“He really is. Always has been.” Gemma’s gaze skimmed the packed room. “Well—”
“Yeah.” They teetered on the brink of awkward. “So—”
Stay or go?
Outside, the rain seemed to have passed, at least. Gemma still had her coat on. Falk had some work he needed to catch up on at home. He could put the footy on TV in the background. Raco wasn’t going to make it. The bartender pointedly served someone behind them.
“It’s a shame.” Gemma fiddled with a button on her coat but didn’t do it up. “I’m sorry not to see him.”
“Me, too,” Falk said. “You’ve known him awhile?”
“Yeah, and his brothers. I don’t see him that much these days, but we were all at school together so, I don’t know, what’s that? Twenty years now? More?” She widened her eyes good-naturedly at the number. “How about you?”
“Met him and Rita about five years ago,” Falk said. “So we’re not quite close enough yet to be giving each other advice from beer mats, but you know, I’m hopeful we’ll reach—”
“Yep, you can stop right there, thanks.” But she was smiling as she flipped the coaster over on the counter.Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do,now hidden against the scratched marble.
“I mean, if wewereclose enough, I’d obviously say—” Falk turned over the beer mat nearest his elbow to reveal:You regret the things you didn’t do more than the things you did.
“Jesus,” Gemma said. Her sleeve brushed his as she leaned in to read. She smelled nice, he noticed. “What brand is this?”
“It’s not calling to you?”
She wrinkled her nose. “But I’m probably not the target audience. I guess the ‘no regrets’ thing works for some people.”
“Craft beer marketing teams?”
“Clearly.” She absently turned over Falk’s mat, too. “Tattoo enthusiasts?”
“Bungee jumpers.”
“Energy drink companies.”
“Disgruntled employees who’ve told their boss to shove it,” he said. “And are now going backpacking through Thailand?”
“Middle-aged executives signing up for a marathon against their doctor’s advice.”
“People who’ve never really had to, you know—” Falk stopped himself. No. Wrong tone. Too heavy. He tried to steer the thought a different way, but she’d already sensed it.
“Reflect bitterly on things they can’t change?”
“Exactly.” He made his voice light.
They caught each other’s eye. Neither said anything for a moment. Her face was open and relaxed, but there was a shadow of something he couldn’t quite read.
“Do those people exist?” Gemma said.
“Apparently.” Falk nodded at the coasters.
“Lucky them.” She smiled then, warm and deep, and in that tiny moment, he suddenly felt it, as clear and resonant as a bell.
Stay.
Gemma was already looking past him, though, outside, to wherethe river lay black and shining. Her coat was still undone, but now she reached into her pocket and pulled out her own phone. Falk could feel her thoughts sliding to the evening that lay ahead, the same question rising in her.Stay or go?
“Do you have time for a drink?” Falk heard himself say the words with a faint sense of surprise. He’d been thinking it, but it seemed his head was a half step behind his mouth, stumbling to catch up. “Seeing as we’re both here?”
Gemma turned to him, her own face still.
