That surprised him.
“I hated you for a while,” Caleb said.
Isaiah nodded.
“Understandable.”
“Then I realized something.”
“What?”
“If it hadn’t been you, it might’ve been somebody else.”
Isaiah looked uncomfortable.
Caleb continued.
“That doesn’t excuse you.”
“I know.”
“But my marriage wasn’t going to be fixed by hating you.”
Isaiah nodded.
“How is Nia?”
Caleb hesitated.
“We’re still married.”
Isaiah seemed genuinely surprised.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“I’m glad.”
Caleb looked at him.
“Don’t be.”
Isaiah frowned.
“Don’t be glad or disappointed. It’s not your marriage.”
Isaiah understood.
“You’re right.”
Caleb nodded.
“Take care of your daughter.”
Isaiah looked surprised that Caleb remembered her.
“I will.”
Caleb walked into the store.
He never saw Isaiah again.
Two years after the affair, Caleb and Nia sat on the back porch on a warm Sunday evening.
The neighborhood was quiet.
Somebody down the street was mowing a lawn.
The sound once would have made Caleb tense.
Now he barely noticed.
Nia brought two glasses of lemonade outside.
She handed one to him.
Caleb looked toward the yard.
“You know what today is?”
Nia sat beside him.
“Yes.”
The anniversary of the morning everything changed.
They never celebrated it.
But neither pretended to forget.
Caleb sipped his drink.
“Does it still scare you?”
Nia knew what he meant.
“The fact that we almost ended?”
Caleb nodded.
“Yes.”
She looked at him.
“Does it scare you?”
“Sometimes.”
They sat quietly.
Nia finally said, “There’s something strange about that day.”
“What?”
“For months, I thought that was the day our marriage broke.”
Caleb looked at her.
“And now?”
“I think it had been breaking for a long time.”
Caleb nodded slowly.
Nia continued.
“That was just the day we were forced to look at it.”
Caleb considered the words.
“I still wish there had been another way.”
“So do I.”
He looked toward the yard.
“I would never say the affair helped us.”
“I wouldn’t either.”
“It hurt us.”
“Yes.”
“A lot.”
“I know.”
Caleb turned toward her.
“But what we did afterward changed us.”
Nia’s eyes filled slightly.
“For better?”
Caleb thought before answering.
“For more honest.”
She smiled.
“I’ll take that.”
Caleb reached for her hand.
Two years earlier, he could not imagine touching her without remembering betrayal.
Now her hand simply felt like Nia’s again.
Not innocent.
Not perfect.