.
Just Claire and Ryan in a place where neither of them had ever been.
She booked the same hotel they had talked about visiting years earlier.
She bought the flowers because peonies had been in her wedding bouquet.
And she drove to Meridian’s headquarters because Ryan had texted that morning:
Big company event tonight. Probably home late. Don’t wait up.
Claire had almost replied with an angry face.
Instead she smiled.
Perfect.
She would appear near the end of the event, hand him the flowers, give him the envelope, and tell him he had twenty-four hours to pack.
For once, work would be the thing interrupted.
She took the elevator to the eighteenth floor.
The doors opened to applause.
Claire stopped.
Nearly a hundred Meridian employees filled the large glass atrium outside the executive conference rooms. Champagne flutes caught the light. A photographer moved near a small stage. Two blue-and-white company banners stood behind a cocktail table decorated with white orchids.
At the center of the crowd stood Ryan.
Navy suit.
White shirt.
No tie.
Smiling.
Beside him was Vanessa Cole.
Claire knew Vanessa.
Everyone at Meridian knew Vanessa.
Vice president of corporate communications.
Thirty-five.
Blond.
Brilliant.
Always perfectly dressed.
That evening she wore a fitted red dress Claire had seen once before in a magazine spread about “Women Reshaping Philadelphia Business.”
Vanessa was laughing.
Ryan had one hand at the small of her back.
Claire noticed that first.
Then Vanessa lifted her left hand.
A diamond ring flashed beneath the ceiling lights.
The crowd applauded again.
Claire did not move.
Someone near the stage shouted:
“Let’s see it!”
Vanessa laughed and held her hand higher.
The photographer stepped closer.
Ryan leaned toward her.
His smile was enormous.
Not embarrassed.
Not caught.
Not guilty.
Happy.
Claire felt the paper wrapping around the peonies bend beneath her fingers.
A woman standing near the elevator turned.
She recognized Claire.
Her expression changed instantly.
“Oh.”
That single sound traveled farther than it should have.
Another employee looked.
Then another.
Applause weakened.
Ryan noticed the shift before he noticed Claire.
He glanced toward the elevator.
His face emptied.
Vanessa followed his gaze.
Claire stood beneath the brushed-steel doors wearing a sleeveless cream dress and carrying flowers in one hand and her black leather handbag in the other.
For perhaps five seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Ryan said:
“Claire.”
She looked at the ring.
Not at him.
At the ring.
Vanessa slowly lowered her hand.
Claire walked forward.
The employees nearest her moved aside without being asked.
She reached the center of the atrium.
The peonies were still in her hand.
Ryan stared at them.
Then at her face.
“What are you doing here?”
Claire almost laughed.
There were many possible first sentences.