My chest tightened unexpectedly.
Neither of us spoke for a moment.
Then I asked the question that had been waiting between us since the call began.
“Why didn’t you come?”
Silence. Longer this time. Confused silence. Not guilty silence.
Confused.
When Jack finally spoke, his voice had changed completely. “What?”
“The café.” I stared out the window. “Twenty years ago.”
Still silence. Then, “Audrey…”
A strange feeling began creeping into my stomach. The kind that arrives before bad news. Or important news.
“I was there.”
Everything inside me stopped. “What?”
“I was there.”
I laughed. A short, disbelieving sound. “No.”
“I was.”
“Jack, I sat there for three hours.”
“So did I.”
“What day?”
Silence. Then, “Saturday, June 12.”
My stomach dropped. “Jack…”
Another pause. Then I heard it happen. The exact moment he realized it.
“No.”
I closed my eyes, because my date had been June fifth.
We hadn’t gone to different places.
