“But the schedule can change. It already has.”
“For five days.”
“That was my first attempt.”
She turned back toward the water.
“I don’t want to be hidden again.”
“You won’t be.”
“You can’t promise nobody will make me feel hidden. There will be rooms I can’t enter and events where you’ll be photographed with people I’ve never met.”
“That is true.”
“And sometimes you’ll choose work.”
“Yes.”
The word made her shoulders tense.
I wanted to soften it, but any softer answer would have been a lie.
“Sometimes you’ll choose Reef Rascal,” I added.
“That isn’t the same.”
“It may feel the same to me when I want you somewhere else.”
Ellie considered that.
“Maybe.”
“I don’t know how we do this perfectly.”
“I’m not asking for perfect.”
“You asked several detailed questions.”
“I am trying to understand the level of danger.”
“Romantic.”
“It is romantic for me.”
I smiled.
She almost did.
“I won’t be your public proof that you’ve changed,” she said.
“I don’t want you to be.”
“You might still benefit from people seeing us together.”
“That sounds terrible when you say it.”
“It sounded terrible when I thought it.”
